When I named Skye the Mike’s America “Blogger of the Year” for 2007 I knew she had the right stuff. What I didn’t know is that she would quickly become a target for the people who pretend that peace and non-violence are are their highest objectives.
Skye, the first female member of the Flopping Aces posse (article archive here),as well as the author of her eclectic and electric blog Midnight Blue, has been an active participant and organizer of Pro-Victory counterprotests in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
It’s a group of patriots who observe Memorial Day every weekend by showing up on a street corner in this mid size Pennsylvania town to show their support for our troops. The group formed shortly after one man, Rich Davis, began a lonely vigil on the street corner to counter the angry left wing “peace” activists that had been unopposed in that town square for years while trashing our country, besmirching our troops and generally demonstrating the sour and angry disposition that appears to be epidemic among that class of bitter aging hippies.
Kevin Ferris, writing in the Wall Street Journal, published a wonderful account of the Rich’s group, which calls itself the Chester County Victory Movement and blogs as “The American Sheepdogs.”
Often the “peace” protesters cross the street to confront, harass and attempt to intimidate the victory movement people. Mostly, these efforts are directed at the women who participate in the VICTORY demonstration.
Skye often documents these scenes with a video camera. And in this short clip, you’ll see a peacenik getting nowhere attempting to browbeat browbeat one of the women in the VICTORY gathering. In his frustration he violently slapped the camera in Skye’s hand:
After this assault the man went on to assault a police officer who was called to the scene. The man was charged and a prosecution ensued.
Skye was unable to comment on the matter while the legal process unfolded. Now that her role in that has been concluded, she graciously offered to participate in the following Q&A which traces her involvement in the VICTORY movement as well the events surrounding the assault. Perhaps we can get her to answer any questions readers may wish to leave in the comment section as well.
The Audacity of disagreement.
1. What motivated you to get involved with the first Gathering of Eagles last year?
The motivation stemmed from the disastrous 06 election cycle. Along with the rest of the conservative base, I’d become complacent with the decisive victory in 04. As the dust settled after 06 election cycle, I watched with horror as Pennsylvania replaced Santorum with gumby (Casey) and Nancy Pelosi became the Speaker of the House. I took stock of my blog and realized its potential for communicating a conservative message to a wide audience. During this period of discovery, I came across several blog postings – notably Michelle Malkin’s post – on a rally being held in DC organized by a new group calling themselves “Gathering of Eagles”. I saw this as a fantastic opportunity to use my blog to document the interaction between the Eagles and the assorted peaceniks that memorable day in March 2007. A passion for documenting rallies using internet technology was born that day.
2. How did you get involved with your local West Chester Group?
It was through a contact at the September 2007 Gathering of Eagles Rally supporting General Petreaus’s testimony that I first heard of Rich Davis and his one man protest in West Chester. Until then, my documentation of rallies was limited to whenever GOE hosted one in DC. A week later, I emailed Rich introducing myself and letting him know my interest in documenting this rally.
3. Can you provide a few examples of the friends and positive experiences your interaction with the West Chester group has provided?
From the very first day I attended this rally, I felt welcome and valued by Rich Davis and detected an air of contempt by the assembled membership of the Chester County Peace Movement. Over the course of 9 months that we have been gathering in West Chester, I’ve collected many stories highlighting the generous and compassionate nature of the ‘victory vigiliers’.
One member, Sharon Hyland Keyser, left a very lucrative career to found the organization called ‘A Hero’s Welcome’. According to the website – “The mission of A Hero’s Welcome is to organize and encourage Americans to welcome home our brave military personnel from the War in a manner befitting a hometown hero.” The membership of the Chester County Victory Movement (CCVM) are frequent supporters of Sharon’s Welcome Home projects. As members of the CCVM, our support of the troops does not end at the close of our rally on Saturday.
One of the first acts of charity I witnessed by this group was an impromptu food drive I organized to benefit a local food bank/day center in West Chester. Three days before one of our early rallies, I had a brilliant idea to take advantage of the gathered troop supporters generosity to collect food donations for this charity. I did not expect the overwhelming and overflowing donations of food and money. When I delivered the food and money, the organizers were so grateful and I made sure they knew who was responsible for this donation. On a funny note, Rich and I had not settled on a name for our group – so I made up the title “Chester County Victory Coalition”.
