BROWNSHIRTS IN WHITE

In San Francisco on Saturday, March 20, they marched among us.

We were tens of thousands marching for peace. They were ten or fifteen guys who joined us midway in our march to City Hall.

They looked like many of us, with white t-shirts and blue jeans; clean-cut guys in their twenties and thirties who might have been on their way to the ballpark or the local diner.

Like us, they carried signs.

But their signs were not like ours. Their large white signs trumpeted slogans like "Leave Saddam alone; he only kills his own people" and "Give communism another chance; it's only killed 100 million people so far." Their signs carried references to http://www.ProtestWarrior.com and bore bumper stickers proclaiming "Bush/Cheney 2004."

We, the marchers for peace, were surprised.

Many of us ignored these Men In White. A few of us encouraged them to "Go Away." Some of us went for on-the-go dialog, engaging them in conversation while walking alongside them.

The dialog was chilling.

My brief chat with a Man In White went about like this...

Me: "Are you supporting Bush?"

Man In White (smiling): "Yes, I am."

Me: "Why would you support Bush when so much he's doing seems to come right from Hitler's playbook?"

Man In White: "Given my answer to your first question, isn't your second question redundant?"

Me (after a pause): "I see. But keep in mind that you'll be outnumbered in November."

Man In White (with a knowing grin): "Well, yeah, we are outnumbered--in San Francisco."

These Men In White--these "protest warriors"--didn't wear brown shirts. They probably won't wear brown shirts on June 5, when citizens across the country march again for peace.

But the Men In White will probably march among us on June 5.

Will you talk with them? Will you ignore them? Have you visited http://www.ProtestWarrior.com to see what they're planning and to read what they've written?

And have you read Thom Hartmann's outstanding article about Hitler's reign, entitled "When Democracy Failed"? If not, please give it a read at http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0316-08.htm