The Protesters are Coming!

[Dancing_Dave]

"It seemed like the perfect location for next week's Republican convention. But with widespread anti-war feeling, hordes of protesters descending on the city and alleged FBI intimidation fuelling the fear of violence, New York is preparing a noisy reception for President Bush. Gary Younge reports

Wednesday August 25, 2004
The Guardian
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A group of activists plan to ride down Lexington Avenue on bicycles shouting, "The Republicans are coming! The Republicans are coming!", mimicking the 18th-century Massachusetts craftsman Paul Revere who rode a horse through that state warning locals that the British were coming during the American War of Independence. A group of bell ringers, meanwhile, are planning to surround the site of Ground Zero ringing 2,749 bells to commemorate the victims of September 11 and oppose the war.

"Visitors to the city at the end of August may see illegal murals with political messages and the city itself may become a giant art installation," warns Liza Featherstone in the leftwing Nation magazine. "Don't be surprised if you're crossing the street and a traffic light flashes 'Beat Bush' instead of 'Don't walk'. "
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Reverend Earl Kooperkamp of St Mary's Episcopal Church in Harlem will be hosting between 30 and 50 protesters on the wooden pews of his church, and has persuaded more than 30 other religious institutions to do the same, offering housing to almost 500 people. "As long as they're standing firm against war, working for peace, that's what the church is supposed to be about," he told the New York Times. "We pray every day to a guy called the Prince of Peace."
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Rest at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1290335,00.html

I have a feeling this will be a kind of epoch-defining cultural event, like Woodstock.

[skooooo]

1. woo hooo..

...I'm going to be there to see it!

[Occulus]

2. um

"Don't be surprised if you're crossing the street and a traffic light flashes 'Beat Bush' instead of 'Don't walk'. "

Wow. That's about all I can say about that statement.

Just wow.

(How could that possibly occur?)

[politicat]

6. one way would be to use a blackout gel carefully cut and a light scatter-

ing gel taped to the back of it and both of them taped into the sign. It would let the light from the Don't walk through, but scatter it, and the beat bush would shine out of the blackout gel.

We did stuff like this in the theater when I was in school.

Course, my favorite substance these days is glass etching solution and a plastic stencil....

Pcat

[NMDemDist2]

3. interesting we are reading this in an English paper

I guess the local papers are afraid to "encourage" the protestors LOL

[Danger Duck]

4. It's going to get ugly.

Hope all of those protesting remain safe and unharmed. Good luck!!!

[goforit]

5. Woodstock , yes, but better yet.....It's like throwing the OIL overboard!!

Nothing better than the spirit of 1776!!!!

[Tamyrlin79]

7. My favorite line:

"You do get a sense that the spiritual revolution may be awakening," replied his son, John Mailer, who believes that the protests could provide a focus for a huge anti-corporate movement. "All right," replied Norman. "But if we lose the election, it's going to be a very expensive spiritual education."

I can only hope that this is true, that we are witnessing the awakening of a spiritual revolution. Not "a" spiritual revolution. THE spiritual revolution. Clearly something that has been anticipated, dreamed of, talked of. It is sad when some of the wisest among us are painted as violent extremists.

Are there gonna be any webcams showing the protests, or anyone posting clips? I know I don't trust the regular media to show the truth about them, if they show them at all.

[Dancing_Dave]

10. Two great sites for protest pictures, testimony, etc

http://nyc.indymedia.org/ (NYC IMC)
http://www.hm.indymedia.org/ (Hudson Mohawk IMC)

Hudson-Mohawk may a bit more radical and free-thinking, NYC will probably have a bit more up-to-the minute info, live soundstreams from the streets, etc. Both should be first rate.

[Sugarbleus]

8. New Yorkers have all the fun!!!

Left Coast here. Good Work and Good Luck all RNC protesters!!

:kick:

[Quetzal]

9. I just decided last week that I was going to protest

I leave Hawaii this Saturday and arrive on Sunday.

[dArKeR]

11. I'd give anything if I could be on the other side of the rock!

[arikara]

12. I hope they put banners all over the rooftops

especially in the flight paths so the repukes can't miss the message.

[proud patriot]

13. Wheeeeeeeee ! !

:D