Standing outside a respectful distance across the street or beyond the driveway and acting politely (which is my usual protest mode) I held up 3 signs while the Kingman GOP arrived, met and departed, staying about three hours to make sure most of the folks attending had a chance to see my message if they cared to look.
My signs read: 1) "AZ GOP/Tax Cuts for the Rich/ School Cuts for Your Kids." 2) The second one had that slogan + "Who Are They Really Working for? NotAZ, Not US." 3) The 3rd was a blown up picture of the Constitution w/ the words: --Insure Domestic Tranquility"/ "Promote the General Welfare"/ These are the REAL American Values."
I have been protesting for now 30 years--occasionally, during wartimes for example, in some pretty hostile territory. It is scary to go to the stronghold of your opposition and tell them you think they're wrong. Tonight, however, i was treated as well, no, make that I was treated clearly better than i have ever been in such a situation. I almost felt supported. Tonight in Kingman, at their own meeting, which they failed to attend, the AZ GOP leadership clearly was not.
I received FAR more thumbs up than middle fingers and a couple of folks stopped to tell their support. Dozens smiled to me as they passed. My protest was not about Democrats versus Republicans. It was about Arizona's education budget in the hands of AZ's current anti-public-education leadership. The rank and file citizens of Kingman apparently do not like this don't like the AZ GOP Ed plan either. Maybe they have kids.
It was interesting to see what the locals really feel without the statehouse party leaders on hand. One woman came and explained that inside the scene was an unhappy one. Local GOP officers filled in for the missing Goodale, Gould and McLain and openly stated that they didn't like the new budget plans. While at the mic the one official supposedly said, bitterly, that down in Phoenix they didn't know what they were doing.
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