Protesting 101
Early this morning Mike Collins sent a message over the county GOP mailing list about the "Rally Against O'Malley's BGE Rate Hikes" (as listed on the message). While I was in Annapolis, I saw portions of it and was completely flabbergasted.
First off, from the Republican perspective, I'm certainly not sure any of our people wanted to be involved. The protesters were rallying in favor of government based solutions to fixing the problem: either re-regulating the electric industry in Maryland or by creating a municipally owned power company for Baltimore City. It was pretty much a love-in for the anti-Sheila Dixon crowd in Baltimore. The literature they distributed promoted alternative plans by either Councilman Kieffer Mitchell or Delegate Jill Carter. And there was a lot of Andrey Bundley paraphernalia around there, too.
Secondly, the protest organizers clearly had no idea what they were doing. They were protesting the Governor on a Saturday afternoon at Lawyer's Mall on a weekend when:
Apparently, that wasn't working. So about an hour-and-a-half later, I saw the protesters again. This time, they were walking around Church Circle, carrying their signs, and chanting "O'Malley, O'Malley You Can't Hide" followed by something unintelligible. I finally saw a group of the protesters up close (and that was a show, let me tell you) as they congregated around the exit of Gott's Garage on Calvert Street.
Ah, a Saturday afternoon in Annapolis....
First off, from the Republican perspective, I'm certainly not sure any of our people wanted to be involved. The protesters were rallying in favor of government based solutions to fixing the problem: either re-regulating the electric industry in Maryland or by creating a municipally owned power company for Baltimore City. It was pretty much a love-in for the anti-Sheila Dixon crowd in Baltimore. The literature they distributed promoted alternative plans by either Councilman Kieffer Mitchell or Delegate Jill Carter. And there was a lot of Andrey Bundley paraphernalia around there, too.
Secondly, the protest organizers clearly had no idea what they were doing. They were protesting the Governor on a Saturday afternoon at Lawyer's Mall on a weekend when:
- No major events were occurring in Annapolis; and,
- When the Governor was out of town.
Apparently, that wasn't working. So about an hour-and-a-half later, I saw the protesters again. This time, they were walking around Church Circle, carrying their signs, and chanting "O'Malley, O'Malley You Can't Hide" followed by something unintelligible. I finally saw a group of the protesters up close (and that was a show, let me tell you) as they congregated around the exit of Gott's Garage on Calvert Street.
Ah, a Saturday afternoon in Annapolis....
posted by Brian Griffiths at 3:50 PM
3 Comments:
Interesting that a Republican thinks he can lecture others on how to protest considering whenever you hear or read the words "Republicans" and "protesting" it is usually "...protesting Republicans" as opposed to "Republicans protesting."
Let's clarify a few issues...
1. Just to start off, municipally owned energy providers provide power to their customers at a much cheaper cost than for-profit big business energy providers. There are several reasons for this, but the most obvious reason is because you have removed the profit motive. When you do not have to pay bloated CEO salaries or have to make money for stock holders (who really only care about their stock price going up regardless of how it goes up) then you don't have to charge as much for your power. I'm sure Brian will find one person somewhere who complains about their municipally owned/operated power company but on the whole I think most consumers who have municipally owned/operated power companies are happy with them.
2. Events happening in Annapolis? Hello...have you ever heard of Eastport-a-Rockin? That was happening in Annapolis on Saturday, and that is a pretty big event. Not to mention, Annapolis is a weekend destination for many folks from both within and without Maryland. People noticed us while we were at Lawyer's Mall (plenty of people were walking by The Capitol or walking down to St. John's) and of course, plenty of people noticed us and cheered us on while we marched through downtown Annapolis. The idea that we felt it necessary to march through downtown since no one could see/hear us at Lawyers Mall is a bit laughable considering that was part of the plan all along.
3. Many protests are held on weekends because many of us actually work for a living during the week. Consequently we really do not have the time to take off to have a weekday protest. But one has to wonder if we were there on a weekday if Mr. Griffiths would've denegrated us as being "lazy, unemployed people who have nothing better to do with our lives and therefore should get a job."
4. I wish we could all be so lovely, svelt, and physically attractive as the beautiful Brian Griffiths. Making comments about people's appearances, especially when we were out and about on a rather warm day, is just assinine. Are we talking about politics or the next American Idol? To be honest, however, it is what we have come to expect from Republican party hacks like Mr. Griffiths. So no big surprise there.
Just a few of my thoughts in regards to your very poorly thought out blog about the BGE protests. We'll see how many Republicans start changing their tune when they get their next electric bill.
"Republican party hacks like Mr. Griffiths"
You are moving up in the world, Brian.
I am with Mr/Mrs Protester on this one. The government needs to take control of the electricity industry in this state. For two reasons, first taxpayer money went into building the infrastructure that is now being used for a private corporations huge profits at taxpayer expense. Second, buying electricity for everyday use in life is not like buying a car or any other consumer product. Electricity is not a luxury but a requirement for modern living at least in this country it is. The government takes care of our water requirements so what would be the difference.
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