Raz and Slur Part 2: Playing Reporter

In my previous post "Raz and Slur" I noted how Guy Raz characterized the attendees at an antiwar speech as being "mostly aging hippies" and "draft dodgers."

Unlike Raz, I did a little work and contacted the organizers of the event in Richmond (see flyer here). Here's what Adria Scharf of the Richmond Peace Education Center had to say about Raz's reporting:

"To describe the audience as 'mostly aging hippies' is truly a mischaracterization. At least a quarter of those in attendance were college students and young people in their 20s. Another quarter to a third were members of the faith community whose churches had cosponsored Jonathan Hutto's visit, and the rest were community members, including African American community activists and members of the Richmond Peace Education Center among others."

In our community we've been holding regular Saturday curbside antiwar demonstrations since before the Iraq War began. Invariably some knucklehead passing by yells out of a car window, "Get a job!" It's always a bit amusing because it's a Saturday afternoon and because most of the 30-50 of us in attendance have full time jobs and a lot of us, frankly, look like middle-age, working Midwesterners. Clearly those who yell such things can only see us through the prism of their own warped preconceptions. It's amusing on the street, but when it comes out of the radio, it's disgraceful.