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The first group of people to arrive were students: high schoolers and junior college students. Showing their enthusiasm, they grabbed signs and banners went to the street, fliered people passing by and encouraged them to join us. As the hours passed by the crowd on the street waving signs, chanting slogans – demanding Drive Out the Bush Regime – grew. The respone of those passing by was very favorable. About half of the cars honked in support with people cheering out the windows. There were a handful of those who disagreed, often swearing and calling the demonstrators “morons.”
A very diverse group attended: all ages, ethnicity, and gender including at least 20 children under 10 years old. There were young parents, punkers, gays, retired individuals, ex-military, immigrants, professionals as well as the dyed in the wool 60’s protesters and quite a few high school and college students. People were unflaggingly supportive, had a contagious spirit, and did their part to show their revulsion with the direction the Bush Regime is taking our country and the world.
Several foreign students, from Germany and Switzerland, tried on the Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld masks, and took photos, all the while saying how the Bush regime was so universally disliked where ever they had traveled, and how surprised they were that there were so few people on the streets showing their dissatifaction with the regime.
The “Carnival of Crimes” had displays about torture, the Constitution, the futility of ‘smart’ bombs, the suffering of innocents, Katrina victims, and even 9-11 reared its head occasionally, begging for more investigation.
Speakers included: Donna who spoke about the violations to constitutional rights and the lies being told in regards to the Iraq war. Gloria Davidson from the Veterans for Peace talked about her own experience as veteran, and the disgust many veterans and active duty soldiers have for the Bush regime.
Jeenie Cresenso spoke for the North County Peace and Justice Coalition. On one of her trips to Jordan, a group of former prisoners shared their stories of the torture which all of them have been subjected.
Randall Hamud, a nationally recognized attorney for defending Muslim and Arabs detainees after September 11, spoke about Constitutional rights violations of the Patriot Act. He described the limitations an attorney will have to defend his client under the new Torture Bill just passed by Congress and how this reverses legal precedence set in the 1200’s!
As Caroline, a young woman from Planned Parenthood, stepped to the microphone chants from mainly young women of all nationalities started – “my body, my choice”.
Milton Saier, a professor in research in molecular biology, declared Bush and his administration war criminals. He shocked the crowd as he described the consequences environmentally of the bombs that have been dropped onto Iraqi soil. It will be deadlier then that of atomic bombs dropped on Japan during WWII and effect people in that region for generations to come.
An eight year old girl brought tears to some of the listeners eyes with her words – few and simple, but they touched every one’s heart. She said: “I am 8 years old, I am a kid, I worry about all the kids in Iraq. What is going to happen when I grow up. I don’t like war, and I HATE BUSH”.
We recieved favorable coverage from a KUSI9 news and as to be expected a biased report from Fox-6. We also were covered by Televisa – a Mexican news station in Tijuana.
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