Dear George,

I just returned from a Memorial Day Weekend in Washington, D.C. On Sunday afternoon, some several THOUSAND motorcyclists roared up Pennsylvania Avenue on their "dressers"(mostly Harley "Hogs")....they all had black and white "POW-MIA" flags and American or the Confederate battle flags flying "proudly" from the rear of their motorcycles. Most were dressed in black leather with the "POW-MIA" logo embossed in the material. Many had a patch of the American flag sewn to their jackets that said "TRY TO BURN THIS ONE -ASSHOLE".My guess is they were about 99.99% white, 98% male and 100% LOUD!! Pennsylvania Avenue was lined with supporters giving thumbs up, "showing the colors" and holding up signs that said "Limit Immigration". Also, MANY "Bush Won-Get Over It".

For a moment I pictured Berlin in the 1930s!

The noise was deafening as it seemed the louder the exhaust, the more attention was drawn to their "cause"! Many were equipped with what sounded like air horns from a semi.

We could not cross the Avenue as the line of "demonstrators" was endless......many pleaded with the D.C. and Park police to allow a break so they could answer nature's call but it was not to be! The line was unbroken and apparently started at the Viet-Nam Memorial way down on Constitution Avenue circled about at the Capitol and returned to the Viet-Nam Memorial. They were moving very fast!

Later, leaving the downtown area, we headed for I-66 via Constitution Avenue. We passed the Viet-Nam Memorial where, though many of the demonstrators appeared to be leaving, there were still thousands parked everywhere!....The ground was buried in litter...trash was everywhere, by the ton! Booths with banners supporting everything from a ban on immigrants to a petition against "the traitor, Jeffords" were everywhere..it was starting to rain----hard, so things looked like they were getting chaotic. Traffic was at a stand-still so it was a curious event to behold, indeed!

THEN.....I come home and read Brian Campbell's letter! My thought was "I wonder if he would have protested this group of the "faithful", if he would have found them disruptive, if the bad mannered litterers with their "Bush" signs everywhere would have aroused his ire"?

...........Maybe if nature had called?

Harry Tenney (electronic mail, May 29, 2001).