You’d think it was a presidential inauguration by the amount of on-the-spot, minute-by-minute news coverage the Bay Area media is giving the “Boycott ” rallies around the Bay Area today.  Like Mike Spence, I decided to counter the protest by spending money today, starting with a trip to my favorite Bay Area market, the Berkeley Bowl.  For those of you not familiar with this market, it is a larger, less expensive version of Whole Foods.  They’ve got everything a Bush-hating, vegan from Berkeley would want and then some.  So why do I shop there?  Because it also has the most amazing produce, fish, meat and prepared food departments I’ve ever seen. There truly is no farmer’s market or grocery store that can rival the Berkeley Bowl’s produce department.  Plus, my son has many food allergies and because the Bowl caters to vegetarians, vegans and other food wierdos, it carries many egg-free, dairy free products that he can eat.

Anyway, I thought—what a great day to go to the Bowl!  Normally, the parking lot is jammed packed with angry liberals with “peace matters” bumper stickers on their cars.  Today, I thought, those people would be honoring the boycott and staying home and I’d have the produce department to myself!  Boy, was I wrong.  These people are not only liberal, they’re hypocrites.  They were at the Bowl in force.  Like any other day, I had to drive around for about 10 minutes until I found a parking spot being vacated by a bearded man driving Volvo which sported a large fabric peace flag flying from the window.  (Maybe he defied the stereotype and was there for the same reason I was, but my guess is that he was buying some carrot juice and edamame to take to the protest.) 

But you know who wasn’t at the Berkeley Bowl today?  The homeless guys who hang outside and ask for money, and the people who are always there gathering signatures for the Left’s many ballot initiatives.  I’m betting that they were all at the rallies, escorted there by left-wing activists looking to drive up the attendance numbers at the protests.

I did go to downtown Oakland and drove along International Boulevard in the midst of the protesters.  Most had American flags (I’m with the old man on Duane’s train—they’re just carrying the American flag to minimize the backlash); a few had Mexican flags.  It was a 100% Hispanic crowd from my vantage point.  They were chanting “, , ”—which I don’t get.  what?  —we broke your laws and now you have to make us legal but we’re shouting louder than anyone else?  USA—you give us economic opportunities that we could never find in our homeland, but we want to rally against your leaders instead of the corrupt politicians we helped put into power at home?  —We want to live here and send our kids to your public schools, but never really plan to assimilate into your culture and country?  —we like your health care system, your transportation system, your education system, but we have no respect for your laws?  Which is it?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.