Thanks to the inspiration of Christopher Hitchens, Washingtonians showed their peaceful solidarity on Friday with the people of Denmark. A sampling of the rally for freedom at the Embassy of Denmark below.
UPDATE: Video is now available. Click the picture below to launch a moment from the rally in Windows Media Player.
UPDATE: Second video. Click here to see just what it is that we're rallying for!!
UPDATE: Hitchens addresses the crowd with an off-the-cuff speech. Click here to watch.
Wish I could have been there guys! I was actually in DC last week.
Posted by: Robert Mayer | Feb 24, 2006 at 14:15
Thank you for sharing the photos. Given the subject of your blog, you may be interested in this essay contest on civil rights in the Middle East:
http://www.hamsaweb.org
The panel of judges includes Saadeddin Ibrahim, Gloria Steinem, Azar Nafisi, and more.
Posted by: | Feb 24, 2006 at 14:39
Thank you for posting the images.
I am glad to see such support for Denmark!
Posted by: DCRocks | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:13
I haven't seen any mention of this from the MSM. I guess that's what you get when you don't burn things and threaten people. Or maybe you should have limited the protest to 5 or 6 people and Cindy Sheehan. The MSM would have been there for that.
Posted by: artboy | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:22
Of course, when you are protesting from the right direction it's newsworthy
Here
Posted by: Mel the Prophet | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:27
Wish I could've been there but I've got my Danish mini-flag! Great job guys!!!
Posted by: Megs | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:32
The MSM believes that only those protests that are explicitly leftist (and/or anti US/anti administration) have any legitimacy and are newsworthy. This unspoken rule applies regardless of how small the leftist rally is (e.g. Sheehan) or how large the non-leftist rally is (e.g. all the pro-democracy rallies in Iraq that never get mentioned).
Posted by: Kustie the Klown | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:32
Now that is more like it. Let's show the fundamentalists (and the cowards in the mainstream media - you know who you are) how truely free people behave!!
Posted by: Rob | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:38
How come no pullback shots so we can see how many people showed up? Support Denmark, support our freedoms everywhere!
Posted by: K Camet | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:46
A slight correction to your first sentence: Washingtonians showed their solidarity with the white people of Denmark. They joined Denmark's whites -- who, like all of Western Europe, import millions of immigrants to do their most unpleasant jobs; pay them poorly; cram them into wretched ghettoes; and treat them like shit generally -- in pretending that this is an issue of "free speech" against censorious Muslim fanatics and not an act of crude race-baiting by an anti-immigrant newspaper.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, this is not the equivalent of the Rushdie scandal -- as the facile, drunken turncoat Christopher Hitchens claims -- but the equivalent of a US newspaper printing a Sambo cartoon. But stupid Western liberals and neoconservatives (two indistinguishable categories any time the wogs get uppity) like to think that they are the righteous ones defending freedom by whining about the "free speech" of juvenile racist doodlers, all the while excusing, ignoring, or encouraging the daily racist injustices in front of their faces in their own societies. Obviously this includes the owner of this blog, who is clearly a flaming idiot.
Posted by: John Lacny | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:48
This is something we have been waiting for.
Cheers and thank you all !
A Dane.
Posted by: kepiblanc | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:48
"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him" Interesting that she quoted a British pacifist.
Posted by: RepJ | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:52
Awesome! :)
Posted by: TS | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:57
Mr. Lackney,
You are a blithering idiot, and you greatly insult Danes of any race who support liberty. I saw those cartoons, and it would take a knee-jerking twat of the first order to decide that they were racist in any way.
If you imagine that the Arabs are incapable of embracing freedom, then YOU are the racist.
-jcr
Posted by: John C. Randolph | Feb 24, 2006 at 15:57
Doing my small part to support Denmark, I met with the Danish consular official stationed here in St. Louis at noon today. He was great!
I gave him a bottle of Heerings, a Danish liqueur, and thanked the Danish people and their government for being willing to pay a high price for freedom of speech. Then we sat around and talked about politics, history, and economics for a half hour. A great experience.
Posted by: Garett Jones | Feb 24, 2006 at 16:03
"A slight correction to your first sentence: Washingtonians showed their solidarity with the white people of Denmark."
And a slight correction to yours -- Washingtonians showed their solidarity with the civilized, moderate, tolerant and contribulting members of Danish society....
Contrary to what socialists and statists everywhere believe about everything, it ISN'T all about race all the time, got it?
Posted by: Agent_Provocateur | Feb 24, 2006 at 16:07
"How come no pullback shots so we can see how many people showed up? Support Denmark, support our freedoms everywhere!"
By my estimate, about 90 people showed up. Bill Kristol, Hitch and Andrew Sullivan were in the crowd.
Posted by: JB | Feb 24, 2006 at 16:17
Here's the pullback shot.
Posted by: JB | Feb 24, 2006 at 16:33
Yeah, I'd say it was about 100 at its peak. I saw a couple folks coming up Whitehaven as we were dispursing disappointed that it concluded a few minutes early.
Definitely an interesting mix of people.
Posted by: eLarson | Feb 24, 2006 at 16:58
I do not see any woman with headscarves demonstrating. What a shame!
Posted by: AVe | Feb 24, 2006 at 17:03
More photos here:
http://www.fuckfrance.com/read.html?postid=1868459&replies=11&page=1
Posted by: I Hate France | Feb 24, 2006 at 17:11
The fellow in the second video clip gave possibly the best 30-second lesson on civics and civil society I have ever heard. I doff my cap to him for his clarion brillance and all that attended. I wasn't able to get from St. Louis to DC on such short notice, but I did call my local consulate to tell them I stood with Denmark (as I munched my Triscuits and Havarti).
Posted by: Jeffersonian | Feb 24, 2006 at 17:19
Despite its kowtowing to China (to a lesser extent than Yahoo, though), Google is pretty cool. A simple search on Google reveals that "John Lacny" is a socialist/Marxist/communist activist at the University of Pittsburgh ("seven years of college down the drain!"). In other words, he's a white limousine liberal (lives in a white neighborhood, drives a Toyota/Honda, goes to a private school, etc.)
See "My conversation with a liberal" here. Enough said.
Posted by: James Chen | Feb 24, 2006 at 17:20
Dear friend,
This is wonderful news!
Thank you.
Unfortunately, the link to the video is not quite working.
Posted by: Diane | Feb 24, 2006 at 17:21
You don't have to google John Lacny to find out what sort of gibbering fool he is, for he linked his blog above. A quick reading of his 2/9/06 entry will give the sane reader a taste of what this loathsome, cringing oaf is all about. I urge any and all to read it.
Posted by: Jeffersonian | Feb 24, 2006 at 17:26