{"id":5226,"date":"2005-09-12T09:07:44","date_gmt":"2005-09-12T13:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5226"},"modified":"2005-09-12T09:07:44","modified_gmt":"2005-09-12T13:07:44","slug":"how-free-was-the-freedom-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/how-free-was-the-freedom-march\/","title":{"rendered":"How ‘free’ was the freedom march?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The awkwardly-named “America Supports You Freedom Walk” went off yesterday largely as expected. Participants were “screened<\/a>” by the Pentagon, over-the-top and cynical props were used (organizers distributed military-style dog tags<\/a> to marchers), and “extraordinary measures<\/a>” were in place to control participation. In all, the media reported that an unspecified “thousands” of participants took part in the event.<\/p>\n

Celebrating “freedom,” however, was not part of the agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One man who registered for the walk was detained by a Pentagon police officer after he slipped a black hood over his head and produced a sign that read, “Freedom?”<\/p>\n

The man was removed from the Pentagon registration area, handcuffed and taken away in a police car. It was not clear whether he was charged or simply detained and the police did not respond to messages requesting more information.<\/p>\n

Ann Grossman, 56, from Silver Spring, Md., also carried a homemade sign, which read “Honor Our Troops, Respect Their Lives,” that was confiscated by police at the Pentagon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There were some unregistered protestors who expressed their concerns about exploiting 9\/11, connecting the attacks to the war in Iraq, and cheapening the tragedy with a Clint Black concert. The Pentagon had a predictable response to the criticisms.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, some people think [the Freedom March is] something that it’s not,” said Bryan G. Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said last week. “But we understand that perspective. You have a different perspective when you were sitting in the building that day.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah yes, the subtle questioning of political opponents’ patriotism. The argument seems to go like this: If you were in the Pentagon on 9\/11, you can appreciate the value (and can ignore the irony) of a “Freedom March” that has nothing to do with freedom. If you weren’t in the Pentagon, you’re not in a position to understand. “Ownership<\/em>” of the day is limited, not to all Americans who were devastated by the attacks, but to those who’ve appropriated it for political gain.<\/p>\n

Good to know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The awkwardly-named “America Supports You Freedom Walk” went off yesterday largely as expected. Participants were “screened” by the Pentagon, over-the-top and cynical props were used (organizers distributed military-style dog tags to marchers), and “extraordinary measures” were in place to control participation. In all, the media reported that an unspecified “thousands” of participants took part in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}