Thousands Protest as Bush is Sworn In

by: kate j

Worldwide: Not since Richard Nixon paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1973 has a presidential Inauguration drawn so much protest, and this time it is once again about war and peace. Demonstrators turned out in the tens of thousands on Saturday to protest the Inauguration of George W. Bush, whose election was contested all the way to the Supreme Court. Police would not estimate the size of the crowd, but many thousands of protesters were present. To keep an eye on proceedings were more than 13,000 police and military personnel.Two rows of police lined the street in front of the main protest site and Officers stationed atop buildings along the route kept close watch on the crowd.

Protesters were distributed widely along the parade route -- the police effectively isolated protesters and the general public in small clusters along Pennsylvania Avenue, drastically reducing the threat of riots or violence, even though pictures have emerged of demonstrators weeping from large blasts of pepper spray after they threw objects over the fence, as the President Bush inaugural parade passed by on Pennsylvania Avenue. This tight structuring of the crowd meant that there was a steady stream of heckling of Bush and Cheney's procession as they moved toward the White House. To signify the loss of US soldiers more than 1000 coffins were carried by protesters of the AntiWar Network along the parade route, accompanied by an imaginative collection of placards and banners, both in the stands and on the street. Gems such as "Buck Fush", "Selected not elected","Golly Jeb, we pulled it off!" and a personal favourite, "George Wanker Bush". The Bush's inaugural speech was interupted several times, by individuals and the roar of the barely contained ruckus going on outside. His speech focused on the 'power of freedom', stressing that the best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world. On that, not many people will disagree. The differences are what he understands as 'freedom' and how the benefits of democracy should be spread in the world - or indeed whether it is any country's business to export democracy to others. It is possible to have the freer world that Bush spoke of, but the idea that those who are strong and have a larger arsenal have an unchallenged right to impose their will on the weak, undermines democracy.

For a run down of the White House festivites and it's cost visit the following link:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012105Y.shtml

Source: Salon