Just when I'm getting tired and a little grumpy, and less optimistic than is my custom, this email arrived from a friend in the Sunshine State.
Brothers and sisters, it's happenin' all over:
St. Petersburg turns out to "Fire the Liar"
October 22, 2004 - ST. PETERSBURG
With less than 24 hours notice, approximately seventy-five protesters gathered on the corners of a well-to-do St. Petersburg neighborhood to send George Bush a clear message - well actually, we sent him several clear messages, including one transmitted by an older activist with a very eloquent middle finger.
But wait! There's more: And a silly-ass poll.
For those of us who have been doing this for quite some time, the scene that greeted us when we arrived at the protest site was downright inspirational. On one corner stood Code Pink, the Sierra Club, and several members of St. Pete for Peace carrying extremely large banners, (including one with the aforementioned "Fire the Liar" slogan. On a clear day, you could have spotted it from Nebraska!) They were standing in solidarity with a group of military families, including one mother who had lost her son
in Iraq.
On the opposite corner was a large and very vocal group of students from Eckerd College, many carrying signs warning against the coming draft, chanting and beating on a set of drums. By the time the Idiot Usurper arrived, protesters had taken a third corner as well, largely blocking the handful of Bush supporters that showed-up. One Bush supporter attempted to rally the troops by shouting, "Four more years!" but it just wasn't a happening thing. As soon as the words left his lips,
he was handily drowned out by shouts of "No more years!" The other Bush supporters did not look very rallied.
As with the Tampa protest back in August, the Bush motorcade drove right by us. Chants bounced back and forth across the street - I believe we were doing "Bush lied, people died"
as the Idiot Usurper drove past, although it could have been "Fire the Liar!"
Due to the size of the palatial homes surrounding us, the acoustics could not have been better. In fact the chants could be plainly heard several blocks away bouncing off the pristine walkways and fortress-like walls of the St. Petersburg version of that now infamous upper one percent.
Despite heavy police presence, the protest culminated in a march across Snell Island bridge with the Eckerd students on one side and the remaining protest coalition on the other.
A passing trucker gave us the "thumbs up" and leaned on his horn until the police warned him to stop.
Now I can't speak for the rest of Florida, but if Bush takes St. Petersburg, you can bet it is a result of some of that old Diebold magic.
Never have I seen this city so completely unified in its political sentiment. On the way to the protest, I noticed several blocks of the downtown area sporting brand new anti-Bush graffiti (this is especially astounding since unlike New York, St. Petersburg is not exactly noted for its urban political artwork),
and an informal survey of bumper stickers reveals the amazing variety of issues about which people are pissed off at the Bush administration. Lest you think it is just the usual VW driving suspects,
on the way to the protest we spotted an old, beat up work van sporting a bumper sticker that proclaimed, "Four years was good enough for his daddy."
As we left the protest, I said to my husband, "Remember three years ago when you could barely get a dozen people to one of these things, even with a week's notice?" Back then, it was just a few of us old-timers standing on a corner while everyone told us we should "move on." The media never showed up,
and when they did, it was to describe us as "a handful of disgruntled protesters." I distinctly remember the NY Times article describing the thousands who protested on Inaugural Day
as just that.
Well we didn't move on - we're still standing, and now there are a whole lot more standing with us.
The corporate media sends TV trucks and nicely-coifed people with microphones, and sometimes- not always, but sometimes - they even get the protest head-count right.
America may have been asleep in 2000, George, but we are wide awake now and by the looks of it,
a whole lot of us just got up the wrong side of the bed.
Reporting from occupied Florida...
Carol S.