Posted on 03/23/2003 1:59:30 PM PST by I still care
thomas.bender@heraldtribune.com Former veteran Richard Underwood, 62, of Sarasota, demonstrates in support of U.S. troops at the Ringling Boulevard intersection of U.S. 41 on Saturday.
SARASOTA -- More than 250 supporters of U.S. troops gathered Saturday at Bayfront Park, expressing satisfaction with the war effort, tolerance of peace protesters and hope for a quick victory in Iraq.
"We don't like war either," said state Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton. "We just love our warriors and want them to come home."
Bennett and other local politicians, including Sarasota Mayor Carolyn Mason and County Commissioner Paul Mercier, spoke to a noon crowd proudly dressed in red, white and blue. Then, supporters carrying signs proclaiming "Free Iraq" lined U.S. 41 and were greeted by a chorus of enthusiastic honks from passing cars.
Julie Brady, 60, stood along U.S. 41 and Ringling Boulevard long before the rally. She praised the Sarasota Young Republicans for hosting a rally to counter the dozens of war protests locally and in major cities across the county.
"I've been very frustrated," said Brady of Osprey. "The (media) coverage in this country indicates a lot of people are against the war. (But) polls show 75 percent of people support it."
Smaller groups of troop supporters rallied in several spots across the Tampa Bay area on Saturday, offering a much different message than that of anti-war activists in Washington D.C., New York and San Francisco who clashed with police in demonstrations Saturday that drew thousands.
Jim Dougherty of Bradenton held this photo of his son, Michael J. Dougherty, a Marine. The younger Dougherty signed up a few months after 9/11. He was stationed in Okinawa until a few weeks ago, but his father does not know his current assignment. "I'm on pins and needles until I hear from him," Jim Dougherty said. |
In Brandon, about 35 people gathered to show support for the troops. Another 40 waved flags and pro-American signs at an intersection in Tampa.
"I don't like war in general, but this war is necessary," Juan Capote, 72, a former Cuban political prisoner, said through an interpreter at the Tampa event. "There are going to be a lot of people killed in the United States and the world if we let Saddam Hussein remain in power."
Only a few individual war protesters visited the Sarasota Bayfront on Saturday. The pro-troops rally attracted war veterans like Tim Lampman, 62, a electronics technician in the U.S. Air Force from 1959 to 1963.
About 250 people rallied near Bayfront Park to counter peace protests in larger U.S. cities. "Only in America can we have people protesting war and loving our warriors," said state Sen. Mike Bennett. |
Lampman of Sarasota wondered if the protests in New York and elsewhere are really about war.
"Where were they (the protestors) during Kosovo?" he asked. "We didn't hear a peep from them. Why now? Many of them are not protesting war so much as they're protesting Bush and conservatives."
Yet, Bennett, the state legislator, told the crowd that he supports not only the war, but the freedom to hold peace protests.
"Do we live in a great country or what?" Bennett said. "Only in America can we have people protesting war and loving our warriors."
Many teens like C.J. Eberingham, 14, came with a large group from the Faith Baptist Church in Sarasota.
"I hope we can make this a quick war," Eberingham said. "We should be supportive of America with all we got."
Several said they were happy with the speed and intensity with which the United States has moved into Iraq, but dissatisfied with television coverage of the war.
"There's too much insensitivity to what's going on," Mercier said. "This isn't a spectator sport, and we treat it that way."
Television images of the bombings got to Eberingham.
"It stunned me," he said. "I was almost going to cry, it was so terrible. I didn't think I would ever see anything like that."
Some of the same troop supporters will be at Patriots Park in Venice today for a 2 p.m. pro-troops rally sponsored by veterans groups in Venice and Sarasota.
Tampa Tribune reporter Kathy Steele contributed to this report.
| MORE NEWS |
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| Supporters rally for the troops |
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| Sermons address the war in Iraq |
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which paper where? link please?
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