This article's title was the beginning of one of the chants that we protesters shouted as we walked to Walker's point on Saturday. We walked over 4 miles through Kennebunkport to a roadblock about a third of a mile from the Bush compound, and then we walked the 4 miles back. Walking over 8 miles in ordinary shoes hurts and, if you're 54, you spend the rest of the afternoon writing and doing crossword puzzles on the front porch with your feet up.
When we started at the Kennebunkport Consolidated School, Bruce Gagnon, the leader of the protest, warned us that Kennebunkport was a very Republican town and was bound to have many hecklers and that we were not to engage them in a dialog but remained focused on our peaceful demonstration. When he said that, a dismissive murmur went through the crowd from those in the know. There may be many Republicans in the town, but it is also a hotbed of radical liberals. Most of all, we knew that it wasn't likely anyone would go to the trouble of protesting "for" Bush, or "for" this ugly, wasteful, pointless war, or "for" death.
We couldn't have asked for a better day to march. The sun was warm when it felt good to be warm and the sea breeze was cool when we needed relief. There was a light mist of salt spray in the air but the view down the coast toward Wells Beach was strikingly clear. Ducks were bobbing just off St. Ann's Church and dragonflies buzzed across the hydrangea and the rosa rugosa that lined Ocean Avenue.
Celebrities were abundant. Maxine, the chairperson of the York County Democratic Party, was there, along with Annie and Jan who represented Biddeford Middle School. There might have been other celebrities, but those are the circles in which I travel.
There was a clear contrast between the message of the protesters and the opposition. And of the opposition, there wasn't much. I saw two hecklers, men, of course. I was going to say "angry white men" but who else are you going to meet in Kennebunkport who is angry?
The first one drove by in his SUV and told us to "Wait until you get hit with a nuclear bomb, then you'll know." I'm not sure what we are supposed to know when that happens, but it certainly will someday unless nuclear weapons and materials are disposed of. One thing we crazy protesters do know is that the policies of George W. Bush, which encourage India to produce even more nuclear weapons and our own technologists to build newer, better, easier-to-use nuclear weapons, will certainly lead to that impending mushroom cloud. It's likely, however, that he was just rehashing Bush's WMD lie from 2002 or maybe, inexplicably, he thinks that putting our troops in Iraq to mill around, drive over bombs and dodge sniper bullets is somehow preventing terrorists in the other 99% of the world from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Or maybe he's not even thinking.
The other heckler, another angry man, said we looked like a "bunch of pompous jerks." Nobody around me seem to mind the insult because it was so stupid. First of all, we weren't acting like jerks; we were very well behaved. We were a bunch of shaggy, sweaty, sunscreen-coated, blue-jeaned and spandex attired grandmas, kids, boomers, and veterans carrying signs like " 'I didn't have good intelligence': George W. Bush" and "Here's the empty warhead" (next to a picture of the White House). There were a couple of dogs, wagons, a guy pushing a bicycle and a very old woman who gamely made it to where the really big yachts are anchored before she collapsed. The whole "pompous jerks" episode inspired me to start a fund, "Dictionaries for Republicans", so they can look up the words with which they want to insult us beforehand and pick words that will anger us instead of make us to say, "Huh, what's he talking about?"
Anyway, it was fun to actually yell at Bush, even from a third of a mile away. Did he hear it? I don't think it matters. We weren't really talking to him; we were talking to everybody else.
And the second line of the chant was, "This is what democracy looks like." It was a fine day, but I think we should have made a little more trouble.
Click on the photo to view a slide show of photographs from the day.