A Vietnam Veteran, Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient, Tony Oleck, has attended public lectures at West Chester University regarding Winter Soldier to offer up a measured response to a panel composed of anti-war and winter soldiers individuals.
One of our newer members, Frank, a WW2 disabled veteran travels on his scooter every Saturday to stand with us. He is the first to say ‘War is Hell’ yet understands sometimes you must fight today to prevent the ugliness of war from visiting future generations.
A Vietnam Veteran and Sky Soldier selflessly gave his “St. Michael” medallion – the one he wore while in Vietnam to the husband of Sharon Hyland Keyser who is currently stationed in Afghanistan and a current ‘Sky Soldier’. In addition he had a second medallion created for Sharon to wear.
One of our Photographers, NeoCon, has a knack for covering both sides with his photography. In addition, he takes the time to make high quality prints of the photos and distributes them to the subjects on both sides.
Raoul Demming has been instrumental in organizing care packages from our group to our troops overseas.
Ed and Carl have demonstrated a knack for ingenious signage and props for our rallies. Code Pink soap, anyone?
Numerous members of our group have proven to be extremely articulate letter to the editor writers.
All of the women of the Chester County Victory Movement are beautiful, intelligent and patriotic. What more could you want?
4. What was your early impression of the The Chester County Peace Movement ?
I had read the CCPM newsletters prior to the day I first attended, when Rich was out there by himself, and was shocked at the hate filled rhetoric from the mouth of the ‘peace group’. I simply could not believe anyone could harbor such hatred for the public expression of an opinion that was divergent from their own. When I first arrived and took a look at the peace protesters – I thought ‘wow, the Geritol crowd.’ and found all 15 of them very aloof and distant. It was not until the end of their ‘vigil’ that I had my first encounter with the now common vitriol of Karen Porter. She was encouraging her gathered flock to call 911 the following Saturday if ‘that man’ showed up with his dog. That man is a veteran who homes retired search and rescue dogs. Nice.
That moment convinced me to make careful documentation of the rally from now on – photos and videos.
5. Both positive and negative: describe your early contacts with these people.
I’ve described above the first negative encounter with this ‘peace’ group. I use the word “peace” loosely. Over the months of documenting this group, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are neither peaceful nor patriotic. I’ve never come across a group of people who have such anger and rage simmering just under the surface. Every Saturday, they are the most miserable people on the planet. There is a notable exception to this description and her name is Gail Lavender Park. Unfortunately, she passed away suddenly taking everything good about this group with her.
6. In your view, have the “peace” activists become more strident and confrontational over the past few months? Has their leadership encouraged more aggressive tactics?
In the weeks leading up to the March 22 assault, the peace group had been growing more hostile towards the pro victory crowd. Two weeks before my assault, Sharon felt she was intentionally pushed into a street filled with oncoming traffic, while holding a sign that asked for passing motorists to support her husband. This shoving was witnessed by another pro victory member and he ran across the street to get between the peace thug we call ‘Baghdad Bob’ and Sharon. You can see the result of his actions on my video “Peace Thugs“. (I also have a photo of Sean crossing the street and you can see how closely ‘Baghdad Bob’ is standing behind Sharon. It seems as if his forearm is resting on her back.). The newsletters distributed by the director of the peace movement have consistently set a tone of mischaracterization of the pro victory crowd and fearmongering with innuendos of violence. She has allowed and at times commended agitators within her group. Karen has recruited Veterans For Peace, an organization known for disruptive tactics and smear campaigns. Their members were consistently attempting to bait our membership. Myself, Raoul and Dee Berk were frequent targets. In the past months, John Grant – presidente of VFP chapter 31 has stated our group is funded, has support from ‘above’, and has political backing. I’ve confronted him numerous times requesting his evidence to support these claims, and I have him on tape ducking or denying his statements. Karen has also recruited WIB (Women in Black) and Code Pink to her weekly rally in WC.
7. Relate to us briefly the incident which occurred recently. As Sgt. Joe Friday used to say “just the facts Mam:” (date, time, etc.)
