Posted on 11/21/2004 6:51:01 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
Forty-eight hours to celebrate America, its flag and its Constitution. A weekend for Columbus to realize its differences. A weekend for a collage of demonstrators from around the country to sing songs and make speeches. A weekend for Fort Benning's family to miss loved ones on their way to war. A weekend of honoring Army green and a weekend where men in uniform wait patiently in the woods for disobedient protesters to trespass on federal property. For the 15th time, SOA Watch rallied Saturday on a city street outside of Fort Benning. Once more, they were protesting a school that in their view educates Latin American soldiers guilty of killing innocent priests, nuns and civilians.
For two days, this rag-tag group of more than 10,000 -- including elderly church workers and energetic college and high school students -- camps on Fort Benning Road in front of the main gate to the Army post, raising their voices against the presence of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Susan Sarandon, an actress who won a Oscar for her portrayal of an activist nun, was here Saturday and this afternoon Martin Sheen, an actor who portrays the president of the United States, takes the stage. Those two bring star power. Others bring vitriolic messages. Tomato pickers urged people Saturday not to dine at Taco Bell, Coca-Cola was vilified and union activists spoke of solidarity.
The happenings
More than anything, it was 48 hours of democracy:
• Mayor Bob high-fiving Father Roy at Ruth Ann's Restaurant at breakfast Friday. Bob Poydasheff, the mayor of Columbus, had not been formally introduced to Roy Bourgeois, the Catholic priest who founded SOA Watch. No word on whether one of them picked up the other's check.
• SOA Watch officials hand-delivering a letter to the city Friday morning protesting the narrow entranceways being planned at the site. A lawsuit was threatened.
• In a rented tent, students from Jesuit colleges and universities praying and singing on the Riverwalk while other protesters join a Friday night Southern Gospel singing at Ruth Ann's.
• On a stage at the Columbus Civic Center Friday night, a rednecked woman proclaiming she ain't no high-classed broad as Horizon Award winner Gretchen Wilson hits town for her first local concert.
• On the grounds of Southgate Apartments Saturday, puppetistas planning their street show while sound technicians prepare a stage outside the Civic Center for the "God Bless Fort Benning" rally.
• Ralph Frank, Columbus' hippy-dippy sign painter, blending in with the rock festival crowd at the protest site but surprising his anti-war brethren by painting a banner proclaiming support for Fort Benning.
• Bourgeois inciting while Miriam Tidwell sobs.
• Young people who can't spell protest enjoying a day of football at McClung-Memorial Stadium at the annual Peanut Bowl, hearing the cheers of their mamas and papas instead of political speeches.
• Around 500 peace-loving protesters of all ages boarding U.S. Army buses for tours of the institute they want to close.
• Veterans on motorcycles riding their Harleys.
• Protest singers saying they ain't gonna study war no more on the SOA Watch stage while downtown country singer Lee Greenwood tunes up for "God Bless the USA." Each has CDs for sale at the rear.
• Vendors at the protest enjoying the fruits of America's free enterprise system by selling everything from bags of free-trade coffee to posters saying Jesus would not call children collateral damage.
• Daredevil activist Josh Raisler-Cohn inviting people who intend to illegally cross on to Fort Benning today to attend a meeting Saturday night.
Freedom exercised
All over town, at a variety of locations, were doses of democracy. It was a textbook weekend for learning and teaching. "We're all Americans," SOA Watch organizer Eric LeCompte said. "For Americans, what is truly important since 9/11 is that we continue to promote democracy. If we don't, we'll be defeated." Along Fort Benning Road, democracy was on the stage where speakers said the institute was a mockery of education and where colorful signs promoted peace and slammed George W. Bush. Except for the hastily added fence along the side of the road, the protest scene was much the same as past years. Different was the tarp that covered the sign welcoming people to Fort Benning and a second fence that the Army added behind the permanent one -- a fence laced with concertina wire. There was little or no activity on the military side of the fence Saturday, unlike other years when there was a daily show of force. Missing, too, was last year's medley of Brig. Gen. Ben Freakley's favorite music played on an Army sound system. This morning, braving a threat of rain, the growing number of protesters regroups in front of the gate, lining up at 10:20 a.m., in a reverent funeral procession that marks the deaths of people killed and assassinated in Latin America. Saturday's crowd was slow to gather but by early afternoon had swelled to numbers that SOA Watch organizers said was larger than most Sunday crowds -- despite the addition of the police fence and the narrow entranceways.
Columbus Police Chief Ricky Boren said the count at 3:30 p.m. was 10,128 people -- 800 to 900 more than Saturday 2003. He said the fence served its purpose. "Things went smoother," he said. "We had a third fewer officers on line. The fence helped us better define the perimeters." LeCompte didn't say anything good about the fence though he said police were very cooperative. "In spite of the fence, people gathered," LeCompte said. "I feel very humbled."
By the way, Roy Bourgeois is a fanatic...reminds me of Diego De Landa.
Funny, I didn't see these people protesting when Resendiz killed those folks in the U.S. a few years back. Boy, Americans are stupid.
Hell, I'd like to go and thank the soldiers of Fort Benning for getting better at their jobs.
I wonder how all of those folks have so much time to protest. I have to work to pay my bills, taxes (to support them), etc. Beats my four aces. Your moniker is great!
One fulltime and two part time jobs and I still just skate by. Picture those a**holes in an American Embassy surrounded by a violent mob calling for their murder; they'd start praying for some marine to show and SAVE THEIR SORRY A**ES P.D.Q!! (Your nick is pretty cool too! Love that darn Daniel!)
Let's see --- the college students with time to protest are either trust fund babies or on federal scholarships --- definitely are not the hard-working types paying their own way through college. Aging actresses and actors --- they obviously have plenty of time on their hands. Foreign tomato pickers --- isn't harvest season over and they're living off welfare programs now? That means they've got plenty of time on their hands.
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