Bush Demo Wrap-up

Since I've already posted a rather lengthy account of the event today from another person's point of view, it seems to me that I don't have a whole lot more to add other than my pictures and maybe a few other comments, so I'll be relatively brief here. Yes, I know that my version of "brief" is still pretty long by blogging standards...



I was pleased and somewhat surprised at the sheer volume of people who felt moved to come out to express themselves on the occasion of President Bush's arrival (for about an hour or two of elapsed time, with only 14 minutes spent on the Calvin College stage.) As a veteran protestor who has attended all three of Bush's appearances in Grand Rapids (including the day after the State of the Union address in 2003 and the day after John Kerry's nomination speech at last year's Democratic National Convention,) I saw many familiar faces and messages.





But a unique feature of this event was the higher-than-average amount of opposition to Bush's policies that was voiced and framed by a Christian and biblical worldview.





That was very encouraging to me and I think significant as well, signalling that Bush's and the right-wing's attempts to link their political philosophy to the broad popular understanding of the supposedly "Christian position" on a variety of issues has stirred up some deeply felt and determined resistance among people who are concerned about poverty, social justice, the environment, human rights and so many other qualities that we have traditionally identified with liberty, freedom and democracy.



I know that I myself feel more emboldened than ever to offer my own faith-based counterpoint to the misguided initiatives that many Republicans have endorsed and embraced. I find myself speaking out more freely and candidly to people I work with these days, as it becomes ever more clear that the Bush agenda simply isn't working out very well for the majority of people in our country, not to even mention people living elsewhere.



It's painfully evident to me and many others that a lot if not most of our worst fears about the negative impact of a Bush administration (made even worse by a congressional leadership that seems content to serve as a rubber stamp for his agenda) have come to pass. So I am at least able to find some signs of hope that there is a segment of the Christian community that is willing to clearly examine the track record of the president and his political cronies and let the evidence speak for itself, rather than follow them down the path of spin and misrepresentation that has come to characterize most of the information flowing through their P.R. department and their corporate sponsored media apologists.

OK, so back to my story about the rally. Enough people showed up to fill a very long section of the sidewalk between the mall and Calvin College. The turnout was much bigger than anything that I had imagined!









Basically, once we reached the main corner at Burton and the Beltline, we met up with both the beefy and obvious police presence...



...and a separate group of protestors who had occupied the intersection, further swelling our numbers.



We merged and mingled for a few minutes, waiting for those at the back of the line to join up.



Those of us at the front of the parade were unsure of where to go. We wound up splitting off in two different directions.



I took the better route, as it led further north to the intersection where Bush's motorcade would soon pass. Along the way, we saw the local media presence:


WOOD-TV 8 reporter Joe LaFurgey prepares to deliver his segment.


G.R. Press Reporter Ted Roelofs interviews a dissenter. Sorry, it's sideways, maybe I'll fix it later...

As we approached that corner, we saw at least six police cruisers at various points, soon to be joined by several more, and a trio of our colleagues being escorted back in our direction.



It turned out that they were being led away from a pro-Bush group that had been given a privileged spot, right near the driveway where he would enter the campus.



That group was considerably smaller than ours, and the pretext for excluding the ant- from the pro- demonstrators was that they wanted to prevent conflict between members of the two groups. Oh, how considerate of the police to look out for our well-being! We wouldn't want any fights or scuffles to break out now, would we? So our group was relegated to the far opposite corner of the intersection, several lanes removed from the traffic, with plenty of blue-uniformed heat in between us and the imminently anticipated stream of vehicles.





Of course, it was really more about shielding the president's gaze from any signs opposing his policies as well as thwarting any hopes that we might have that we might actually get a chance to directly confront the guy with our disagreement and displeasure with the downward course that he has led our nation. But this kind of phony, distracting facade of a story is pretty much what many of us have come to expect from those who seek to rationalize the restrictive measures that this administration has erected as a hedge around its most prominent public figures.

The tension that built over the stretch of 15-20 minutes as we stood waiting for the motorcade to arrive was palpable, though it never felt like things were anywhere close to becoming out of control or risky for anyone involved. Our crowd had few if any rabble-rousers or hell-raisers.



I think most of us are content to rest in the essential rightness and superiority of our own views on the issues and are willing to let our witness speak for itself, and do its work, without having to get vehement or rowdy about it. Sure, there are some who wouldn't mind stirring up some chaos, but that's not really the primary style around here and that suits me fine.



It's actually kind of amusing to see the massive degree of security "overkill," if I can use that word, for such a fleeting occasion. But I guess that's part of being impressively, even awesomely, presidential and "in charge," which a lot of people in our society and elsewhere get a big kick out of.



So eventually, the president arrived and in a matter of seconds, was gone again.







After the procession whizzed by, most of us decided that we'd done what we came to do and chose not to hang around for his getaway. If I had known just how short his speech turned out to be, maybe I would have hung around for Act II and greeted him on the way back out. But instead I joined the rest of the crowd that retraced our path, only on the other side of the road, so we could show our signs to the on-coming traffic as we walked south.





Several paces ahead of me, I observed a couple of young guys talking on their cell phones telling their friends that they had just finished "battling the Democrats," even though I had not taken any note of such confrontations taking place in our crowd. But I bear them no ill will, I'm glad they were able to be a part of the festivities. Eventually I got back to the Calvin campus area where a lot of other protestors had camped out.







I mingled around a bit, exchanged some stories and email addresses with a few folks, and made my way back to the parking lot. Overall, the event energized and inspired me to maintain a positive perspective on the otherwise discouraging prospects for our nation that I foresee as long as we are not able to come up with an effective political alternative to Bushism.



For all his faults, I will give Bush some credit for having done a better job defining himself as a political force for getting things done than what his liberal counterparts have been able to do. Unfortunately, his clarity of purpose doesn't really seem to have the best interests of the general public or humanity at large as a high priority. He's an elitist who is beholden to the interests of the American and international aristocracy, one of the most driven and opportunistic that our nation has seen in the president's office in a long time.



It's important that we continue to point this essential conflict of interest out to as many people as are willing to listen and act on it. I am pleased and proud to say that hundreds of us were willing to sacrifice part of a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in May to deliver the message. Let him who has eyes and ears, perceive!