ADAPT Confronts President Bush

On the cold, wet morning of Tuesday, May 24, 2005, thirty-seven Rochester ADAPT members, joined by Beata Karpinska-Prehn, Matt Barkley, and Tina Fitzgerald of Syracuse ADAPT and Amber George of Binghamton, met in Greece, New York, to “welcome” President Bush upon his arrival to a local High School. President Bush was in town to push his plans for privatizing the social security program. Although Social Security was on the President’s mind, ADAPT wanted him to know what was on our mind. Bush’s cuts in funding for HUD and his push for cuts and caps on Medicaid will force people out of their homes and into institutions - this is not acceptable! After gathering at McDonald’s (what would an ADAPT action be without McDonalds?!), we lined up to march our way down to the school where he was speaking. ADAPT kept moving to get as close as possible, of course making the local law enforcement as uncomfortable as possible. Eventually, we were able to position ourselves along the curbs directly across the street from the school, taking over both corners of an intersection. Traffic continues to flow through, two lanes in each direction, and we were very clearly visible to anyone traveling past the school. Signs were passed out to everyone and the chanting began…. “No more Medicaid cuts”, “Housing cuts - Nowhere left to live!” and “Our Homes, Not Nursing Homes”. Some members wore heart-shaped pins with the message “If you can read this you must be a sharp-shooter”- a little comedy for the men in trees and on the buildings. The rain kept drizzling down and we kept our voices and spirits up. We had many first time ADAPTers on hand, including volunteers Luticha Doucette and her friend Erin, Rita-Marie Geary, Barry Jayne; CDPAS staffers Chris Wood, Liz Avalos, Melanie Menough; office staffers Mary Jackson, Debbie Morf, and Rose Dobson and Community Support staffers Delores, LaDonna Perry and Jen Joy. Because Bush’s domestic agenda basically amounts to Medicaid cuts, housing cuts and Social Security cuts - in preparation for Bush’s visit, we had designed two large foam core scissors which read “The Only Tool in Bush’s Belt”. Norita Darling stood on one corner cutting away at Anthony Griggs while Teresa VanGrol wielded her giant scissors on the other corner. Every media outlet in Rochester and most of the media from Buffalo and Syracuse were on hand to record Bush’s visit, speech and the protests. Every one of these media also made sure they got a picture or footage of the giant scissors. Among the many protestors there that day, our group was the loudest and most cohesive. Of course, the bullhorns used by Debbie Bonomo, Sue Norwood, Sue Stahl, Teresa, Cindy Hancock, and Jen Spino did not hurt our volume. Our chanting was powerful enough that other groups approached us to negotiate which chants could be done by the entire crowd of people with a variety of agendas. Several chants were able to unify the entire crowd of anti-Bush protestors, including “Money for healthcare, not for warfare” and “People are dying, shame on Bush”. Throughout the morning, we got word from people in the press about the movements of the President. They let us know when his plane touched down and when he was on his way to our location. And finally the motorcade arrived. In a blink of an eye, the motorcade zipped into the school and we had plenty of time to wait while the President made his speech. Two anti-war protestors walked politely across the street and toward the school. They were met promptly by police officers. One protestor then kneeled to the ground while the officers tried to figure out how to deal with peaceful resistance. During this exchange, our ADAPT group furiously rethought our plans to NOT get arrested this day. Despite all the many reasons we had to not get arrested on this day, watching the two protestors be arrested created a serious fire inside us to be handcuffed and taken away. But calmer thoughts prevailed and the crowd fired up loud chants in support of the two arrestees. After about an hour, the police began to spread out and we knew the President was preparing to leave. The motorcade zipped out of the school almost as fast as it arrived and Bush was off to the airport to return to DC. We marched together, along the street, back to the McDonalds for our debriefing meeting. We rallied our troops in the parking lot and reviewed the days accomplishments. It was a great action because we were able to get more of our message out to the public and the media, and also because we were joined by many new ADAPTers and ADAPTers from Syracuse and Binghamton. Our debriefing meeting in the McDonalds parking lot drew more than a few curious eyes as we taught them all how to spell power: A - D - A - P - T!! Free Our People! Chris Hilderbrant Rochester ADAPT                                             For some media...                                             Short mention...