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Not on Board with the Bush Social Security Plan?
"There ought to be limits to freedom"
-- George W. Bush
A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by s d mayer
What follows is a first-hand account from a protester who attended,
and was evicted from, one of Bush's early barnstorming events to push
his anti-Social Security proposals. We're curious to see whether any
dissent is reported during the 60-day blitz that Bush is now embarked
upon to push his plan. If the careful choreography of the recent
European tour is any indicator (they skipped events where critical viewpoints
couldn't be screened out), American dissenters will be neither seen
nor heard from this time around. But that certainly doesn't mean they
aren't out there.
* * *
On Feb. 16, 2005, at the Bush event in Portsmouth, NH, a friend and I
tested freedom of speech in America, and found it defunct.
The taxpayer-funded event, touted as open to the public in the NH press,
was, as usual, just for Bush supporters. After two days of relentless,
extraordinary efforts, my friend got tickets only by implying she was
a Republican. (Once inside, we discovered maybe 750 attending, and whole
sections empty; why had they told us there were no tickets left?)
We passed through security wearing TurnYourBackOnBush T-shirts under
our sweaters, and sat in the back, near the media.
When Mr. Bush walked in, we moved to the (mainly empty) section directly
in front of the banks of cameras, sat down, and took off our sweaters.
We made sure we kept leaning forward to let the press get a good look
at the image of turning feet and text on our backs.
Immediately, event staffers tried to block us by sitting behind us,
but with our whole row empty, we just kept moving, and they kept following.
They clearly wanted to throw us out, but of course the cameras would
have caught everything, and Mr. Bush was speaking--it would have disrupted
the event and been very embarrassing for them.
We saw an audience exercising freedom of speech through enthusiastic
applause (confirming it was another Republican-only event).
When Mr. Bush was done, we stood in our row facing each other, expressing
our message silently, through our shirts, to the departing Bush supporters.
Even though we found Mr. Bush's social security message repugnant and
dishonest, we tolerated it in silence. Ours was a peaceful, silent,
respectful protest. We decided to bring our dissenting message directly
to Mr. Bush. After all, everyone else had been allowed to present their
message of support--by clapping, by shaking his hand afterwards--so
why couldn't we go and silently stand there with our backs turned, presenting
our message of dissent?
Leaving the safety of the media area with its banks of cameras and very
interested reporters, and approached the Bush exit area (about 60 feet
away from the cameras), and were suddenly grabbed and physically
thrown out of the event.
Two huge men with no uniform or identification, behaving like thugs--began
bullying us. (We are both small middle-aged women.) Mine said,
"Time to leave," menacingly. When I asked why, he snarled, "Don't make
a scene." I said, "Get your hands off me! Don't you dare touch me!"
and he recoiled, then looming, crowded me forward. I said, "Do you believe
in the Bill of Rights?" No answer. "I was hoping the police would defend
our rights and uphold the law." No answer. All this time this huge bearish
man forced me onward and out the door.
The same thing was happening to my friend. When she was grabbed by the
arm, and told she was leaving NOW--the man kept saying, "You're out
of here!"--she asked who he was, but he refused to answer. She said,
"You're frightening me! Who are you?" Only then did he identify himself.
Those who witnessed our eviction didn't lift a finger to prevent it--to
their shame--and in fact turned away and pretended it wasn't happening.
Mr. Bush is responsible for forcing Americans out of a taxpayer-funded
event and trampling freedom of speech, because he finds dissent--even
silent dissent--far too threatening. Inaugural rhapsodies to freedom
notwithstanding, Mr. Bush still observes this principle: "There
ought to be limits to freedom." (AP, 5/21/1999)
While Mr. Bush doesn't understand that freedom entails dissent, other
Republicans, like Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, have understood.
In the context of McCarthyism, she once observed that those who "shout
the loudest about Americanism are all too frequently those who . . .
ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism--the right to criticize,
the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest, the right
of independent thought."
Whatever our party affiliation, we must resist Mr. Bush's subversion
of our rights. we surrender those rights at our peril.
A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
Pictures of the T-shirts on this page:
http://www.turnyourbackonbush.org/photos.html
Bush:
Invest in future - Manage your own money, president says (seacoastonline)
(scroll down to 2nd photo)
Protesters
blast Social Security overhaul (seacoastonline)
http://www.turnyourbackonbush.org/index.html
President Discusses Strengthening Social Security in New Hampshire (whitehouse.gov)
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