100-plus give a lesson in free speech

While thousands flocked to hear President Bush speak at Monticello on Friday morning, Dana Palmer stood by the side of Route 20 dressed like Lady Liberty to teach her kids a lesson in free speech.

Palmer, her husband and their two children were among more than 100 people to protest Bush’s visit to Monticello with homemade signs, costumes, expressive T-shirts and their voices.

Palmer wore bright green robes, a foam crown and had her face painted white to represent “the death of liberty,” while her husband, dressed in black, was “Darth Cheney.” Palmer, a Charlottesville resident, brought her son and daughter to see the First Amendment in action. “What better thing can I teach them about free speech than bringing them out here to show them free speech?” she said.

Protesters started arriving around 6 a.m. in Quarry Park, a mile from the Monticello Visitor’s Center, and their numbers grew through the morning.

The earliest to arrive stood at the entrance to Quarry Road on Route 20, but moved nearer the visitors’ center to make their views known to drivers, bus passengers going to the naturalization ceremony and eventually Bush’s motorcade.

Most people held up signs of their own creation with messages including, “Healthcare Not Warfare,” “Save The Bill of Rights” and “Who Would Jesus Bomb?”

The protest got mixed reactions from passersby. Many drivers honked to show their support and gave the thumbs-up or the peace sign. At least two, including a limousine driver headed toward Monticello, gave protesters a less-friendly finger gesture.

State and Albemarle County police officers made sure the protesters did not stray into the road or onto private property. At around 8 a.m. a Virginia State Police trooper asked everyone to move 75 yards from the intersection of Route 20 and the Thomas Jefferson Parkway, where Bush’s motorcade would pass by.

The protesters included members of CODE PINK Women for Peace, the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice, the Charlottesville Democratic Party, and Web sites moveon.org and afterdowningstreet.org.

Sarah Lanzman, an organizer and Center for Peace member, said the protest was about protecting the Constitution from what she described as attacks by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

“We don’t want to hurt the ceremony for the new immigrants,” Lanzman said. “We just want to state our constitutional right that someone who has destroyed our Constitution should not be at the home of a president who initiated it. … That seems very disrespectful to the memory of Thomas Jefferson.”

That seemed to be the central theme for protesters who chanted over and over, “Impeach Bush! Defend the Constitution!”

The only counter-protest was carried on by Jeff Gray who stood in his driveway solemnly waving the American flag. Gray, who supports Bush, said he felt like one man against many.

Keith Drake, former chairman of the Albemarle County Republican Party, said those in opposition to the protest would be at the naturalization ceremony in support of the new citizens.

“To cast a stain on their day … is shameful,” Drake said. “The time and the place is elsewhere.”

One man had protested the Vietnam War at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s, where police used tear gas to control the crowds. Another joined protests in New York City and Washington, D.C., in the ’60s and ’70s.

Pat Dowd, a longtime Charlottesville resident who participated in protests in Washington in the early 1970s, said young people are not as politically active as they once were.

“We really thought we could change the world when we were kids,” Dowd said. “Kids [today] don’t have that feeling.”

When Bush’s motorcade finally appeared down Route 20, the protesters were ready. They cried for Bush’s impeachment, held their signs high and spilled into the road to get a better view.

The police officers who stood guard at the intersection of the Thomas Jefferson Parkway gently escorted them back while a line of black cars, one of them bearing the president, drove away toward Monticello.