The events of March 22: It was a typical Saturday, and I was doing what I always do – documenting the rally via photographs and video. It was toward the end of the rally when I started videotaping John Grant and Dee Berk in a spirited conversation. John Meicht was standing within earshot of this conversation. As they were exchanging barbs, John Meicht interjected upon this conversation, blatantly misinterpreting a statement made by Dee and redirecting it toward him. That is when I decided to reposition myself beside John Meicht, with the hope that John Grant and Dee would restart their conversation. It quickly became apparent that this conversation had devolved into a spitting match and Meicht was losing. I then turned my attention to a sign that came into my frame and was videotaping the sign when Meicht violently slapped me the first time. I straightened up and was checking my camera when he changed position from beside me to in front of me and slapped my camera. At this point, peace protesters grabbed him and pulled him back from me, admonishing him to stop. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind he would have continued this assault.
8. Did you feel your civil liberties were being abridged? Did you feel physically threatened?
Any act of violence at a protest/counter protest is an abridgement of civil liberties. Up to that point, I never once felt physically threatened by the peace group. That is what makes this attack by Meicht all the more horrifying. After reading the newsletter from the CCPM recounting the event, I believe the leadership of the peace movement has called for an open season on myself and the membership of the Chester County Victory Movement. Now, I treat every one of the peace protesters as a potential source of violence.
9. Since the incident have the “Peace” activists made an attempt to reign in or egg on their more aggressive supporters?
Two weeks after the incident, the West Chester Police Dept. liaison suggested a formal separation of the two groups on to opposite corners of Market and High streets. This truce meant that there were to be no mingling between the two groups during the entirety of the rally. Naturally, the peace protesters were the first to break this fragile truce, the director of the Peace movement did nothing to reel in her wayward members during these incursions.
10. Do you feel that your physical safety could be put at risk by these people in future confrontations?
Absolutely. The week after the March 22 incident, I returned to West Chester to continue documenting this rally. The peaceful folk complete interspersed with us on one corner instead of retreating to the opposite corner, the looks I received were chilling. Rich and I had discussed my safety concerns prior to this rally and for that day, I had a ‘bodyguard’. It’s been our experience here in West Chester that the peace folk prefer to target women in physical confrontations. Reviewing incidents across the nation, I detect a trend in violence against female pro victory supporters. Anyone holding a pro victory rally opposing an anti war group needs to take a good look at security protocols for your membership. I strongly urge that you document encounters, however, no one should videotape or photograph alone among the antiwar groups, especially if they are female.
12. Does your group plan to continue your pro-victory demonstrations despite this intimidation? What upcoming events are planned?
As long as our troops are risking their lives to protect our freedoms, we plan to continue to provide a positive message of support to our troops and their mission. We have an upcoming celebration on Flag Day – Saturday June 14th. We are inviting all patriots to join us for a rally and a party afterwards.
13. Describe the positive reactions and outpouring of support you have received in the wake of this incident.
I am still receiving notes of support from individuals all over the nation. I cannot express how supported I felt by this outpouring of love from friends and strangers alike. I tried to respond to all who emailed me – and hope I didn’t miss anyone.
14. Describe any negative reaction you have received from the “peace” crowd.
Negative reactions from the peace crowd – ha! Check out my youtube channel comments. Karen Porter recently penned a letter to the editor where she insulted my age and issued a veiled threat of violence against me. In doing so, reconfirmed her condoning of the violence perpetrated by one of her own members.
A Personal Lesson in the Cost of Freedom:
After the assault, Skye lost two days of work. One from stress induced illness from the assault and it’s aftermath and another when she attended the court session to decide the case. She agreed with the police officer, who was also assaulted, to permit the assailant to enter into a summary agreement and avoid the possibility of a sentence with jail time if he writes an apology to Skye, does community service and follows a restraining order which prevents him from ever approaching Skye again.
She is comitted to continuing her work with the Chester County VICTORY Movement and is always expanding her personal outreach into new areas to spread the message to others. Above all, Skye demonstrates that one person can and does make a difference. And that’s a lesson the rest of us can apply to our own efforts as well.
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