Posted on 04/25/2003 3:20:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Edited on 04/13/2004 3:30:59 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Great idea! Play your drum and wear a tie dyed t-shirt, and watch the lefties get all confused and outraged. :)
Protesters gather during president's Santa Clara visit
About 150 police officers in riot gear and on horseback watched the crowd, which was loud but generally peaceful. Two protesters were arrested, one for allegedly hitting a police horse with a sign.
Tensions sometimes ran high as several dozen Bush supporters stood - vastly outnumbered - by the anti-war protesters.
Among those on hand waving large American flags and red-white-and-blue balloons was Alice Hoglan, of Redwood Estates. Her son, Mark Bingham, was among the 40 people who died on Sept. 11, 2001 when Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
"We're happy to stand here with them even though we have different political views," Hoglan said of the president's critics.
Protesters came from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, considered the epicenter of the West Coast's anti-war movement. They banged drums, chanted, and even did yoga to state their opposition to the Iraq war. Some wore masks of Bush and other top defense officials to ridicule the administration's policies.
One waved a sign that read "Unemployment up, Stock down, Surplus gone, Deficit growing, Bush out 2004." Many signs decried Bush as a "war criminal."
Eighty-year-old Bernice Belton, of Santa Cruz, held a cane as she marched with the group despite her arthritis pain. A peace activist also during the Vietnam War, she said, "I've never been so personally and politically frightened as I am now. There are totalitarian aspects of this administration that I've never seen before."
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sigh . I guessed she used to date Stalin to know about totalitarians. :-\
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About 1,000 anti-war protesters lined Coleman Avenue near United Defense today to jeer President Bush as his motorcade drove toward the Santa Clara weapons plant. But police kept those demonstrators, as well as about 200 Bush supporters waving American flags, several hundred yards from the president's procession with barricades.
Two demonstrators were arrested, one for laying on the ground and refusing police orders to move and another for allegedly punching a San Jose police horse.
Among the president's fervent supporters was Alice Hoglan of Los Gatos, mother of Mark Bingham, who died aboard Flight 93 that was crashed into a Pennsylvania field by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.
``We're here to support President Bush because he promised us that his war on terrorism would be unrelenting and he followed through with that,'' said Hoglan, who came with her brother and sister-in-law and two nieces and a nephew. ``I did not vote for the man, and I don't see eye-to-eye with him on many issues, but I totally support him when it comes to his war on terrorism.''
The group was largely peaceful, except for some individual carping between pro-Bush and anti-Bush supporters. One group chanted ``Impeach Bush,'' while the other retorted by singing ``God Bless America.'' One small cluster of anti-war marchers shouted ``We want Gore.''
The anti-war California Peace Action group marched a 30-foot-long inflatable missile down Coleman Avenue that had this message on its side: ``Bush Strategy: Endangering America, Enraging the World.''
BTW, My report is almost ready.
Its called Dear Mr. President. A pathetic offering, reaching out to President Bush. Yeah, Right! ;-)
From CounterCounterCulture..
Thanks
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