This was posted on Asamom.org and I have permission from the original poster to post it here. She would love for it to go viral, so I'm also giving her permission to re-post it anywhere and everywhere you desire. Things like this are not supposed to happen in America. This is an explanation she gave in a comments section:
Originally, this Al Awda conference was scheduled at San Diego State University. That is the age group of the "children" Chris was referring to. She speaks this way because she has children in that age group. The Al Awda conference she attended was at the La Mesa Community Center. Before this conference took place, several of us Moms first contacted SDSU, which seemed to have kept it from there. Then we found out they were moving it to the La Mesa Community Center. We then began to email and phone the Mayor of La Mesa. His response was that they had the right to free speech and therefore could not be limited from utilizing the Community Center. When he was asked about police protection if we chose to protest this hate group, he originally declined police presence. I hope this clarifies the situation Chris was in and to whom she was talking. The children she was speaking of that were playing across the way, were younger children as the community center is adjacent to a park, a public pool, and a community golf course.
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Another question put forward in comments was were they American students or foreigners on visa's, but that was said to be a question the Mayor hasn't answered. If they were foreign students, did they have the right to assemble peaceably, and if the assembly was no longer peaceable, didn't the police have an obligation to remove them?
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One Mom -vs- Al Awda
Posted by Dara Dale-Bailey on February 14, 2010 at 2:24pm
This is the experience of one of my group members in San Diego County. This happened yesterday. This action was precipitated by a fight first with SDSU, then with the Mayor of La Mesa, CA. We asked for this hate group to be barred from property funded with Taxppayer dollars. Our request was refused, so was the original request for Police Protection. The Mayor said, you cannot participate in civil unreest, then ask for Police Protection. We felt it was important for this story to get out. Here is her email to me:
Today: February 13, 2010
Re: La Mesa, CA Community Center
Al Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Part of the International Solidarity Movement
Funders of Hamas, supporters of Hezbollah
I went to Al Awda today. I saw the devil with my own eyes. I spoke with the members from SDSU, only children, but hating America. I saw the professors who came to speak. I heard them yelling and demeaning my country. One by one, men came and yelled at me as I stood.... alone. One woman... one mother... one wife... one daughter... all 5 foot four of me - and my police stood against me - THEY TOOK MY CHAIR as I stood alone. I saw the depth of our problem, how far we have strayed. I asked my policeman, "Whom shall I trust?" I am ashamed to say, I broke down and cried. I felt afraid and I could not return to my car.
But while all this was happening, I talked to the children.... for hours. These things were but interludes, hindering my work. The students, maybe 6 in number, talked to me. They saw what happened and while they spewed evil about my beloved country, if I listened attentively, they'd listen right back at me. I was able to give one a pocket Constitution. They each admitted that they could not name five founding fathers, yet were attending college. They listened as I told them what makes America great. I told them so many things and.... it was good.
Except for the others. They were getting angry at me but, I had my rights with me and I had the Creator who gave them to me.
These students, they knew every evil taught them, they were predictable. They watched as their heros came and attacked me with lies and they knew they were lying about saying I was doing things I was not. And... it was good. We talked about it between each evil interloper who would come to yell at me hoping to intimidate or scare me into leaving. They watched as men stood inches away from me in stand-offs, demanding that I leave, "You are not welcome" they yelled. "Get out of here!" Truly, they thundered at me.
The students watched as I stood alone and told these men, each one by one, "I am not leaving, I have a right to be here. STOP TALKING TO ME AND GET AWAY FROM ME." But, I did not move. These men were angry. They hated our country. They were planning. They had a box for donations with words I'm not going to type. No cursing but, I just don't want to type them. The students did not like what they saw... no, not at all. And I used it.
Eventually, the students were ordered not to speak to me. Yet, I could still speak to them. This worked out better than I could have dreamed. I told them, "Can't you see these are angry people? Why do they hate me? Is it because my hair is blonde?" They could not answer. I used it some more. I told them, "I am sorry you aren't allowed to talk to me." They would smile. "I've never been around people before who weren't allowed to talk to me." I said, "I've been free every day of my life and I am profoundly thankful. I love my country. I am free to speak to whomever I wish to hear whatever I choose. Never unitl today, have I been with other people who were ordered not to speak to me."
Then I told them of these men's hearts. I told the students that they were so nice to me and how I enjoyed talking with them. Told them they were nice. But the adults inside, most especially two specific men, the meanest, their hearts were hardened, I told the children. We must look at our foundation and what was so good about America that men traveled from all over the world to come here. So many died. They sought freedom. America, the beacon to the world. I even got in some 5000 Year Leap material!
On the drive home my head was spinning. Our very way of life seemed so fragile. And we were doing almost nothing to stop the threats. I felt my country falling away. It seemed as if it were disintegrating while people played with their prosperity toys doing nothing to save their children's freedom. So many parents and grandparents were silent while evil flourished. The torch of liberty was in their hands yet they could not be trusted to stand and speak. They waited for someone else to fix it. That someone else was me today. But, I couldn't fix it. Not alone. Maybe a teeny tiny dent?
My world was upside down.
I remembered a quote I had read last night, "The hottest place in Hell must be reserved for those who remain nuetral in times of great moral conflict." Martin Luther King Jr. said this and we all know the dangers he faced.
Children were playing across the sidewalk only feet away. Their mothers sat unknowing of the hate that lurked across the walk.
I did not get home until 3:00 p.m. because there was no one else to do it and I felt it had to be done. Everyone at the seminars, even our own university professors will not forget me. Neither will the children. Not for some time anyway.
Maybe there was one child that learned something in those hours. Maybe one will be saved. I wanted so much to go to the other meeting today but I guess I have to trust that I was where I was supposed to be on this day because as much as today was a profoundly disturbing & heartbreaking experience for me, God has a plan.
I just wish he'd tell it to the cops. Oh, I should add that by the end, one of the cops told me that they (3) had a discussion about me and were all talking about what big _ _ _ _ I have. So that's good!
IN GOD WE TRUST,
Chris
Psalm 121
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Psalm 121
Theme: We can depend upon God for help. Pilgrims must travel through lonely country to their destination; they are protected, not by anything created, but by the Creator of everything.
Author: Anonymous, some suggest Hezekiah
I lift up my eyes to the hills --
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip --
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you --
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm --
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
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