Protestors show up in numbers at Bush inauguration

Asian Political News, Jan 24, 2005

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 Kyodo

U.S. President George W. Bush's second-term inauguration brought lots of Bush supporters, many in cowboy boots and with Texas accents, to the nation's capital Thursday, but it also brought many people opposed to the president and his policies.

Protestors managed to carve out several blocks along the parade route to voice their opposition to Bush's policies and his Nov. 2 reelection against Democrat Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Will Travers, 25, from Michigan, stood up during Bush's inaugural address on the west front of the U.S. Congress, less than 100 meters from the president, turned his back and held his left hand out in a peace sign. The crowd, almost all Bush supporters, met his quiet protest with cheers of support for the president.

''I think there are better things to do with $40 million,'' Travers said afterward, referring to the cost of the inaugural events, largely paid for with private funds.

Travers was joined by two others, and louder protestors throughout the audience also tried to disrupt the president's speech. One loudly booed until he was led away by police.

While many of the crowd jeered Travers after the inaugural ceremonies finished, one Marine in a dress blue uniform would not answer a question while the national anthem was playing.

''A lot of people have died for that,'' U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Corey Webb of Birmingham, Alabama, said quietly, nudging the reporter with the cane he now uses after losing his leg in Fallujah, Iraq.

But Webb did not mind the protestors, saying, ''They could burn a flag for all I care.''

''You go to fight for freedom,'' he said, ''everybody's freedom.''

Following the swearing-in ceremony, protestors gathered along the parade route in much greater numbers, where some chanted, ''George Bush you can't hide, we charge you with genocide,'' and ''Money for jobs and occupations, not for war and occupation.''

ANSWER, short for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, which organized protestors from around the country, estimated that 10,000 protestors lined the streets near the start of the parade route.

The police were taking no chances, and placed a double line of officers near a section of the parade route where protestors had reserved bleachers.

Washington was under the tightest-ever security, with some 13,000 military personnel and police officers deployed for the first presidential election since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Michael Bedoian, 54, of Seattle, Washington, wearing a T-shirt featuring a picture of Bush and the words ''international terrorist,'' was quickly led away from the parade route by eight police officers in riot gear when he climbed on top of a wooden sign frame. After a quick search he was allowed back. The police had searched him for standing in an ''elevated position with a bag,'' he said.

But from bystanders more excited to catch a glimpse of Bush, the mood was combative but tolerant.

Some yelled at protestors carrying a coffin draped with an American flag and at students chanting anti-Bush slogans, but most acknowledged America is built on traditions of free expression.

Bush supporter Tom Thompson came to the inauguration from Cornell, New York, with his 8-year-old son after winning tickets in an office lottery.

''They kind of want you to rip those signs out of their hands,'' Thompson said.

It would be nice if the protestors just ''gave us the one day,'' he said. But ''these are people of just a different opinion.''

Although his son did not understand why the protestors did not like Bush, Thompson saw at it as a good way to teach his son about the differences of opinion that make up this country, he said.