They couldn’t make it to Republican National Convention in New York City, so they did the next best thing.
Nearly 200 demonstrators, ranging from toddlers to senior citizens, flashed signs to traffic and chanted a wide repertoire of standard anti-Bush slogans in downtown Raleigh Thursday night, speaking out against President George W. Bush’s administration.
The event was organized a little over a week ago by a group calling themselves the “Ad Hoc Committee Against Bush.” They received a permit from the city Aug. 23 and were licensed to demonstrate from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday night.
The zealous protesters listened to a series of speeches at the North Carolina State University Bell Tower just as the pre-prime time lineup of the final night of the convention hit the airwaves. The protesters then marched down Hillsborough Street, passing drivers either beeping in support or yelling “Bush ‘04” in defiance, before finally ending up at the North Carolina Republican Party Headquarters.
A panel of speakers, mostly representatives from local unions or advocacy groups, addressed topics ranging from civil liberties, reproductive rights and environmental protection to the war in Iraq, veterans’ affairs and labor unions. All were united, however, by one sentiment: an intense hatred of Bush.
The speakers delivered their rhetoric via megaphone, often eliciting cheers and chants from the crowd.
“I have a son on active duty, and my dad was in Vietnam twice,” Lou Plummer, from the group Military Families Speak Out, told a rapt audience. “While ‘Dubya’ was AWOL, my dad was in a rice paddy somewhere bleeding.... We’re getting close to the point where the thousandth American soldier will die in Iraq, and they’ll die for a lie.”
The event organizers were quick to explain that the protest was not necessarily a show of support for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry.
“No one is endorsing a candidate here,” said Bryan Proffitt, who emceed the first part of the event. “This isn’t a pro-Kerry rally, but we do oppose the murderous Bush agenda.”
When Yolanda Carrington from the Hip Hop Against Racist War group said, “I’m at the point now where this is the first presidential election where I don’t support a Democrat,” members of the audience shouted, “That’s not relevant,” and “This is an anti-Bush rally!”
The protesters, whose ranks swelled during the speeches but thinned out during the march down the street, were generally orderly and well-behaved, said Dean Baldwin, a Wake County Sheriff’s deputy who monitored the crowd in front of the state GOP headquarters.
“I’ve been around a while and have seen a lot of protests,” Baldwin said. “I was around for the ‘60s, and this is kind of mellow compared with those days. But people here are involving their whole family, and that’s good to see.”
Bridgette Burge, who works with a local education advocacy group, brought her three-year-old son Jake to the rally. Jake, wearing a pin that read “Money for school, not for war,” ambled up the grassy hill to the NCSU Bell Tower chanting, “Hey, hey, hey, ho, ho, ho, George W. Bush has got to go.”
There were also several Duke students and at least one Duke professor in the crowd. Seniors Adam Gorod, Chris Paul and Anna Bauer, along with Diane Nelson, an associate professor of cultural anthropology, said they believed in the importance of protests in a democracy.
“People are so caught up in their little lives, sometimes they forget what’s really going on in the world,” Paul said. “This protest may seem silly, but the point is, it works as a stimulus for thought, and it encourages people to go out and vote.”
The event attracted all sorts of protesters. One woman dressed as the Grim Reaper, who said she was from Hell and insisted on being identified only as “Death,” claimed she was a Bush supporter. “It’s good for my business,” she said. “With all the Iraqis and soldiers dying, why shouldn’t I be pro-Bush?”
Jack Holtzman, who helped organize the event, called it a success.
“We put this together in a week and a half and... we’ve got a good turnout here,” Holtzman said. “We hate Bush and his polices, and we didn’t want to sit at home screaming at our televisions.”
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