From Tennessee Independent Media Center:
Two hundred protesters stood across the street from
Opryland today to voice their dissent and outrage and the Bush regime
cavalcade passed by on the day after his State of the Union Address.
The Nashville speech, which was attended by 4,000 privately selected
audience members composed mostly of military personnel and Republican
party members at the Grand Old Opry Theater, was part of a national
public relations blitz the Bush regime has engaged upon in order to
boost sinking public ratings, which are at a historic low. Locals from
Tennessee including members of the Nashville Peace Coalition, Memphis
Peace and Justice Center, Nashville Peace and Justice Center, CODEPINK!
Women for Peace (from MS and TN), Planned Parenthood, the National
Organization of Women, Service Employees Industrial Union, Veterans for
Peace, Hamilton County Democrats and other groups stood at the
intersection of Music Valley Drive and McGavock Pike, nearly a mile
from the location of the President’s speech, was the nearest public
property on which protesters could legally gather.
Mrs Kelly Jacobs, of Hernando, Missippi, said “King George is acting
like the Borg (from Star Trek). Changing our Laws, implying Resistance
is Futile! Americans must resist when the Bad Guys spend all of our
money, murder our young and LIE to us at every opportunity” Jacobs, 47,
has organized and attended many protests during in the Memphis Area.
She also said that, “It is so important to be here today to take a
stand against President Bush. If anyone will listen, then people in the
country will see that we do not support his lunacy and his lies”
Elizabeth
Barger of Peace Roots Alliance said that, “The direction that this
country is taking now is not acceptable. When President Roosevelt said
‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself’ he didn’t know a future
President would continuously scare people to gain power as Bush does
with every speech.” Barger, who is also a member of the Peace
Coalition, also said that, ” I am here because George Bush is not my
president. I think it is time for us to wake up and see that he is not
above the law and we do not need another King George. The idea of his
spying on people without a warrant, it would have been easy for him to
get a warrant for these things. He did it on purpose though because
this is not about spying or checking up on people, this is really a
power grab and that is what is really important for people to notice.
This is putting him above the constitution, above the law, we are not
at war. He is not a wartime president. He got permission to jump on a
little country to impress folks but we have not made a declaration of
war. The congress is the only entity which can declare war. He claims
that he has wartime executive priviledge. Most of the presidents that
have taken that have been found out to be on the other side of the law,
and history has proven that. People that get in power tend to think
that power is theirs but the power belongs to the people and we have to
understand that we are the government.”
Chris
Lugo, 36 is a candidate for US Senate in Tennessee. He said he came to
the protest because he is concerned about the impact the war in Iraq is
having both at home and abroad, “I am coming to express my rage,
discontent and desire for a better world. I am concerned about this
illegal occupation of Iraq and extremely concerned about the suffering
it has brought to the people of Iraq and the damage that it has done to
our country in light of the open admission of torture and domestic
spying.”
Jeanna
Emert, of Middle Tennessee Planned Parenthood, said that “The reason I
am here is that Bush has no regard for the civil rights, the personal
rights or any other kinds of rights for the citizens of the United
States of America. Specifically, he has consistently shown himself to
be anti-woman, anti-privacy, and anti-choice in every level of his
administration. We are here to call on the Bush administration to
recognize that a majority of Americans are pro-choice, pro-privacy and
pro-peace.” Kerri Adams, who is also with Planned Parenthood, said that
“I am here to make sure that George Bush knows that there are
pro-choice people in this country and that we are in fact the majority.
He needs to keep that in mind when he is nominating justices and
appointing people to head the FDA and doing things that are damaging
women’s and people’s lives.”
Sandi
Lust of the Hamilton County Democratic Party from Chattanooga,
Tennessee said that she can’t stand George Bush, “I want George to see
that I can’t stand what he is doing to this country and our democracy.
He has turned all of our policies backwards. The media is not
responding, they are not showing what is happening in this world. Here
in Tennessee, this little rural place, things are not right. I oppose
him, many people oppose him and our democracy is being stripped away.
Our fourth amendment rights are at stake, he is violating that. His
Patriot Act does not supercede the Fourth Amendment.”
Caroline
Hughes of the Nashville Peace Coalition, said she watched the State of
the Union Address, “Last night George Bush gave the State of the Union
address, which was vacuous and full of empty promises and I think it is
important to come out here and show that the American public doesn’t
believe what he says. We do not support his views.”
Jesse
Gore, who was wearing a t-shirt that said ‘Stop Wars’ said that he was
there because, ” I believe that any president that spends over seventy
five percent of the national budget on military power is really
misleading the people down a road that we will never be able to get out
from under. I live in fear of having kids who will never be able to
collect Social Security or Medicare or have public schools that have a
computer that works. I think the US economy is threatening the
stability of the global economy as well. People are afraid to do
business with the United States because they are afraid to be
associated with us anymore. There have only been a few dictators in the
course of history who have been willing to kill for energy and this
president has no problem with controlling or setting up viceroys in
African nations, in South American nations, in Central America. We will
also further destabilize the middle east by fueling the Israeli army as
well as a war in Afghanistan. I think Bush should have been impeached
for lying that Africa was supplying yellowcake nuclear fuel to Iraq and
that the media said actually existed. This lie, that Iraq had weapons
of mass destruction, was the pretext that we used to go to war.”
The
protesters gathered for about three hours at the intersection of
McGavock Pike and Music Valley Drive. About fifteen minutes before the
President arrived, helicopters began circling over the protest zone and
the street traffic came to a halt. A police escort of 50-100 police
vehicles escorted the Presidential caravan, which accounted for about
twenty vehicles. As the last of the police motorcycle escorts passed
the protesters, several police officers on motorcyles put up the peace
sign as they rounded the corner to Opryland. The protesters left
shortly after the motorcade passed by and street traffic returned to
normal.