Wednesday, December 13, 2006

A Little Schadenfruede and a Little Protest

Those "let the people vote" folks apparently have a lesson or two to learn about how the Democratic process. They love to to protest, but skipped out on the easy process of getting a permit in Springfield.
Funny how things work out...neither the Catholic Citizenship nor VoteOnMarriage had pulled a permit for the steps or their soundsystem. So they collected their signs, their banners, their speakers and their supporters and descended the City Hall steps to be banished by police to a tiny park across the street in front of a creche scene. They weren't even allowed to use their soundsystem. Not a happy crowd during this joyous holiday season...

Granted, I probably would have let it be known, but how could they have forgotten their permit when stumping in front of city hall? And using a PA system? It's not as if these vote-on-marriage folks haven't done a protest before - that was a real rookie mistake. As a practice, I probably would have let it go (I don't like the concept of "free speech zones" or "free speech permits"), but Springfield was within its rights and - for safety's sake - they should have got a permit.

Just a funny story.

Now, the folks at Knowthyneighbor are making their own protest for this coming Saturday at Worcester.
There still is one more rally to go. Saturday December 16th Worcester City Hall
1:30 PM.
It's always fun to rally, so people should hit it up and show their support. I'm sure, this time, permits will be had by all.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Schadenfruede...

Why is this term suddenly popular? Is it a new buzz word? Seems like I'm starting to see it everywhere!

Whatever, hate to admit that it feels good once in a while. Usually it's my misery that someone else is happy about.

BTW: It's Schadenfreude, isn't it?

Ryan said...

Spelling has never been my forte, so I was probably wrong =p

(That said, blogging has made me a better speller LOL.)

I think schadenfreude became a popular term after Avenue Q... that's when a lot of people started using it and now people who never saw it are using it. I heard of the term at some point before Avenue Q, but have to admit the song "Schadenfreude" inspired me to use it more frequently lol).

Anonymous said...

can we add "kerfuffle" to the schadenfreueuede buzzword list? i've seend is on three very separate blogs in the past few weeks. i think the spread of these words illustrates the interconnectivity of the blog world.

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