The 'Statue of Liberty calling for peace' is always trumped by the Statue of Liberty calling for defense.
Posted on 08/30/2004 3:46:41 PM PDT by Lorianne
NEW YORK — The marchers streamed past Madison Square Garden for more than four hours on Sunday afternoon, a snaking throng of Bush protesters — many of them pausing in front of the site of the upcoming Republican National Convention to either raise a hand in the peace sign or in an obscene gesture.
"Of all the reasons to be here, the main one, in a word, is Iraq," said Doug Hofeling, 30, a restaurant manager from Salt Lake City, who came to New York to protest. "It's the difference between being angry and taking to the street."
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets shouting "No More Bush," holding a myriad of protest signs and bearing scores of flag-draped mock coffins.
The messages ranged from the angry ("Give Bush Four More Years . . . In the National Guard") to the silly ("Dick Cheney is an evil robot"), and they hit a spectrum of complaints from the environment ("Emissions Accomplished") to the incomprehensible ("When W Goes to Sleep, he's a Viking").
But mostly, they complained about the war in Iraq.
Mildred McHugh, 44, of Pennington, N.J., held a sign bearing the photo of her son, pictured in his Army uniform, under the words: "Bring My Son Home."
"He's in Iraq now," said McHugh, who hadn't ever been a protester until now. "My son offered to defend his country, but what he's doing now isn't defending his country."
Barbara Langan, 85, of Montclair, N.J., couldn't see very well where she was walking, so she hung onto her husband Tom's belt with one hand as she walked with an American flag in her other hand.
"My eyes aren't so good anymore, but the rest of me is fine," she said. "I could care less about the economy. I am against the war, and I am heartbroken what's happened to my country." Alice Farley, of Manhattan, walked the parade route on stilts, dressed in a flowing green gown as an 8-foot Statue of Liberty. Instead of a torch, Farley held a conch shell in her hand, blowing a mournful sound through the shell as she walked.
"I'm the Statue of Liberty calling for peace," she said.
Farther behind her, the Ross family of Hastings, N.Y., were walking with their family project — a foam insulation re-creation of an Army tank commanded by George W. Bush as a lone person stands blocking the tank's way, reminiscent of the famous standoff near Tiananmen Square.
"My husband said, 'Why don't we do something big?' " Amanda Ross said. "And so this is what we came up with."
The march, sponsored by the group United for Peace and Justice, had been part of a long-negotiated agreement between the city and the protest group. The group wanted to gather in Central Park, rather than on the rambling route up Seventh Avenue, east on 34th Street past Macy's and down Fifth Avenue to Union Square Park.
While police were ever-present and in large numbers, the protesters were vociferous but docile, following the sanctioned parade route and causing only isolated problems.
They booed as they passed by convention hotels, and went delirious with revulsion when they passed the oversized television screens on the side of the Macy's building, which were tuned to Fox News.
"Fox News sucks! Fox News sucks!" they chanted. At the time, the cable news station wasn't showing scenes of the protest, but was instead doing a piece on terror preparations for the average citizen, including the best way to survive a "dirty bomb" attack.
There was no shortage of bizarre behavior on the street. A few women were dressed as elephants, claiming to represent the leader of the elephant world, President Pachyderm, who wanted to break off mascot ties to the Republican Party.
Shawn Schwartz, of New York, showed up at the protest with a sign that both condemned Bush and asked female marchers to remove their tops.
"We were hoping to find some 'Protesters Gone Wild,' " Schwartz said.
Instead, he found a lot of angry feminists.
"The women behind you think your sign is sexist," a woman told Schwartz.
"So then they should hold a sign that protests my sign," Schwartz answered.
Another marcher, David Ross, 29, of New York, was just there to play his alto saxophone on the street.
"It's a chance to practice," he explained.
Greg Packer, 40, of Huntington, on Long Island, is a Republican who marched with a sign offering to volunteer for the GOP convention.
"I signed up, but they didn't pick me," he said. "They don't even have to pay me."
There were the usual assortment of protest entrepreneurs, including Paul Fourie and Alan P. Cross, a couple of TV comedy writers who were hawking their book "WWWD (What Would W Do?)"
A sample: What would W do if he were Gilligan? The answer: Lower taxes, but only for the Howells.
"Some people do coffins draped with flags," Cross said. "But we think humor is the best weapon."
