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Campaign Journal Hundreds of thousands of antiwar protesters, abortion rights supporters, gay protestors, labor rights activists and anarchists (that is to say, rock stars and actors) are preparing to unfurl banners, march through the streets and rally in the parks, loosening a cacophonous roar of protest during the Republican National Convention. It is anticipated that thousands upon thousands of “dissident artistic types” may march up Seventh Avenue by Madison Square Garden on the Sunday before the convention to protest everything that the Bush Man stands for. “Except for his shoes,” said rocker Bruce Springsteen, “we don’t have any problems with his choice of shoes.” Added to all this will be the Paul Revere dancers/impersonators who plan nightly horseback rides down Lexington Avenue in midtown (their warning cry: "The Republicans are coming! The Republicans are coming?! And it’s really icky!"). Or the bell ringers who plan to encircle Ground Zero and ring 2,749 bells in memory of the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, and in opposition to the Iraq war. Not to mention the local Republican village idiot who will be put in a stockade and pelted with tomatoes at the top of every hour. New York (aka: The Sodom to California’s Gomorrah) has a proudly oppositional DNA -- Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1 -- so protests come as no surprise. But at a time of terrorism alerts and deep liberal unhappiness with President Bush, the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 convention will test the government's ability to secure the safety of delegates while allowing hundreds of thousands of unwashed, rabble-rousing American artists to raise a constitutionally protected voice of dissent. “Dissent is a cornerstone of a democratic society," said Norman Siegel, former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "It's how we measure whether we're an open society, and these whacked-out freaks love to take full advantage of it.” Tension is already evident. Marches will proceed under the eyes of a massive police, FBI and Secret Service presence, as upwards of 10,000 local officers will patrol the barricaded streets and are already giddy at the prospect of bashing in some heads. Organizers of marches large and small complain of uncommon difficulty in obtaining permits from the city. The largest of the planned antiwar marches still has no terminus. Organizers with United for Peace and Justice, representing more than 100 antiwar, religious and social justice groups, sought to march through midtown to a rally in Central Park on Aug. 29, the Sunday before the convention. Parks Department officials rejected this. "You'll ruin the lawn," aesthete and Republican Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said, displaying both his feelings about freedom of speech and his really weird sensitivity toward the poor trod upon blades of grass.Aug 16 / 2004 |
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