Hey, Man, Is That Freedom Walk?

Although no one seemed to notice, the government's first-annual Do As We Say Festival Freedom Walk took place this Sunday.

As expected, it was just as loose and free-spirited as the state funeral for Leonid Brezhnev, and about as spontaneous as the Nixon Library. Michael Cortese (presumably no relation to Dan) went undercover and took part in the Freedom Walk, and lived to tell the tale:

The walk wasn't underway for no more than a handful of minutes, as the group I was walking with skirted the highway side of the Pentagon, when self appointed defenders of freedom picked out one middle-aged, blonde-haired woman who was wearing a nonoffensive, yet distinctly anti-war T-shirt. You can pretty much just make up the dialogue in your head: People telling her that her presence was "inappropriate", that she was in the wrong place and that folks don't like that sort of thing in a "red state" like Virginia (which, incidentally is strongly pro-choice statewide and was just as strongly for Kerry in Arlington during the last election). I reminded one particularly snotty young woman with her kids in tow that the event was supposedly commemorating the September 11 attacks, but the woman, drunk on kool-aid, couldn't differentiate between that 9/11 and the necessity for sending troops into Iraq.

The woman in the anti-war t-shirt said "Sorry, I'm from Massachusetts", which was followed by some pinheaded wingnutty guy who sneered, "Yeah, we're sorry you're from Massachusetts too" and then added "That's where Barney Frank is from", letting the name of an openly gay Congressman hang in the air like an accusation.

"Welcome to the Red States", he said.

I'm still kicking myself for not getting it on video. But my discreet attempt at pressing the shutter button on my camera didn't start the video recording.

Turns out the woman, named Mimi, was a friend of Cindy Sheehan, had a son in Fallujah, and friends who died on 9/11. She had much more right to be there than the people whose contribution to defending our freedoms consists of putting on a T-shirt and fake dog tags and walking to a concert.

A country music concert, T-shirt and fake dog tags. The victims of 9/11 and their families thank you.

There's more. Read the whole thing here.