MercuryNews.com | 01/20/2005 | Stanford protesters rally against BushStanford protesters rally against Bush
EVENT OPPOSES THURSDAY'S INAUGURATION
By Julie Patel
Mercury News
When a speaker at a noontime inauguration protest at Stanford University barked into a microphone ``He is not our president!''from behind dozens of cheering demonstrators, a lone voice drawled, ``That's right, baby: I'm your king!''
It was ``King George'' -- a member of the school's Neo Con Artists club -- donning a mask of George W. Bush, cowboy boots and a gun, royally primped up in a king's costume complete with a red velvet cape and a jewel-dotted crown. A graduate student and Stanford employee, the `King' kept his identity under wraps.
The Neo Con Artists' satirical ``Coronation'' ceremony was a part of an otherwise mellow protest at Stanford's White Plaza Thursday. The event generally focused more on strategies to fight the Bush administration's agenda than on bashing Bush -- though there was some of that, too.
``Bush does not believe in global warming...yeah,'' said one of the speakers, Colin Miller, as several students chuckled wryly. Miller, a sophomore and member of Students for a Sustainable Stanford, lamented that the United States was on a short list of countries -- including Liechtenstein and Monaco -- that haven't ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which will take affect next month and require countries that have signed on to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
``What are we doing hanging out with Liechtenstein and Monaco? I don't mean to diss them but I mean, they're small,'' he said.
Protesters dressed in everything from khakis and ties to tie-dyed shirts and long, billowing skirts held signs reading ``Send Bush twins to Iraq'' and ``Every child left behind.'' Some sat on the outskirts of the protest on bikes, others munched on sandwiches and wraps.
```What we need to be talking about is not moving our politics to the left, right or center, we need to be moving our country forward,'' said Stanford Democrats' president Marie Jonas, a sophomore studying political science. ``We have an obligation to ourselves, our future and those less fortunate in this society to stay involved.''
There weren't many Republicans at White Plaza around lunchtime but Roger Bradley, a computer programmer, said he supports Bush on most issues.
``I really like the tax breaks,'' he said. ``I'm not crazy about what's going on in Iraq but that's not the entire presidency.''