Pictured In NYC, during the GOP. Demo photos by C. Lichtenstein and B. Michael
Among the hundreds of thousands of protesters who marched Aug. 29 in New York City were thousands of students and young professionals who represent a youthful opposition to the policies and the reelection of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Despite different political motivations and personal backgrounds, young people were congruous in their peaceful dissenting patriotism and in their goal of defeating Bush.
'We traveled 3,000 miles to say no to the Bush agenda,' Donna Dear said from behind her Jackie-O sunglasses. Dear, 21, flew to New York City from Portland, Ore., to protest, and like many of the young marchers around her, she had more than one reason to oppose the President.
'The assault on women's choice, the attempt to write discrimination into the constitution, an illegal war, pushing for free trade policies that are destroying the Third World—pick one. They're doing everything wrong,' she said referring to the Bush administration. Dear marched hand-in-hand with friends from Team Cascadia, an environmental group from the Pacific Northwest. They paid for the plane tickets themselves and stayed free of charge in a Bronx church. For Dear, a young veteran of grassroots politics, seeing all the young people on the streets gave her hope.
But as for the members of her generation who were in town to support the president at the convention, Dear said, 'they are cutting off their nose despite their face and they're shooting themselves in the foot all at the same time.'
Matthew Shultz, 29, agreed. He lives in Brooklyn and works at a 'stupid office job.' Waiting to march to Madison Square Garden he stood holding a sign with an image of his own hand, middle finger extended, and the words 'and the pachyderms you rode in on.' He had his own message for the young Republicans in town. 'It seems like if you're ever going to attach yourself to some reactionary ideology, it should be when you are old and inflexible, not when you're young and still finding things out,' he said.
Shultz supports the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry and called the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), which the president endorsed, ludicrous. 'A putative virtue of the party has been their adherence to a minimalist and literal interpretation of the Constitution and the fact that … he would flirt with changing our government's most sacred document is just really disgusting,' he said. 'People don't care about this until they put it on the agenda and they only put it on the agenda to galvanize bigots.'
Jason Congrucci, a 27-year-old marketing manager at an architectural firm in New York City, also opposed the president's endorsement of the FMA. 'Who is George Bush to judge me and my personal relationship with my boyfriend or with anyone,' he asked as he approached 30th Street with his boyfriend and his sister. 'We should keep the church and state separated and I don't think that [the president's] personal beliefs or the beliefs of the radical right of the country should have any sort of bearing on who I love and how I express that.'
Young people of the LGBT community were well represented in the march. Anthony Lowe, a recent college graduate from Denver, called the proposed FMA an 'atrocity.' Lowe, who is 22 and bisexual, thought young conservatives tended to be more close-minded than young liberals. 'Read as much as you can,' he said he would tell them. 'Read independent media and try and absorb as much as you can, not just mass media and then make your own decision. I think if you do that, the choice is clear.'
LGBT protesters weren't the only ones with personal reasons to oppose Bush. Magan Kingerly, a 23-year-old bartender from New York City, protested Bush's economic policy. 'I am going to the unemployment line on Wednesday morning because trying to get a job in the economy right now is close to impossible,' she said.
Some young activists brought energy and fresh tactics to the protest, which is after all an artful way to be political. Some people carried mock coffins draped in stars and stripes to represent Americans who died in Iraq. Others dressed up like mice in a clever attempt to scare an elephant or two. At 15th Street, the young contingency had the entire block chanting 'Move Bush, get out the way,' to the tune of the hip-hop artist, Ludacris' hit single which replaces 'Bush' another b-word.
Some of the youngest protesters, who will vote in November for the first time, were the most determined. Una Hahrdester of Connecticut has an 18th birthday in October and admits that she is at odds politically with many of her classmates. 'We have our debates, but mostly they try to close my hand in lockers,' she said. 'I would like to say to them, 'really think about what are you supporting. Is it the man or is it his policies? And are you really being helped by his policies?' Her key issues are education and foreign policy and she was enthusiastic about Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee. 'His ideas are going to turn the nation in a different direction, a better direction,' she said.
Meghan O'Dea, who described herself as a Green-Anarchist, will also turn 18 in October. But she was rather under-whelmed with the Democratic candidate. 'I am voting for Kerry. I don't really trust Democrats or Republicans, but anybody but Bush,' she said. O'Dea flew in with her mother from Chattanooga, Tenn. to protest. 'The more they tried to say, 'Oh, New Yorkers will be fleeing the city … . It's not worth coming, it will be this huge violent spectacle,' the more I wanted to say, 'No it won't be, what we want is peace,'' she said.
In Chattanooga, O'Dea deals more with apathy than the political opposition of her classmates. 'I've been trying to get my friends more active and it's difficult, but I do know a lot of young people that I've met through activism who are active, but friends I met in high school, I'm still working on.'
Once it began, the march moved slowly under the glaring sun. A woman clicked off her cell phone and reported to the people jammed up around her that arrests uptown were the cause of the hold up. Soon after, a marshal in a yellow shirt climbed up a telephone pole and to announce that many more people turned out to protest than the organizers of the march anticipated and that crowds pouring in from side streets were clogging Seventh Avenue. This theory inspired cheers rather than worried glances among protesters.
Twenty-somethings were having a good time regardless. Some appreciated the 'good vibe' on the streets and the peaceful nature of the massive crowd. Ingrid, a 20-year-old who declined to give her last name, was optimistic about her efforts. 'If we don't change the election outcome, at least we will show other countries that we don't support the regime that we have right now,' she said, as she marched with her girlfriend.
Lowe and others were suspicious of the mainstream media coverage of the protest. By the time Congrucci had Madison Square Garden in his sights, protesters were chanting against the Fox News network, prompted by a very prominent billboard at the site of the convention.
'We are going to make a banner when we go home tonight and we're going to hang it from our fire escape,' Congrucci said, perhaps inspired by Fox News. 'There is so much news that gets me depressed and then you come out here and you realize all the good things about being an American. Like that we can be here in the first place.'
Congrucci and his boyfriend were still discussing the banner's message as they headed for lunch. ''My Bush smells like shit' was a personal favorite,' he said. 'And the 'mad cowboy disease' I like. Something like that.'
