Info. on Bush protesters in Shreveport today

[finecraft]

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050311/NEWS/50311006

The article has info on both protesters and supporters, but here's some of the stuff on the protesters.

(misc. snips) "Bruce Allen and friends put photos of dead soldiers on a hillside along Kings Highway near Centenary College in protest of the war in Iraq."

"Rodney Grunes, a Centenary political science professor who led a small group of protesters to the viewing area, voiced his concern on the premise of the town hall forum. “To call this a town meeting is an outrage. You can’t even ask questions from the floor like you can at a typical town hall meeting,” he said."

"Stuart Dyson, a Bossier Parish Community College student who led about 15 protesters from Columbia Park to the Centenary campus, was holding a sign that read “Bush #1 terrorist threat.”

“I don’t like a single thing he’s doing” Dyson said. “He is threatening our American way of life, and he’s trying to finish his father’s war against people who pose no threat to us -- the Iraqis, the rich, the poor, the old and the young.”"

YEAH SHREVEPORT PROTESTERS!!!!!!

[funkybutt]

1. Awesome! I was just wondering about that.

Way to go Shreveport!

On edit: shame that all the separate groups didn't unite at one location. Power in numbers.

[AnnInLa]

2. Wow.....Jane, are you out there?

Can you send a full report?

Do you think ANY of the protests ANYWHERE are getting thru to monkey-king? Or, do they keep him in that bubble, and he never knows, just goes blithely along, not knowing that half the country absolutely HATES him and all he stands for?

[cdb]

3. Nope. he is the bubble boy.

He is totally sheilded from any protests. He has a vague idea that some might oppose him, but I am sure he believes it is a tiny fringe.

[finecraft]

4. My son was with Dr. Grunes today

and a lot of other Centenary professors. (He graduated from Centenary last Spring). The Bruce Allen mentioned in the article is the head of the Centenary Art Department. They also didn't mention in the article that Rodney Grunes is the head of the ACLU in Shreveport. The academic heads of every major department at Centenary, (History, English, Art, Math and Science) were all out protesting Bush today along King's Highway. GO CENTENARY PROFESSORS!!!

[AnnInLa]

6. All of the academic department heads?

I just find that amazing! I was raised (reared) in Shreveport and remember Centenary as being a bastion of conservatism. Those wacky methodists!

I think these local protests will only grow in number and size...like during the Vietnam years. Sooner or later, they will have to have an effect.

[finecraft]

7. Those wacky methodists indeed!

Yep....every major department head. (except business, but I guess that's to be expected) It's really rather ironic...the College administration is very, very conservative, but the Profs are totally left-coasters. My son said that McCrery was absolutely fuming before the Boy King got there because the faculty was being very visible with their protests. Serves him right.....he ruined my son's graduation (he was the keynote speaker) with hideous jokes about Hillary and Ted Kennedy. I'll never forgive the bast*&$@.

[AnnInLa]

9. Your son

"Serves him right.....he ruined my son's graduation (he was the keynote speaker) with hideous jokes about Hillary and Ted Kennedy. I'll never forgive the bast*&$@."

I SINCERELY hope your son felt a little bit of satisfaction today. Revenge is vastly underrated.

I never know what to do in those situations. At a recent funeral, the fundie preacher was making jokes about libruls as he worked the crowd at the reception. I couldn't say anything, so just glared at him...he noticed. Well, they are a joke to me, so I guess we are a joke to them. The division in this country is huge.

[JaneDoughnut]

10. Hey all, just now checking out the board.

Because we didn't know until the last minute exactly where or when Bush would be speaking, everything was subject to change until Friday morning. There were two separate events, one at LSU-S (that is described in Ann's post) and one at Columbia Park.

A small group of us, protesting on several different issues, met at Columbia Park and then held a sort of mini-march down Kings Highway from the park to the free speech zone in front of the college. We could not see President Bush's entourage from the free speech zone, and he certainly wasn't paying any attention to us. We did get some favorable press coverage, though.

Got a little miffed at the cops Friday afternoon. We were not even allowed to cross the street and buy food if you had anything mildly rebellious displayed on your clothing or signs. Free speech zones suck. But it may have actually worked in our favor to have one, since we were so disorganized - everyone knew where to meet, and it helped pad our numbers a little. Other than that, everything was peaceful and the sun was shining.

Oh, and Mary Landrieu has finally made it clear that she opposes privatization of Social Security. Though Bush seems to think he can still ram this through, public opinion is clearly turning against his plans.

[patrice]

5. God Bless the Protestors! n/t

[AnnInLa]

8. Press Conference

From an email I just received:

At 12:00 pm Central time the Campaign for Americas Future and the
LSUS Democrats hosted a press conference on the Campus of Louisiana
State University (Shreveport).In attendace were students from the
campus, the Caddo Parish Executive Committee and the North West
Louisiana Democratic Coordinating Committee. There were four
speakers, Dana McCraken a young lady from the local Social Security
Office for 38 years who spoke of the costs to Louisiana Citizens of
this "privatization scheme". Bob Brown from the UAW on the cost to
union members, Kirk Green, President of LSUS Democrats on the costs
to young people and Jake Fisher, an 80 year old retired Captain from
the United States Navy and Chaplain of Louisiana State Medical Center
who stole the show with the following statement. "George Bush thinks he
is Robin Hood, who stole from the rich to give to the poor. George
steals from the poor and gives to the rich". All the protest signs and
all the marching does not equal this profound statement. As I, and
the rest of the crowd clapped, I saw the TV crews smile and nod in
agreement. The message had been conveyed.

Larry DeFratis