Posted on 05/14/2004 8:20:31 AM PDT by freeeee
The King made a royal visit to Wisconsin last week, and as is common when monarchs travel, individual liberties were suspended.
King George Bush's bus trip across western Wisconsin closed schools and roads, prevented residents from moving freely in their own communities, and prevented citizens from exercising their free speech rights.
All in all, it was a typical George W. Bush visit.
But there's a slight twist.
People in western Wisconsin, who hold to the refreshingly naive notion that they live in a republic as opposed to an imperial realm, are objecting.
"There's a pattern of harassment of free speech here that really concerns me," says Guy Wolf, the student services coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. "If they're going to call it a presidential visit, then it should be a presidential visit - where we can hear from him and he can hear from us. But that's not what happened here, not at all."
Wolf and other La Crosse area residents who wanted to let the president know their feelings about critical issues came face to face with the reality that, when King George travels, he is not actually interested in a two-way conversation.
Along the route of the Bush bus trip from Dubuque to La Crosse, the Bush team created a "no-free-speech" zone that excluded any expressions of the dissent that is the lifeblood of democracy. In Platteville, peace activist Frank Van Den Bosch was arrested for holding up a sign that was critical of the president. The sign's "dangerous" message, "FUGW," was incomprehensible to children and, no doubt, to many adults. Yet, it was still determined sufficiently unsettling to the royal procession that Van Den Bosch was slapped with a disorderly conduct ticket.
Up the road in La Crosse, the clampdown on civil liberties was even more sweeping. Wolf and hundreds of other Wisconsinites and Minnesotans who sought to express dissents were videotaped by authorities, told they could not make noise, ordered not to display certain signs and forced to stand out of eyesight of Bush and his entourage. Again and again, they were told that if they expressed themselves in ways that were entirely protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, they would be "subject to arrest."
"Everyone understood the need for basic security for the president, but none of us could understand why we had to give up our free speech rights," explained Wolf.
La Crosse Mayor John Medinger shares that concern. The Bush-Cheney campaign leased a portion of a local park where the royal rally was held. Yet, Wisconsinites who wanted to protest Bush's visit were told they could not use a sound system in a completely different section of the park.
"I want to find out why the whole park was used when only a portion was leased," Medinger told the La Crosse Tribune. "So when demonstrators were told they couldn't have (sound) systems, the question is why."
The Bush-Cheney campaign paid a $100 fee to use one part of the park, but disrupted much of the city. Medinger is now assessing the full cost of the royal visit and hopes to deliver a bill to the campaign, which State Elections Board attorney George Dunst says the Bush campaign should pay. Other communities, including Prairie du Chien, are looking at following Medinger's lead.
But the challenge should not just be a financial one. The Bush visit attacked First Amendment rights up and down the Mississippi. A lot of people are owed apologies.
In a monarchy, of course, the King never apologizes. But in a democracy, the president is supposed to be accountable to the people.
By pressing demands that the charges against Frank Van Den Bosch be dropped and that the White House and the Bush-Cheney campaign apologize for participating in an anti-democratic endeavor, residents of western Wisconsin can, and should, take up the cause of this country's founders. It is time once more to challenge a King named George.
Caption: President Bush waves to crowds from his campaign bus as he passes through Prairie du Chien last Friday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
"I'm not required to go to "political meetings"
And please don't miss any more of our litle re-educational soirees ...
8')
That's hilarious. Thanks for the chuckle! Then again you might be correct, Rove is likely responsible.
We have one President assinated, one wounded and another who came pretty close to being shot, just within the past forty years.
And not a single one of those instances had anything to do with protesters. Nice red herring.
Both Clintons have been overheard by FReepers ordering the SS to remove protesters. This is done for politcal reasons, and has nothing to do with safety or security. It has everything to do with a clean photo-op and the tender feelings of big headed egomaniacs.
Better ten million pissed off wannabe protesters, than one dead or wounded President.
If I want to disagree with the President, I can send him an e-mail, a snail mail, a fax or a voice mail. The likelyhood of him personally reading or listening to one of these is probably pretty slim, but no slimmer than the likelyhood of one voice being heard above the din of thousands of protestors.
Happy to have given you a chuckle, but it doesn't make me feel like something special- I'll bet that darn near any rational comment could have you ROFLYAO.
The existance of other avenues of dissent is irrelevent. Americans hold an unalienable and constitutional right to free speech and assembly. Removing them from a public area where others have access purely for their political opinions is an infringement of that right.
Yes, the little people are so stupid they wouldn't comprehend this sophisticated wit.
I've visited La Crosse from time to time over my life and enjoyed it, but geeze louise, what a bunch of whining dolts are featured here.
In fact, it was in La Crosse that I almost went to a Clinton rally in '92! I didn't know much about him at the time and a friend and I were going to wander over but it was rainy so changed our minds. I always count my blessings that I didn't come within such close range of pure evil.
But I digress...
King George Bush's bus trip across western Wisconsin closed schools and roads, prevented residents from moving freely in their own communities, and prevented citizens from exercising their free speech rights.
Before these losers chant the mantra of "Poor Us!" maybe they'd like to see what Massachusetts has to go thru for J F'n K's coronation! You want to talk about screwed up traffic? Businesses will have to close EARLY if they want their employees to get home before they are due in the next morning! And FORGET about getting to Logan Airport!!!
Do they think any dissenters will be allowed ANYWHERE near the DNC hoi-poloi? And you haven't even HEARD about what will be done to all the BUMS that are a mainstay on Boston life!
Whatever area is provided to protesters in which to vent, is a public place, unless they are forced to protest only in their homes or in the depths of some isolated cavern.
Free speech doesn't give us the right to be heard-just the right to freely speak. Not even the President can be forced against his will to listen to us. He has rights too.
Then again, Rat behavior isn't something to aspire to.
Thanks OC. Whenever I think of violence being used to stifle dissent, I'll always have your post to remember fondly.
Removing peaceful protesters from any public place, while others remain, is a violation of free speech and assembly.
Think of it this way. You have a house. You have a right to be in any part of your house. Someone forces you to stay in your bedroom. Have your property rights been violated? Your theory says no.
Free speech doesn't give us the right to be heard
No one has to listen to the protesters, including the president. Just ignore them. Forcefully removing them however, is entirely another matter.
We're supposed to be better than that, and that is the reason this is supposed to be a great country. Those who have behaved as you suggest are judged by history to be savages and tyrants, and are a black stain on mankind's character....
Life isn't perfect, is it, not even in a representative Republic, but it is far from unbearable.
My gripe is that I bought and paid for my house, but yet the government sends me a bill for rent every year-if I spend money making improvements, my rent goes up. My car is paid for and yet, the government sends me a bill for the privilige of owning it.And the list goes on.
My country, my President, my family and believe it or not even myself are not perfect. But they are all perfect enough that I would offer my life in defence of them all.
ROFLMAO!
I'm just surprised this thread is still active!
I forgot all about it!
The American antiwar protestor is a relatively new phenomenon, emboldened by shameful and treasonous successes during the Vietnam War. I haven't forgotten their betrayal. The photo below was published on the Indymedia/ San Francisco website last year during the spate of antiwar protests held throughout the city.
Just for a moment, put yourself in the shoes of someone who has a personal stake in this war. Your father or brother is in Baghdad surrounded by hate filled Mulims who have AK-47s, IEDs, RPGs and you're counting down the days until their tour is over. Now, look at the photo, and after you've given it honest consideration, get back to me. 
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