Testimony of the power of elders from the diary of Crystal Eyes on www.DailyKos.com:
Last night we went to Adam Smith’s (D) WA-9 town hall in Lakewood Washington. The event was held at the local high school football stadium with an estimated crowd of 2,000 people.
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Then an incident happened that I will never forget.
********************************************************************A young tough looking wingnut walked defiantly across the front of the stadium holding up a poster of Obama with a mustache. The crowd rained down boos.
Adam Smith tried to calm the crowd by saying, “just ignore him”. The poster holder was on his way to hijacking the town hall.And then an amazing thing happened.
The poster holder was surrounded by a pocket of gray haired elders. There was a scuffle, grabbing at the poster. A white haired man fell to the ground. The poster was then snatched away by the old folks and torn in half. The wingnut disappeared from the scene without further violence.
There was a fierce determination in the crowd to repudiate the hateful lies that shattered the stereotype of older folk being cautious and frail.
I have witnessed the power of elder courage. Foolish for certain, as the well muscled younger man with the Obama Nazi poster was clearly looking for a fight, but scuffling with a cluster of determined older people who then stripped him of his poster was not the fight he wanted to have.
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