Photos from Bush in Cleveland Protest : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

When I arrived this morning on Public Square I was happy to see folks
putting up banners and earth flags already there preparing for Bush's
arrival. He was speaking right across a small street from us at the
Rennaisance Hotel at noon.

We brought a lot of homemade signs that a comrade of ours makes that are
very creative and beautiful. We also brought (again) the coffin with the
names of Iraqi cities on it. (It will be a good day when we don't have to
keep dragging out that damn coffin that represents so many lost lives
already.)

The crowd grew to about 200 or so and I found that many had driven from
all over Ohio to be here.

We had military mothers , progressive religious froces, progressive dems ,
revolutionaries,people of color ,youth, raging grannies, Billionaires for
Bush,drummers,poets,dreamers and others. One military mom had her son who
is on leave as a medic from Iraq with her. It was obvious that he wanted
to stay longer but couldn't because of the long drive they had ahead of
them home. She has become a friend of mine and it was good to see her
reunited with her son.

Many folks joined us who were just getting off of the buses that run thru
downtown on their way home from work. One woman told me she was annoyed
that her bus was re-routed when she saw us and then had decided to join
us.
We were chanting " Bush Step Down!" , "No Torture, No War " and other
chants against the Bush regimes horrible policies.

There were about 3 people that were standing with pro-Bush signs that were
pretty funny. Their signs read " Democracy Is Not For Sissies" , "Freedom
Is Not Free" , and my favorite of all " Grow Up Hippies".

Actually we were having so much fun and the crowd was so spirited that I
must admit I had to take the bullhorn at that one and chant " Yea for the
Hippies! Love, Peace and Flowers! Make Love Not War!", I could not resist
..hey I am a flower child from way back,what can I say?

We had 2 bullhorns that got quite a workout throughout the protest. It was
really great the way folks on the bullhorns kept the momentum going and
how much folks among the crowd joned in themselves with great agitation
and chants in a spontaneous way.

We had drums,tamborines and whistles keeping the crowd fired up and
marched around the square chanting " No War On The World, No Facist
State,Drive Out The Bush Regime."

One man kept riding on the street in front of us with a different sign in
his hand each time ,one I remember had a picture of Bush in the eye of a
hurricaine and it read " Catastrophic Failure" another said
"Iraq=Vietnam".
Another man was riding his bike and flying a peace flag.

Some black youth came up grabbed some signs and started dancing to our
drums all the while joining in the chanting.

Another commuter liked my sign which read " Wake Up And Smell The Facism"
and he said to me "I like your sign , it's the best one because it says it
all". I let him have it and he joined in the chanting with the sign held
high over his head...this was the type of coopertive spirit that permiated
throughout the protest and it was great!

I also connected with many good people. I noticed that there were a lot
of new faces there and other faces that I have not seen for some time.
One person in paticular who stands out in my mind was a very well dressed
man who turned out to be Gulf War veteran. He thanked me for what we were
doing and told us to keep up the good work. and told me to let him know
how he could help us in any way . He then went with me to where the the
pro- Bush folks were standing and challenged a young man with them by
asking him if he ever saw a 22 year old get his legs blown off or if he
had ever been forced to kill anyone.

The conversation got very deep and heated and others ended up getting
drawn into it. It was good and noone was disrespectful of each other while
both sides got to engage. I feel we left this young man (pro-Bush) with a
lot to think about.

The diversity of the crowd , the non stop spirited clammor we made and the
great engagement with folks left me feeling inspired as I left today. All
of this enhusiasm from the crowd gave me a good shot in the arm for the
work that is ahead of us.

As an organizer who has really struggled ( after the debaucle of the last
elections) to get folks to come out for political actions...I was happy to
see so many different types of people standing in solidarity . It was very
encouraging and inspiring to see so many folks in Cleveland once again
taking it to the streets!

PS. This morning, as people were driving to work, Bush Step Down lawn
signs were spotted along major roadways.

Great job Cleveland! We are proud of you! Here in Portland, though not blessed with the pres this time, we still had a good demonstration yesterday. Catch the news here http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/03/336140.shtml

My mate and I did a two person demonstration (spontaneous in the burbs). Each voice matters!

When I found out that Bush was going to be in town selling his LIES, I made sure to be on the next Rapid Train to Tower City! I had never been to an anti-war protest before, so I didn't know what to expect. I felt so welcome! I was the guy holding a copy of the Constitution in my hands with a magnifying glass. I figured this would be my message to Bush; that if our beloved Document of Freedom was too small for him to read, he could borrow the magnifier!!! I had one young lady take a picture of it! Mostly everyone agreed with my symbols.

(To those who were there, I was the guy in the long black coat and kind of spikey hair)

Complements all around on a very well handled small protest. Some key points I noticed:
1. There was friendly media coverage. The reporters there definitely took us seriously, and the local news broadcasts did a decent job with it. Kudos to "mainstream media" folks actually doing their jobs.

2. The message was focused nicely on the war, and protesters stayed pretty disciplined about that (with the exception of one guy holding a bullhorn). Sure, there may be other reasons to protest Bush, but the war is something that around 65% of Americans believe is wrong, and the focused protest was more effective then a general rant against Bush.

3. There was a decent cross-section of people there for 11 AM on a weekday. Men, women, young, old, white, black, veterans, parents of soldiers, lawyers, students, religious groups, etc. That helped give the impression that the protest speaks for a lot of people who weren't there due to their jobs or the cold weather.

4. Good work keeping calm when the police entered the crowd (because of profanity on a sign, not to arrest anyone), and when someone across the street tried to provoke a confrontation. Both of those situations could have turned nasty. And similarly, congratulations all around for paying very little attention to counter- protesters too, because the less attention we pay, the less attention they get.

5. To Jim: Glad you got something out of showing up, I had fun talking to you. The message I hope we can spread from this protest is that Clevelanders can get out and say what needs to be said, and have a good time doing it.