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| A slice of the Freedom Rally |
By Gretchen Garrity
Groups
of citizens from Christian County, including the Missouri
Freedom Initiative and Grassroots Patriots of Christian County, traveled up to the Capitol to attend the
protest organized by grassroots activist Catherine
Dreher of Rogue Politics.
Dreher threw the event together quickly after Sen.
Caleb Rowden and Sen. Cindy
O’Laughlin attacked members of the Missouri
Freedom Caucus in a contentious few days in the Senate last week.
When
we arrived we heard cheers and applause coming from the rotunda. It
could not have been the rally, since that wasn’t scheduled for a
couple hours later.
Instead,
it was a gathering of well-organized activists from groups like
Missouri Voter Protection
Coalition, Vote.org, a
contingent from Jobs With
Justice, and the United Auto
Workers.
Some
of these groups claim to be nonpartisan. I really hope people
understand the current narrative that is being pushed by these
leftist groups. They are anything but nonpartisan. Don’t fall for
it, whether it’s Jobs
for Justice
or United
Springfield PAC.
Really,
the “voting rights” rally was a perfect foil for the protest in
support of the Missouri
Freedom Caucus.
From the photos below you can see that a generous guess of attendance
was about 150, if you count the chairs (which had been mostly filled
at the height of the rally) and those standing on the edges,
including the media.
News
coverage of the event followed along the lines of this
article from the Columbia
Missourian.
Notice how the pictures are framed in the linked article. Notice that
the article does not provide links to the organizations mentioned in
the article (doing a little digging would out their far left
agendas). Notice how Rep. Dean
Plocher is given the last word, as if he was the Republican hero
trying valiantly to get IP reform passed. Eye roll.
Here
are pictures I took of the event. A different perspective.
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| As the other rally finished up. |
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| Side view during the organized rally |