RUDY RUDY RUDY...

So this morning we went to the coffee shop that is in our neighborhood, about a 5 minute walk from our house, to see none other than Presidential Candidate and former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani. Yes he is in town for a $2500 a plate fundraiser and decided he would make a brief appearance at our coffee shop.
Although we would never vote for him we went for two reasons. The first being that if, unfortunately, he does become our next President our kids, and us I guess, would be able to say that we had seen him in person. The second being that regardless of whether he becomes President he is still an interesting historical figure. Plus he was a 5 minute walk from our house.
It was so fascinating to go and see him. There were a ton of people there and lots of security.
He got out of his car and everyone began to clap and make comments like "isn't he great", "he really helped the country during 9-11", "what a wonderful president he'll make" etc, etc. Then he made his way close to us. We stratigically stood right by the door to the coffee shop knowing that no matter what he had to walk in the door.


This is us waiting for him!



Vera was intent on shaking his hand but when he got to us and she actually had her hand out to shake his some moron who was obviously never a child stepped right in front of her and told him he thought he was amazing during 9-11 and that he would make a great president and could he get his autograph. Vera was upset but determined to try again. She got close to him at least 6 times and each time someone saw that a defenseless child was a great person to crowd in front of. If the situation had not turned out to be so volatile, which I will get to in a minute, I would have had words with some of the incredibly rude people there. I must say though that there were several people who did let Vera and Rick stand in front of them the get a better look.

that's Vera's head right there behind Rudy



this is one of the men who stepped in front of Vera at one point. Yes he is having Rudy sign his chest, I mean shirt which happens to be a t-shirt commemorating the 9-11 attacks.




Okay back to my story. So we're standing by the door and he goes inside and he says some remark about Hillary that makes everyone laugh and then out of nowhere some guy starts yelling that Rudy is a criminal and a liar. Before I could even figure out what was going on we were suddenly in some sort of mosh pit as people started aggressively pushing up against us and nearly knocked us off our feet! Poor Ricky and Ana got really shoved and were quite scared and upset. But things quicky calmed down as the police escorted the gentleman out of the shop to the end of the parking lot. This ended up happening several times. People yelling something anti Rudy and police taking care of it. When this would happen everyone would start chanting "Rudy Rudy Rudy", over and over to drown out the instigators. The thing that was really ridiculous is the argument that insued behind us after the first event.

Guy 1- " Go back to Boulder you Hippie"
(he apparently thinks that the only people who do not agree with Rudy are from Boulder.)

Guy 2-" Taser him Bro!"
(then everyone laughed and a few more people thought it would be funny to say also so they did.)

Guy 3 to Guy 1- " You know, he has every right to say what he thinks. This is a free country. Haven't you heard of the first ammendment?"
(now Guy 3 was interesting to me as he had been wandering around before Rudy arrived and was wearing a Rudy 2008 sticker on his shirt, but something told me he was not a Rudy supporter.)

Guy 1 to Guy 3 "Oh so you're saying first amendment rights trump stupidity? You can't just walk into a public building and yell fire!"
(no comment)

Guy 3 to Guy 1- "Hey calm down! I'm just saying he has a right to express his opinion."

This is where I step in-

Me- "Nobody went in there and yelled Fire! If you don't like what he's saying ingore him."
(that comment was the mother in me coming out.)

Guy 1 to Guy 3- " Maybe you need to go back to Boulder!"
(for those of you not familiar with the regions of Colorado, Boulder is a very liberal town. Where we live is not very Liberal at all.)

There were many other annoyingly unintelligent things said that I can't even begin to think of them all but that was the most exciting part.

Here are Joe and Rick and Ana standing on a light pole trying to get a better view.



When Rudy left there were several protesters now stationed at the exit of the parking lot claiming that 9-11 was an inside job and sure enough one of the guys holding a sign was the man we call Guy 3 from the above story. I knew he was not really a Rudy fan!




As we were leaving to walk back home a reporter from a local newspaper stopped us to ask us what we thought about the event. The kids were very excited to give their opinions and even more excited to learn they would be in the newspaper.