I just got back, an hour or so ago, from the first political demonstration I’ve participated in for some decades. (No, I’m not proud of that, but a fact is a fact.) This demonstration was the brainchild of Christopher Hitchens, that old Trotskyite menace become semi-neocon gadfly. In a September 21 Slate article called “Stand Up for Denmark!” he read my mind, and also invited readers to join for a peaceful supportive demonstration near the Embassy from noon to one pm today—on Whitehaven Street just off Massachusetts Avenue. So I wrote back “Damn right”, I’ll be there. And there I was.
Aside from a little wind, it was a fine day for a demo. I’d say altogether maybe 200 people showed up. A lot of people carried signs, and there was a smattering of Danish flags. Some people waved Danish pastries about, as well. One of the signs was made of Legos—clever. Others made reference to Havarti cheese and Hamlet and just about anything Danish people could think of. Except that I saw no reference to Victor Borge. Oh well, maybe that’s what he gets for serial piano abuse.
A woman who came with C. Hitchens (whose name I didn’t catch) tried to get some chants going, but none of them lasted for long. It’s much tougher to work up real passion when you’re “for” something than when you’re “against” something. Human nature, I guess. So the chants were things like “We’re all Danes now” and “Ho, ho, hey hey, free speech is here to stay”, and other sub-Hallmark type language like that. One of the more esoteric chants (this didn’t last long at all) had something to do with “no dhimmis in Denmark”, which I had to spell and explain to a clueless young blogger standing next to me.
My own candidate for a chant got nowhere. I proposed “Shall we Dansk.” No one got it. Maybe it would have helped if Denmark today had a king as head of state instead of Queen Margereth. Maybe then the “King and I” reference would have worked better. Hard to say. Probably not.
Anyway, I ran into some friends—Seth Cropsey, a former assistant secretary of defense, Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard (and my old boss’ son), and a few others.
I also met one young fellow, who’d been in the Army, who claimed he flew in all the way from California just for this one hour affair. He told me that Hitchens was his favorite writer, and that nothing could stand in the way of his supporting free speech. It was a little hard to believe at first that anyone would fly in from California just for this demur little demo (and I wasn’t going to be the one to explain to this fellow the sort of stuff Hitchens was writing a dozen years ago). But the kid had his airplane itinerary in his pocket. I had to believe him, and anyway, I wanted to believe him. He said he worked at a meat packing plant and really couldn’t afford the fare, but a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do. Hey, I’d vote for that dude. That’s an American. (Some other guys offered to buy him lunch and drive him back to the airport when he needed to leave.) That’s faith. That’s the crazy unlimited love of freedom we need more of in this country.
So go buy something Danish (some Carlsbad beer don’t sound too bad) and have a great weekend.