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| The Progressive's Coalition Counter Coronation event began at Cesar Chavez Park, parading past shoppers and downtown commuters on I Street before reaching the Federal Building at the intersection of 5th and I. Less orchestrated than the earlier Counter-Inauguration, this group featured a variety of signs, costumes, banners and puppets. Though the overall theme was anti-Bush, the various groups constituting the coalition expressed their individual focus, such as concern for the war in Iraq, threats to civil rights, reproductive rights, and etc. |
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Why do we do this? Is this the best way to counter the policies of the current President? We can't reverse the election results (though we CAN change future voting practices) but we needed to demonstrate that the Presidential election was NOT a mandate for Bush's policies. And, maybe we needed to show that we still have the patriotic right and ability to oppose government policies, despite various Homeland Security measures. Unlike Bush with his huge personal security force, we can still openly march in the streets for the values we want the U.S. to represent. |
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| Progressive women's groups are mobilizing as concern for reproductive and other rights loom large in a Bush 2nd term. |
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"The most common way for people to give up their power is by thinking that they don't have any!" --- Author and political activist Alice Walker, not present but quoted in an opening speech. The march ended at the Federal Court House, where speakers spoke and last minute signs were created. |
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"People here want peace, justice and respect for human life--That is what Iraqis want also! They want to be left in peace to solve their own problems in the way that they can and know how." This speaker is an Iraqi/American who has lived in the U.S. for forty years, but his family remains in Iraq. After describing the deplorable conditions in Iraq, he admonished: "It is not going to stop until YOU stand up against it and bring our troops back. Iraqis generally are not responsible for what their country used to do, because there was a dictatorship. But WE are responsible for our government here, because we voted for them, we brought them to power. and we are the only ones who can bring them down. Please try to bring them down! Do not keep this kind of power in the White House!" "We want the U.S. to be respected and loved, not feared. We are now only feared, not respected and not loved, definitely." |