February 2005
Protests Mark Bush
Inauguration
aljazeera
January 20, 2005
Anti-war protesters, including some who carried cardboard
coffins to signify deaths in Iraq, were out in strength
as US President George Bush delivered his inaugural
address.
'Worst President Ever' and 'Four more years: God HELP
America' were on some of the placards that the protesters
carried on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
'It's important to show that when Bush's second
inauguration goes into the record books, there was
healthy dissent,' said Jared Maslin, a demonstrator from
New Hampshire. The chants of the protesters came toward
the end of Bush's speech, and the president continued his
address without interruption or any sign that he heard
them. President Bush chose to ignore the chants of the
protesters. Capitol Hill police detained some protesters
and then released them after Bush finished speaking.
Earlier in the day, about 500 people rallied in a park
several miles from the Capitol. Michael Lauer, a Capitol
Police spokesman, said police had arrested five people
for protesting during Bush's inaugural speech.
An anti-war group called the Rhythm Workers Union banged
on steel drums and danced in mud-caked boots.
More than 300 anti-war protesters, organised by CodePink,
sported beauty pageant style banners with 'resist'
scrawled in black. The coffin-like cardboard boxes that
many protesters carried were draped in black cloth and
the American flag to symbolise US soldiers and others
killed in Iraq.
Worldwide echo
Protests were also staged around the world as Bush took
the oath of office for the second term. In Geneva,
protesters read poetry. In London, they staged a
candlelight march outside the US Embassy. Across Europe,
locals and American expatriates united in their
opposition to Bush marked his inauguration with some
unabashed Bush-bashing - complete with 'Four Moron Years'
buttons. Protesters in Germany held a rally at Berlin's
landmark Brandenburg Gate under the slogan: 'You've Got a
Voice.' 'We elected a president who lied about weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq. That really burns me up,'
lamented Mark Miller, an American who has lived in
Austria for
26 years.
In Prague, supporters of Senator John Kerry held what
they dubbed the 'What Might Have Been Inaugural Party,'
and in Geneva, there was a 'Counter-Inaugural Dinner'
kicked off with a reading of the Langston Hughes poem
'Let America Be America Again.'
In southwestern France, Democrats Abroad screened a film
called 'Bush's Brain.'
'Something has to be done to wake people up. Liberal is a
dirty word right now, and that can't be.'
Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/
A3105FC8-C070-483B-A0FE-371250D947C0.htm