The humor cuts both ways. One small band of Republican sympathizers marched along the route as part of a parody group called Communists for Kerry.
New Yorker Brian McCarthy was one of them, dressing as Fidel Castro and carrying a sign that showed Democratic nominee John Kerry with the words: "Foreign Policy? Ask France First."
McCarthy complained about the other protesters not respecting his right to protest them.
"I just got hit in the head with a carrot," he said.
There were a few counter-protesters who lined the route as well, but not many.
A conservative Christian holding a pro-Bush sign with Bible verses on it elicited a "Who would Jesus bomb?" chant from the protesters.
At another location, John Alvarez, 38, of Syracuse, N.Y., was standing with his sign, "Bush Must Win for a Stronger and Safer America," and taking on the passing marchers with gusto.
"These people are just a radical tiny minority who don't represent the majority of Americans," Alvarez said. "They just play into the hands of the terrorists."
Further on down the route, Kristinn Taylor, 42, with the conservative Web site freerepublic.com, was standing with a sign that said: "Criminals for Gun Control. Why should we risk the chance of being injured on the job?"
Just in case that didn't fully identify him as a counter-protester, he also wore a shirt that said "Fry Mumia," referring to convicted Philadelphia cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose fate seems to be a perpetual byproduct of concern at peace marches.
"We know it's a successful counter-demonstration when we get the finger," Taylor said.
Steve Lang, 50, a sociology professor who lives near the parade route, stepped outside to watch the protesters walk by his apartment. Lang is sympathetic to their concerns, but he wasn't so sure that the huge march would do Bush any harm.
"I think this might actually help Bush," Lang said. "People in the rest of the country think of New Yorkers as a little crazy, and look at this."
Just in case that didn't fully identify him as a counter-protester, he also wore a shirt that said "Fry Mumia," referring to convicted Philadelphia cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose fate seems to be a perpetual byproduct of concern at peace marches.
"We know it's a successful counter-demonstration when we get the finger," Taylor said.
Great job, Kristinn!
"I just got hit in the head with a carrot,"
Something about that set me to giggling.
somebody threw a carrot at me I would shove it up their ass
Greg Packer again? Isn't that they guy that Ann Coulter discovered that the leftist reporters always quote in the news stories? And if I'm not mistaken, he's no Republican. I think he was reported to be one of the first in line to buy Hitlery's book. Greg Packer on Free Republic.
The 'Statue of Liberty calling for peace' is always trumped by the Statue of Liberty calling for defense.
The one and two finger gestures distinguishes their individual IQ levels...ya know.
I dunno. Considering the Leftist protesters' general proclivities, they'd probably like that.
Gotta give credit - that's a relatively arcane Simpson's quote they used.
1. John Kerry is not anti-war either! In fact, he and his cronies never met a "human rightser" imperialist war (like the "Kosovo war") they didn't like. Nor will they bring the troops home from Iraq any time soon if they are elected.
2. The organizations sponsoring the New York demonstrations are in some cases communist (e.g., ANSWER and its spin-offs), and in other cases fronts for that destroyer and looter of nations, George Soros (e.g., MoveOn). Islamist fronts like CAiR are involved, too. Teresa Heinz Kerry's Tides Foundation, working together with Soros' "Open Society" Institute, are contributing to the communist and islamist organizations, as well as their own. As "liberals", most of the demonstrators probably approved of the coup in Serbia engineered by Soros, using "demonstrators" not unlike themselves. However, I'm sure that very few of them would like seeing the same thing happen here in America!!!! Even "liberals" would not fare well in a Soros-controlled America!
The "demonstrators" would do very well to take a good hard look at whose cause they are really supporting, and do some research to back that up. And they should--as part of that--radically revise their point of view about the Serbs!!!!
Great points. Do you have any reading I can do on this. I'd like to bring up these points in another discussion but I know little about the Kosovo/Bosnia situation.
Thanks
Try the Library section on the srpska-mreza (Setbian Network) website: http://www.srpska-mreza.com/LIBRARY.html
Also, http://www.kosovo.com
Them look at the numerous (and very lively) Balkan posts on freerepublic!
Nice catch. Seems to be the same dude. Clearly he's willing to cross party lines to get in the paper again lol.
I'm afraid we're losing the battle over obscure Ralph (not Waldo Emerson) quotes. Maybe Bush should have ended his speech tonight with, "I beat the smart kids! I beat the smart kids!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
