The rally then wrapped up, and several of us managed to make our way inside the rally with our signs. The event was billed as a "town hall," but it was in essence a McCain rally, rather than an opportunity for people of diverse views to show up and ask tough questions of the candidate. McCain answered only about six or seven questions, none of them particularly challenging. He did, however, stumble a bit on questions about energy policy and disability rights legislation. But they were all essentially softballs. A few of us raised our hands many times, planning to grill McCain about his support for the bloody imperial project in the Middle East, but were not called on. When the "town hall meeting" concluded, a lot sooner than we expected it to, we held up our signs and banner and started chanting "troops out now!," and "end the occupation!" People reacted with much hostility. One man angrily shoved RAW member Brian Williams. A pro-McCain student told us to "go fuck [ourselves]." Various people tried to grab our signs and rip them up. We stayed in the room for about twenty minutes after the rally ended, being interviewed by reporters and having some discussions with McCain supporters. One man said that he didn't like anti-war demonstrators because they propose no "realistic" solutions to the problems in the Middle East; I responded that if by "realistic" he means a continued U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, things will only get worse, and that self-determination and human rights for the people can only be advanced when the troops are withdrawn.
-Alex
photo by John O'Boyle/Star Ledger
