White People Grilling Out = A Terrorist Threat

Weird headline, but apparently that's what the ADL would have people believe.

My husband and I threw a private cookout this weekend for some of our friends and people with similar beliefs. We've been doing this for a few years now, and no problems so far. The one thing that amuses me, and slightly ticks me off, is that the ADL insists on posting them on their "Upcoming Extremist Events" web page. It'd just be a joke if it wasn't for the fact that these guys are wasting my tax money on crap like this. The ADL is paid to train many state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and ATF and the CIA, and they're using that money to stir up the bogeyman of an "extremist threat" every time members of a website or church they don't like decide to get together to meet and talk, or hold a religious observance. Apparently, they don't find anything ironic about having BBQs, Bible conferences, picnics, and Baptist conferences listed in between Klan rallies, Neo-Nazi protests, and militia training.

Anyway, now that I'm done ranting, I'll just say that Saturday was great. We had about 50-60 people show up, with about half the people there either never having been a member of any group or not currently belonging to any, as well as members of at least 6 different organizations. Got to see a couple people who I haven't seen in years, and met several new people. There were also lot of other women so it wasn't just me and one or two others scattered amongst the "boys club" - another think I like about these, people bring their kids and families and it really does feel like a big family reunion. As always, there were no drugs, alcohol, or weapons allowed, and no fights or violence. There were a lot of different organizations and viewpoints represents, from Christian Identity, mainstream Christians of several denominations, Odinists, agnostics, Cosmotheists and at least one former Creator to Klansman, Constitutionalists, neo-Nazis, and Libertarians. Talk about an argument waiting to happen, but the one thing that characterized the whole evening was respect - we all had respect for each other and the one viewpoint we had in common - that our race is important and worth preserving - so we were able to respect other viewpoints and ways of approaching our problems.

Afterward, several of us ended up going back to one of the guys who lived nearby's houses, and hanging out for a while. Of course, a while always ends up to mean a very long while, so it was 3 or 4 am when we got home. Mostly, we just hung out and talked, but I miss having real conversations with people who think outside of what they hear on television, and there's just something to be said for sitting on a porch at 2am discussing theology or politics, or making up parody lyrics to 80s music- seems a little like college again.

And if anyone wants to see something really funny, buy a DVD with a bunch of speeches on them - even better if it's people you know speaking - and watch it in fast-forward. We found this out trying to skip forward to a friend's speech on one. The fast-forward and skipping makes most people either look like they're in a Monty Python skit or an early music video [think Bauhaus or Danzig].