An account of the Impeach Bush March

[Lydia Leftcoast]

We assembled in front of the Federal Court House Building (which I had trouble finding, because I had it in my head that the Federal Reserve Building was the Fed. Court House Buildling. Oh, well!)

Anyway, there was a healthy crowd of perhaps 1500? there, listening to speeches and music, with one contingent standing on the nearest street corner waving signs and soliciting gestures of support. Contrary to the fears of certain people in GD, no one told us not to vote for Democrats, although third party candidates and pols were certainly in evidence, handing out flyers.

Then we set out at 1PM on a route cleared for us by the Minneapolis Police Department, who were extremely cooperative. They rode alongside us on horseback as we marched around the back of the Court Building and over to Hennepin.

As we marched along Hennepin in the bus lanes, we got lots of gestures of support, including honking horns, peace signs, applause, and pumping fists, some from people in cars or on the sidewalk and some from people inside office buildings and skyways or on the balconies of apartment buildings, and very few obvious negative gestures. We did our best to wave back at them.

Just before the Minneapolis Technical College, we turned left and into Loring Park, where there was a stand set up. I had work to do, so that's the point at which I headed home.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day, which added to everyone's high spirits.

[katinmn]

1. 75-80% youth, 20-25% older people. I loved it!

Usually the mix is the other way around.

The kids really put forth a good example today. It was fun, boistorous, and peaceful. My daughter loved it.

When we got to the park and the speeches started (again) one self-identified Democrat made a pitch for voting all Democratic in order to take the majority. I left a little after 2 p.m. Missed all the music which will go till sundown. Had to get some work done today.

I took a ton of pics that I will post later.

Great seeing you, Seg and Bvar. annm4peace who was there, too, although we only talked on the phone.

A truly wonderful march and rally.

[katinmn]

13. Some more pictures

[bvar22]

2. Great Day for a Protest March.

Some Pix:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Thanks for the highlighting!

About five or six years ago, I started wearing red blazers to protests. I have a lightweight one and a heavier one.

[bvar22]

5. You stand out in a crowd.

Minnesota DUers are just more colorful!

[Spike from MN]

10. I think we all know why.

I have you figured out LL. Red blazers...attending marches organized by a bunch of damn Commies...it's all coming together now.

Great pics as always Bvar. Do you do this as a profession or is it just an expensive hobby for you? I only ask because in all the pics you post, you really seem to have a great eye for these things. I know because, uh, I don't. My pics invariably suck. Anyway, thanks for posting them for those of us that weren't able to attend. I would have been damn proud to march with the Commies but I'm absolutely buried at work until about the 22nd so taking a day or even a few hours off wasn't really an option.

Oops. Edited to add:

Kudos to all of those that attended! Thanks for doing that! You had fantastic weather and I'm betting that everyone there had a great time. Sure looks like it from the pics.

[pecwae]

4. Kick, thanks! nt

[KyndCulture]

6. You guys rock!!

Thanks for being there.

[bigbrother05]

7. kick

[texpatriot2004]

8. Thank you so much nm

[dflprincess]

9. Great shots!

And I love what you did with Lydia.


Except that the guys in the picture all have short hair, I thought this one really looked like a flashback to my lost youth.

[stevedeshazer]

11. Thanks, Lydia!

Looks like a great day to me.

[bonito]

12. Oh come on, just 6 rec's

[cui bono]

14. Representing Los Angeles here.....

First of all, I had to park a few blocks from the train station. (Yes in L.A. we really do drive to the metro station, what can I say...) I was getting more positive response than the last few times when walking down the street with my sign. Then I hadn't eaten all day and it was around 2:30 so I stopped in at Quizno's for a sandwich and the woman making it said her boyfriend is in the army and is going to Iraq this year. We talked a bit, she said she tried to talk him out of it, she hates Bush etc... and I wished her family well. So then when I was paying she whispered to the cashier and the cashier looked at me and my sign and gave me a 10% discount. So I asked if that was the protester's discount and she said yeah, I already gave it to you. And I said really? I get a discount? And she said yeah, for speaking the truth. It was pretty cool.

I got there (downtown) when the marching began so I missed the opening rally. I would guess there were about 2000 people. At one point we marched over the freeway, stopped on the overhang and waved our signs, during rush hour and got lots of honking in return. I did see one guy motioning thumbs down while driving.

The police seemed rather chipper as well. They were lined up along the railing to the freeway, keeping people from the edge, and several of them were smiling, happy little smiles. I saw one read a sign and smile. Then later when I was standing and waving my sign to the cars below one cop nodded his head to me, saying "hi", and smiled. About 10 feet away a cop was talking and laughing with a protester. It was really refreshing to see that.

When I left though, while waiting for the metro in Union Station, a couple Sheriffs came up to me and told me I couldn't have my sign out while at the station or on the train. I was tired and didn't ask them why, and now I'm wondering what's wrong with that?


Posting some pics below. They're not very good as I took them with my camera phone and didn't ever position myself to get good pics.









The next two are Ed Asner speaking, reading the Call of World Can't Wait:





Cool sign:



Another:



I thought this was interesting because there's a banner on the lamppost that says
"There's no room for domestic violence in L.A.".



"Preemptive Impeachment":



"Fascism Sucks":

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. You need to cross-post this isn GD

[cui bono]

17. Yeah, I just noticed this was a Minnesota thread...

and was coming to post that I hope you don't mind that I crashed it accidentally.

[katinmn]

18. Thanks for the LA summary!

There are a lot more of us that oppose the Bush Regime than we are being led to believe.

We had fun waving to people high up in office towers. I waved to them to come on down and join us.

[seg4527]

16. a different side of me made it into the pictures this time

the cops were generally better than the ones we have to deal with on campus, probably because the minneapolis police have to deal with real crime and are less likely to get themselves all worked up over nothing.

but what was with them trying to ban bandanas? that was just comical. yeah, i'm going to take my bandana off because i really think i'm going to wind up in jail just for wearing it. *rolls eyes*

my favorite part of the march is when the one cop on a horse tried yelling at us not to walk so close to the sidewalk on 3rd street, and our little section started singing "we all live in a military state" to the tune of yellow submarine.

all in all, it was a pretty kicking protest. a lot more energry than the one on the 23rd. i was amazed at how many young people showed up. i didn't even know it was being advertised to them that well. does anyone know if there was actually people in the schools mobilizing, or was it just word of mouth? either way, i honestly wasn't expecting that many people to actually take off of work or walk out of school, and i am very impressed. this was as big as any protest we have in some park in uptown on a weekend, and hopefully we can do more of this shutting down a pretty decent portion of downtown on an actual weekday more often.