Yippie: 'Peace Bats' up today in Denver

by Mark Silva

The Yippies are at bat this afternoon in Denver.

Or at least a gang calling themselves Yippies Colorada is getting ready to hoist some 42-inch inflatable baseball bats, red, white and blue with obligatory peace symbols. They're planning some "street theater'' for the sort of demonostrations that could come in handy at the Democratic National Convention at month's end, they say. Their rallying cry: "Make fun, not war.''

The so-called peace bats are offered as nonviolent alternative to the sticks used to beat back demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago 40 years ago.

"If the police used peace bats instead of billy clubs, no one would get hurt and the laughter and merriment that would ensue would be sure to cripple any thoughts of real violence on both sides,'' the group says in a statement. These also should serve as an alternative to the militant groups threatening disruptions in Denver, they say: "Most activists want peaceful, nonviolent protests where nobody gets hurt.''
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""The peace bat allows you to make your point without making a mark," says Private Lee Pat McGroin, "national Yippie trendmonger" for the Western Region.

Of course, the rhetoric has not been scaled back. Yippie Pieman Aron Kay, of Brooklyn, known for placing pies in the faces of celebrities, suggests of the convention: "Once again, the rich orgy of affluence tries to give us another snow job. It's the same regurgitated circus that we get every four years, a liberal façade called 'Yippie Presents: America Up for Grabs.' No matter what, we still have to take on the bad clowns and the bad circus being perpetrated by corporate cartel. Are we Obamanable or will we suffer under four years of Elmer Fudd McCain?"

The street theater starts at 3:30 pm local time at the Tivoli Student Union Building, according to the Yippies.