BUSH IN L.A.



Driving into the fray of downtown rush hour traffic late after leaving my day job, I first came upon activists on a street corner a block or so away from the Shrine. There they were, aiming signs at the traffic that made their dissatisfaction with the policies of the current administration clear. The first sign I saw said, “Drop Bush not Bombs,” and I knew I was in the right place.

Wednesday, March 3, 2004. The Internet is burning with news of the Haitian Coup while the New York and L.A. Times scream the lie that there was no coup in the face of a world that knows the truth, the Venezuelan government has just accused the U.S. Government of spending unmentionable amounts of money to overthrow it’s Democratically elected government, Afghanistan is a shambles, Iraq is in utter chaos, people are suffering and living in misery all over the world to support the excesses of the United States, and Bush is in L.A. campaigning for a presidency slash emperorship he feels entitled to.

I am in awe of the blatant denial. Is it conscious? Does this guy know what he’s doing? Is there any awareness at all? It’s hard to believe anybody can be so clueless. Does he really think, in true ostrich tradition, that if he acts like it’s not happening nobody else will really notice? Does he think he can pull it off?

The several hundred people I see standing on the sidewalk chanting and wielding signs protesting the current policies don’t think so. And neither do the people driving by honking their support. I have to smile as I realize that people are getting it; people are catching on, and I feel hopeful. I love the spirit here. Yeah, there’s a battle to be fought; and people know it, having come here after hard workdays to stand in the street. But the spirit is high and festive. People are smiling and even the beat cops keeping an eye on things seem to have more a spirit of cooperation than of aggression towards the crowd, smiling and helping me out with parking advice.

This perception of the friendly neighborhood beat cop wasn’t to last long however; changing abruptly when the crowd marched around the block, supposedly to intercept the Pres’s motorcade and was met with a gaggle of soldier/coplets, complete in militia style riot gear with real scary looking weapons at the ready. There they were, standing in an intimidating geometric pattern in the middle of the street looking fierce and full of testosterone. You have to wonder what they’re thinking; standing there looking more like action figures than humans.

The activists, used by now to these displays were not in the least daunted and maintained their upbeat spirits; flashing peace signs at the automatons. Who knows; maybe one or two of them will get it. One can only hope.

If there were any limocades I didn’t see them; the pres probably left from a different exit. So the crowd marched back to the original space after listening to a few announcements from the organizers. Spirits were good and there was a sense of making a mark.

The next major worldwide demo will be on March 20; check with ANSWER and the Indymedia calendar at this site for more info about that and other ongoing vigils and demos.