Damp in Numbers But Not in Fervor
A Few Thousand Protesters Brave the Rain to Deliver an Antiwar, Anti-Bush Message
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 5, 2006; Page C05
As
he waited for a 30-foot-high effigy of President George W. Bush to
fall, Freddy Taiefero told the story of how he ended up here. Homeless
in Atlanta a day ago, he now was amid a few thousand protesters on the
soggy ground by the Washington Monument.
these leaflets, and I picked one up at the homeless shelter,” said the
56-year-old unemployed caterer. “Bush’s administration causes
joblessness. . . . When he got in, it was like the world was snatched
up from under us.”
 
A
protester sets fire to an American flag with corporate logos in place of stars. A few thousand demonstrators withstood the rain to attend the rally. (Ricky Carioti – Twp)
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So, Taiefero said, he boarded a bus, slept
the night in his seat and yesterday bore the sticker reciting the
message of all those around him: “Bush step down.”
Yesterday’s
demonstration, which stretched through five hours of rain and ended
with a march around the White House, was organized by a group called
World Can’t Wait — Drive Out the Bush Regime. The organization helped
lead a smaller rally near the Capitol during Bush’s State of the Union
address last week.
Yesterday’s demonstrators came from as far
away as Hawaii. New York alone sent 12 buses. Still, the crowd was
significantly smaller than the 30,000 protesters organizers had
anticipated. The actual numbers were in the low thousands and varied
depending upon how hard it was raining. If antiwar T-shirts were in
abundance, they were hidden by sweaters that were covered by jackets
that were shadowed by umbrellas.
Ann Wright’s shirt just barely
peeked out from her coat as the wind picked up. Under the number 2,248,
the soldiers killed in Iraq, splashed the words “Impeach Bush.” Wright,
one of yesterday’s speakers, is a former U.S. diplomat and military
officer who quit in protest of the war.
“As a citizen, if I don’t show up and I don’t speak up, then I’m being silent and complacent,” she said.
After
a series of speakers, organizers dropped a wire-fashioned effigy of
Bush off the stage. The crowd, which was already at a roar, chanted in
unison: “Bush step down! Bush step down!” After it fell onto the muddy
lawn, many took a kick at the soggy frame. More than a few shouted
obscenities before the crowd set off for the march around the White
House.
Sgt. Scott Fear, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said authorities were prepared for the “peaceful demonstration.”
“We
have to protect their First Amendment rights, too,” Fear said. “We’re
here for them just as much as we’re here for anyone else.”
Afterward, Taiefero and others boarded buses while some demonstrators talked about their next trip to Washington.
“We’ll
be back,” said Russ Campbell, 65, of Flint, Mich. He and David
Smallidge, 70, have led their own weekly marches back home since the
war started.