Houston Democrats

Lyn had the great idea to make signs to put on our backs, which said, "Proud Undesirable" (reference to the flyer which stated "we reserve the right to refuse admittance to anyone to this function deemed undesirable).

LOTS of media were there!!! A CNN cameraman took a shot of me in my DU Flag shirt, and I said, "Hold on, look at my back," and turned around. He got a big laugh out of the sign and took a shot of it too. I hope to see it on CNN!

All the local news affiliates were there, and there was a helicopter circling for a couple hours as well.

The fire department had a truck there, with a water cannon pointed right at us, and at one point, when one of the speakers seemed to be attempting to incite us, they got the cannon ready to go, and it was aimed directly at Lyn and I! We decided to move down the line a bit right around then! LOL!

A leader of Nation of Islam spoke (surrounded by about 15 bodyguards), as well as various citizens from Tomball and surrounding areas. There were elderly TRUE Christian ladies, with signs that said, "God Loves Everyone!" and "There is no RACISM in Heaven!" along with anarchists, hippies, and middle class yuppies. There were WAY more white people than minorities, which pleased me, because I think it is our responsibility to stand up against racism, more so than people who are the targets of it.

A couple of people spoke very critically of the police and sheriff's department. I wasn't real happy about that, because they had been treating us pretty respectfully, and were just there to do their jobs, which included protecting US, not just the Klan. But the woman leading the event and some of her group started shouting, "The Cops and the Klan go Hand in Hand!" Some of us started countering with, "We're Not Against the Cops; We're Against the Klan!"

Another speaker who was a former officer, spoke mostly in support of the police, though he did have issues with the sheriff's department, due to abuse he witnessed back then. But I was glad to have a voice countering, because in all the protests I have been to in the past 2 years, I have witnessed more respectful treatment than bad treatment, so I don't think we should generalize and paint them all as evil. Many of us in the crowd then turned to face the police and applauded them to show our support.

Then, Quanell X spoke, and I agreed with much of what he said, but he started up on the police again. Now, I am NOT one to blindly trust the police, and I believe there is a LOT of corruption in our legal system. However, these guys were doing their job in a tense situation, and I didn't think it was useful to turn this into an anti-law enforcement rally when we were there to show that bigotry and racism were wrong. Still, he does have quite a presence, and it was interesting to hear him speak.

Finally, he said he figured out a way to get us into the Klan meeting. He said there are more of us than them (law enforcement), so if we dispersed, and they tried to round us up, some of us would be able to get in. At that point, they prepared the water cannon, the police in riot gear took a few steps forward, and more officers came in our direction. Then the pro-police chants started again, and the event leader gave a vaguely worded message about being orderly and not causing trouble and staying put, *unless* you felt you needed to go.

That was when Lyn and I moved on a bit, in case they turned on the cannon. We hung out another 15 minutes or so to see if anything else would happen, and then we left.

All in all, it was a wonderful day! The energy of the crowd was really beautiful. The diversity and enthusiasm were great. The city of Tomball supported us. The event was very well-organized and made me feel good about the general population. It was mostly a non-political event. I would guess that a third of the attendees were either not politically active and even possibly Republicans who happen to not be racists and didn't like this being in their community.