http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-demos19jan19001523.story Los Angeles Times
January 19, 2003
ORANGE COUNTY
A Call for Peace on Nixon's Doorstep
By Claire Luna, Times Staff Writer
Nearly 800 demonstrators chanting "impeach Bush"
paraded past the Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba
Linda on Saturday in one of dozens of rallies held
throughout the world to protest preparations for a war
against Iraq. The designated National Day of Action
drew college students, religious groups, retirees and
a band of families toting a green felt banner reading,
"Homeschoolers for Peace."
The protesters rallied at Hurless Barton Park, where
the playground teemed with toddlers. Speakers accused
the media of obscuring information and assailed
President Bush for his "imperialistic desires,"
rousing cheers from the crowd.
Caroline Davies, a Santa Ana high school pottery
teacher who had planned to escort a group of students
to Saturday's San Francisco rally, decided
representing her views in Southern California would be
just as meaningful. Her dog, Powder, barked in time
with the protesters.
"Not everybody can go to San Francisco, but people in
Orange County still feel passionately about an illegal
preemptive strike," said Davies, 31, of Huntington
Beach.
Louise Williams, 73, of Fountain Valley left before
the march started, bothered by the stridency of the
protesters' rhetoric and their angry calls for the
impeachment of President Bush.
"We need to be focusing on love and peace and harmony
instead of telling people to go to hell," she said.
"This is not by any means a peace rally."
As the protesters snaked down Imperial Highway to
Yorba Linda Boulevard, some chanted antiwar slogans
while others thumped buckets and bongo drums and
tooted rusty trumpets.
Long Beach schoolteacher Don Grose, who marched with
his mother and two daughters, said the number of
families at the rally surprised him.
"During Vietnam, protesters weren't taken seriously
because they were mostly radicals. If you look around
this group, it's obviously not just the fringe
elements who feel this way," said Grose, 41, watching
his 5-year-old twirl in red glitter shoes as she
grasped a sign reading "Georgie Bush, grow up."
Ending the march at the Nixon library emphasized the
similarities between Bush and the former president,
said Debbie LeAnce, 28, a member of UC Riverside's
Resistance, an antiwar group.
"Nixon was a huge war criminal, and Bush is his
brother in crime," LeAnce said. Her blond hair wrapped
in a bohemian scarf, she led the crowd in cheers and
admired their energy.
"When this many people come out in so-called
conservative Orange County, you know there's millions
more out there who feel the same way," she said.