The Enemy is A 15-Year-Old Girl

I'm in love with a 15-year-old girl.

Now, before any of you yahoos snatch up your cellphones and call the police, you should consider what I have to say.

My love's name is Ava Lowery. She lives in Alabama, calls herself a peace activist, and for the past year or so has been producing short Flash animations on her web site at peacetakescourage.com. She's made over seventy animations, and most of them oppose President Bush and his Iraq War.

“I was just so mad about it,” she explains. “And the media are not showing the real images of the war, so I did a lot research and started my own website.”

Lately Ava Lowery has been receiving ugly comments and even death threats from the knuckle-dragger wing of the Republican Party. You know the types. If we disagree with you, we'll just shout you down. And if we can't shout you down, we'll demean you and call you names. And if that doesn't work we'll threaten your life.

What got it all started was one of Ava's latest animations. She submitted one titled “WWJD” to the monthly “contagious” contest that huffingtonpost.com is running. It's an open contest which ranks the number of viewes for each submission.

“WWJD”(“What Would Jesus Do,” if you don't know) features a soundtrack of a child singing “Jesus loves me, this I know” while picture after picture of wounded, bloody, or screaming Iraqi children fills the screen.

Says Ava, “The object of the animation is to get this point across; Jesus loves Iraqi children, too.”

Ava ends the video with quotations from Beatitudes. These include “Blessed are they who mourn” and “Blessed are the meek” and “Blessed are the merciful” and “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

Oddly enough, this didn't go over very well with the knuckle-draggers. Ava says she's received a lot of positive feedback in messages to her web site. But she was not prepared for the viciousness of the negative feedback that she received - especially the ugly sexual slurs.

If you can't stand foul language, this is your stopping point. Beyond this paragraph there be Republicans ...

Among some of the things that apparently adult Republicans / Conservatives have had to say to Ava ...

“It’s people like you who need to fucking die and get raped while your corpse rots in the sun.” You know, I'm sure that tactic is in the Bible somewhere. And I'm not entirely sure I'm joking.

“Fuck you, I would jack off on your parents if I could. If you don’t like the team, get out of the park. That means take ur small dick and get the fuck off of my homeland you faggot chocolate gulper.” Apparently this person missed the fact that Ava is a girl, so at least the small dick part is accurate. But generally, it seems that with Republicans if you disagree with them, you must have a small dick. I also liked the part about "my homeland." Who knew this one asshole had somehow taken possession of the entire United States? And what's a chocolate gulper? Wait, I don't want to know.

“You are a TRAITOR to your country and should be executed for treason,” another one said. “All you do is bitch about the US. If you hate it so much, why don’t you GET THE FUCK OUT.”

“Why don’t you go masterbate [sic] to a pic of Sheehan and fuck off,” said a third.

“Are you a muslem [sic] terrorist?” asked another.

Ava says there was a threat against her that was circulating “on the conservative underground.” She says she received one e-mail from someone who said, “Contact me ASAP. It concerns a danger to your life.”

When her mom called the number, the person who answered denied any knowledge of the threat, Lowery says.

She adds: “I was really weirded out by it.”

Geez. What can I really add to what has been posted above? Doesn't that pretty much sum it up?

My God. Are these my countrymen? Are these Christians? They're apparently Conservatives or they wouldn't take such intense offense at a 15-year-old girl disagreeing with their viewpoints. After all, with Republicans it's all about God and Country, and apparently masturbating upon the bombs before we drop them (the do talk about masturbation a lot, don't they?). I haven't been monitoring the Conservative misinformation dissemination centers lately, but I'm sure knuckle-draggers like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity have had a few snarky comments about Ava Lowery. It'd be about their speed to take on a young girl.

The greatest, most heart-felt pain that I've felt over this has been the absolute lack of support that Ava Lowery has received from Republican political leaders. Not one Republican, not one Christian leader, not one Conservative, has stepped forward and said publically that Ava Lowery has a right to express her beliefs, and that grown men and women should fall down upon their knees and beg God for forgiveness for the things that they have said to her and threatened to do to her and her family. That says to me that these people tacitly approve of these intimidation tactics. It underscores what I've known for sometime; that most Republicans are not fit for office. Hell, most Republicans are not fit for citizenship.

These knuckle-draggers are of the opinion that this is their homeland? I beg to differ. You fucking asshole. When you can threaten a 15-year-old girl and tell her that she should be raped and murdered and her body left in the sun to rot, you truly have no concept of what it means to be an American or what this country is all about. What gives you the unimaginable gall to dishonor the sweat, blood and sacrifice of my forefathers, who gave their lives to ensure that their children, grandchildren, and their grandchildren's grandchildren could live their lives in freedom ... what gives you the right to draw your foul breath and dare to call yourself an American?

Shine your jackboots, Adolf. Slide that armband on. Practice your high-stepping marches. But I will tell you this, you mindless thugs. When you dare come for my dear Ava, I and many others like me will be waiting for you. And then we will, perhaps, be able to determine, once and for all, just whose homeland this is. You will not find us such an easy target.

If you so despise freedom and the freedom of expression, then you are certainly in the wrong country. All I have to say to you is don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. Here, let me show you the way.

Ava Lowery is a patriot in the truest sense of the word. She clearly loves her country. And she is clearly not going to back down from the bullying of a bunch of mindless knuckle-dragging brutes. I'm not a 15-year-old girl. I warmly invite you maggots to come try your hand with me.

- Watch Alert archived post
- Peace Takes Courage