Marchers hope to oust Bush

Masses of picket signs; red, white and blue caskets; and
unanimous chants to the rhythm of drums filled Westwood Wednesday
evening as thousands of people swarmed the streets to protest the
Bush Administration. As protestors began to march from the Federal
Building in Westwood at 6:45 p.m., the Los Angeles Police
Department blocked Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood Boulevard, Le Conte
Avenue and Veteran Avenue in order to control the crowd while
helicopters patrolled the skies. Local police said more than 2,000
people were demonstrating on the designated routes, beginning from
the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard and looping back to the
same spot later in the evening. The protestors’ ultimate goal
was to remove President Bush from office. The street closures,
which included sealing off the Wilshire Boulevard exit from the 405
freeway, caused extensive traffic delays and were in effect until
11 p.m., according to the LAPD. The protest was spearheaded by
World Can’t Wait, a national anti-Bush organization. The
group led a nationwide protest at more than 200 sites Wednesday
““ exactly one year after Bush’s re-election. “I
see the nightmare, which is the world according to Bush. I’m
in this movement because I know that the mass can stop this but I
know this is going to be difficult,” said Tony Vargas, an
organizer for the Westwood area and a speaker at the rally.
Protests also took place at noon all around Wilshire, from a
concert at Alvarado Street to a “funeral procession” on
Fairfax Avenue. Marching from Bruin Plaza and up Westwood, Vargas
armed both of his hands: one with a bullhorn, the other with a
green picket sign that read “The world can’t
wait.” “Join us, join us, the war can’t wait!
Drive out the Bush regime! Today is the beginning of the end of the
Bush regime,” he announced, instigating a series of honks
from passing cars and cheers from the other protestors. Guest
speakers also included Bianca Jagger, the first wife of rock legend
Mick Jagger; Culture Clash, a Los Angeles Chicano guerilla theater
group; and Grammy-winning artist Ricki Lee Jones. “I, like
millions of people all over the world, are in outrage.
(Bush’s) acts are barbaric and his policies are a crime
against humanity and I share the grief with these people. Bush
needs to go back to Texas where he belongs,” Jagger said in
her speech at the rally. Melissa Aguayo, a third-year psychobiology
student, was one of the many students who joined the march. Having
passed Vargas in Bruin Plaza, Aguayo decided to skip her physics
class, epitomizing one of the slogans on picket signs found
throughout the day: “No work, no school.” “What
kept me walking is I don’t agree with what Bush and our
government is doing now. I feel like if this is the only thing I
can do, then that’s what I’ll do because I just
don’t want to sit there,” Aguayo said. “Me not
doing anything is like me going “˜Yeah, I agree with
everything.'” Aguayo believes the main problem with the
Bush administration is its policies on the war in Iraq. “I
think it’s an unjust war, and war isn’t the answer to
anything,” she said. Claire Muller, a first-year undeclared
student, observed the march from the window of a local restaurant,
comparing the crowd to “a swarm of ants attacking a
pastry.” The marchers’ intentions were noble, but their
tactics seems too extreme, she said. “The marchers seem to be
scaring off people more than embracing and talking to them, which I
think would be more effective in exposing what I believe are the
injustices in the administration,” Muller said. In the end,
what Vargas hopes that after Wednesday’s events, World
Can’t Wait will have left an impact in the Los Angeles
community, and, possibly, the nation. “In light of all the
injustices in the Bush administration, we have hope that this
regime must be driven out,” he said.

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