WP: Demonstrators Mobilize Under a Slew of Causes

[kskiska]

Factions Plan Protests Over Several Days

(snip)

"A lot of us are going to the inauguration out of desperation," said Hardikar, 20, who helped form a campus counter-inaugural committee to coordinate student trips to Washington. "We feel like we have to take desperate measures to feel like we've made a difference."

The Jan. 20th inauguration -- shaping up to be one of the most heavily secured and expensive in history -- also will be the scene of small and large demonstrations. Organizers from dozens of local and national groups are planning marches, rallies and acts of civil disobedience on Inauguration Day and the days before and after.

Activists say the demonstrations will be as large -- if not larger -- than the protests at Bush's first inauguration in January 2001. They vow to create one of the biggest displays of opposition to the administration's foreign and domestic policies since the mass demonstrations at the summer's Republican National Convention in New York.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43134-2005Jan2.html

[purduejake]

1. I'm mobilizing!

I'll be staying in a hostel without family and friends for my birthday and won't regret it. It's just the beginning of my political activities and I am sure it will be an event to remember!

[aikido15]

9. When is your birthday?

Mine is the 19th, and I can't think of a better way to spend it than exercising my right to dissent!

[purduejake]

10. Jan. 6

:)

[Hotler]

32. Jan. 6th here also..

Happy Birthday to you. It's going to be a Blueflu and Not One Red Cent Day for me.

[bluestateguy]

2. Good for them. I wish them well, but I will protest by ignoring the inaug

I will be at home working on my dissertation, and ignoring the whole disgusting affair.

It's just a big party that I (and 60 million others) are not invited to attend.

[purduejake]

4. You are officially invited to join the protests.

But if I had a dissertation to work on, I would probably be staying at home, too.

[aikido15]

8. I'll be there...coming from St. Louis via

Chicago. Have my train ticket from St. Louis to Chicago and catching a chartered bus from there to DC. I AM SO EXCITED! I can't wait to do this. They say to be there early, by 9 am. Right? Is that what you are doing?

[purduejake]

14. I am driving to DC from Indianapolis on the 5th.

and staying through the 7th. I am unemployed now and want to go back on the 20th, but don't know if I will have money for it. I'm hoping I have a job by then, which would also mean I can't go. I think this is more important but the 20th will be more energized. I can't wait!

[aikido15]

21. Bus tickets are still available out of Chicago ...

People have been flooding in this month, they always do at the last minute, so more buses are being chartered. It's $80 round trip. You can contact www.answercoalition.org for the number to Chicago or e-mail me, and I will send it to you if you think you can go.

So you are doing the protest with Jesse Jackson? About voting rights and reform? That is an important one! I have had plans for the inauguration protest for many months now, been planning it for 11 months. It should be HUGE! I hope so!

[bobbieinok]

28. what field? topic?

I wrote my MA thesis in 63 and my dissertation 64-70

having this kind of obligation while the political world is going crazy all around you is very difficult

[chelaque liberal]

33. I can't be there but I will be out wearing my "I voted and all I got

was a lousy president" tee shirt around town.

(Got the shirt for Xmas. It doesn't exactly express how I feel but it has the right flavor.)

[Floydian Slip]

3. crowded

Sounds like a bunch of people with too much time on their hands and wanting to get on TV. Not a very effective strategy really.

[purduejake]

5. Yea, why protest anything?

Protests never changed anything in this country.

</sarcasm>

[kskiska]

6. Yeah. Maybe the Freeps should stay home, too.

According to the article, they're going to be out there in force. Too much time on their hands and just trying to get their faces on TV.

[Floydian Slip]

12. freeps?

What more than a dozen??

[kskiska]

34. On a good day

[aikido15]

11. That's....

a brilliant thing to say. Yeah, that's the only reason we get out there and protest, cause we want to get our faces on TV. I personally would rather be home in my nice warm house wearing my flannels and fuzzy slippers but KNOW that protesting is effective. It ended the Vietnam War, achieved Civil Rights, and much more.

Apathy is the real terrorist threat our country faces, people with an attitude like yours. If you want change, you have to work for it. Exercising your right to dissent is a tried and proven way to achieve change and has been for a long long time.

I hope you realize this and join in the fight. Our freedom depends on it. If not, at least be supportive in some way.

[Floydian Slip]

13. not that

It won't change anything. There are more productive ways to get your message out.

[purduejake]

15. Please give us some examples.

[Floydian Slip]

16. examples?

well, 'all politics is local' so I would suggest working in your own neighborhood, if there are any people around that don't agree with you. The money you spend on bus or airline tickets can make copies of a lot of fliers where you can state the facts. Of course if you go to DC you might be shown for a few seconds on the news, maybe a bit longer on CSPAN

[purduejake]

17. Networking with like minded people is very powerful.

Businesses fly people all over so they can meet face-to-face. It's a very powerful thing. Also, we are trying to send a message to people in DC, so what good will posting flyers do locally if you are discouraging people from sending a strong message to our leaders?

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Son it took people in teh streets en masse

to change things... it will take, to borrow a term from the miltiary, boots on teh ground as well, and massive ammounts.

The lessons of history are clear... you want change, you need to exercise your right to disent.

Yes local politics are very important, but the demonstrations in DC will be that important as well. Oh and by the way, I wish I could be there... with a camera... to take photos.

We are... at the begining of another civil rights movement, massive civil rights movement. Mark my words when I write this, because that is what you are seeing. Heck I have gone to LOCAL demonstrations and taken photos and I am documenting it as we speak... because I know what I am doing is of historic value, the kind of Howard Zinn value.

[aikido15]

22. So am I...

I have articles, photos, and stuff from all the protests I've been to. You are right, it is going to be historical and effective.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Heck the local DFA meeting will even

get an undwerground paper, with an article and photos... reflection actions for the whole month. Maybe it will get some of our people even more excited and ready to protest

[burn the bush]

24. i gotta drive for hours, spend money for 4 night stays, pay sitter

for my mom and brother, (this alone will cost me at least 100.00 per day) miss work without pay(hubby will anyway) and i have a friggin chipped front tooth. So I can definately say, that this is NOT to get myself SEEN.

[fasttense]

30. Wow, you are amazing. I wish I could go.

My thoughts will be with you.

[aikido15]

23. Another reason to protest is....

To let the rest of the world see that there are millions of us who oppose the occupation of Iraq and Bush's neoconservative policies. The thought of the world seeing a sterilized version of the inauguration with nothing but flag waving idiots praising Bush is unconscionable!

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Yep you are right, why bother?

I can hear the ghost of Martin Luther King going, we protested, it started small, and look it changed the country.

But you are right, why bother?

/end of sarcasm:/

[fasttense]

29. Sounds like doing nothing is too much for you too.

[mslux]

7. Might I suggest that those who support the

demonstrations but are unable to be in D.C. on the 20th subsidize someone else?

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Great idea,

but I am truly tapped, truly tapped...

:-)

[Wilms]

25. It's all coming together.

And it's not even the future, yet!:)

[juajen]

26. In case some of you don't know,

There will be a Jazz Funeral to protest the inauguration in New Orleans on the 20th. Check in at the Louisiana forum for info on time, etc. I've forgotten the time, and can't remember the name of the square (think it's Gumbo Square). Ok, already, I'm gettin' old.

[GOPBasher]

31. Man I hope I can make it.