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- Drive more than an hour from small town in north central Massachusetts to Willamantic Connecticut.
- Spend a total of sixteen overnight sleepless, restless, uncomfortable hours on a full bus travelling to and from DC to protest inauguration.
- Walk one hour in cold weather, about 20 blocks, to C Street check-in tent, an entry point into the inauguration and parade route. Also, after the protest, walk the same 20 blocks back in yet colder weather to catch the bus home.
- Stand in interminably long, slow line for two and a half hours, verbally jousting with pro-Bushies and chanting in unison with some of thousands of anti-Bush protesters.
- Get frisked by military garbed guy, who asked, "Carrying any firearms today, sir?" and pass through.
- Walk a few more blocks to area around where Pennsylvania Avenue meets Constitution, within earshot of ANSWER bleachers, stake out space at guard rail near an ABC camera boom, and stare, face-to-face, an endless line of police officers standing at attention.
- Hear some rounds of cannon shots followed by the unmistakable sounds of "Hail to the Chief," indicating the awful deed was done, the oath of office taken ("I swear to faithfully uphold the Constitution of the United States of America..." says the most lawless and criminal president in history.), my heart heavy with deepest sadness and anger, and out of my mouth involuntarily, "Shame."
- See the Capital in the distance, covered top to bottom and all across with VIPS, politicians, sycophants, fur coats, cowboy hats and boots, the ruling elite, with the giant sized visage of George W. Bush on an outsized television screen on the outskirts of the crowd, his lips moving with that arrogant turn of head, but not a word heard.
- Stand alongside mainly like-minded souls for about three hours in the cold (the Bush parade was delayed for more than an hour past the 2PM scheduled start so he, Cheney, Hastert, the Clintons, Frist, Condi and the rest of the ruling class lunched at an exquisite trough, no doubt yukking it up and congratulating themselves for pulling off another coup) and holding overhead my sign which said on one side, "Bush/Cheney: Fascism American Style," and on the other, "LOOK! The Emperor Has No Clothes!"
- Pass the time by yelling across Penn Avenue to some cowboy hats holding signs that state, "You Lost. Get Over It." And just yelling at every car.
- FINALLY, in the distance a phalanx of helmeted motorcycle cops with thousands of police lights flashing begins to crawl down the Hill towards Pennsylvania Ave., followed by the limos and all sorts and manner of vehicles. Already hoarse, we none of us cared, and shouted and booed beyond capacity, even before a vehicle neared.
- Dick Cheney's limo comes by, he waves languidly while looking out the window with that sneering smile of his and looks right at me and I look right back at him and give him the finger? PRICELESS.
It was all over SO quickly, in the span of 5 minutes or so, but man oh man, was all that time, effort, pain, ever so worth it! I also got to flip the finger at Tom Delay, holler "Racist" to Trent Lott who actually had his window down half way, and prior to the parade, stick my tongue out at Bill Clinton, who was racing by in his vehicle, and whom we thought must be a Republican creep at first - but I still felt afterwards pretty good about my childish "tthhwwwpp" at him anyway - he certainly deserves a good measure of our derision as well. He simply smiled with bemused detachment at us. Of course, the biggest disappointment was not seeing Bush and Laura and having the satisfaction of his looking at us to see our utter disdain for him and his fascist clique, but we did see his limo with darkened windows surrounded by a mob of other vehicles acting as a shield it seemed, so we had to comfort ourselves by guessing he saw all the signs holding him in contempt, and heard our boos and assorted slanders.
God, I hate them for making me hate...
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