CODEPINK

Arrest Bush October 26, 2009 CODEPINK Fort Worth Fort Worth, TX

	Report back from Leslie Harris: George W. Bush was scheduled to be one of the “inspirational speakers” at a “Get Motivated!” Seminar (http://www.getmotivated.com/default.aspx) at the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena. The irony was not missed by many of us that Bush and his administration were less than inspirational… that George W. Bush should be in The Hague, rather than being celebrated. The sizable group of people who were ready to demand accountability of Bush and his cabal waned along with the sunshine, with news warnings about thunderstorms, high winds, flash-flooding, and freeway stoppages. In the end, only “Intrepid Nel” and I were able to make it. We climbed the stairs to find a huge arena, filled with thousands of wildly cheering “fans.” Not knowing exactly when Bush would appear, we scouted out possible places to unfurl our big “ARREST BUSH” banner at an appropriate time. Thanks to Intrepid Nel’s charm, we eventually found ourselves just inside the entrance to the “up close and personal floor.” We just kept walking up closer to the front until only Security was between us and the stage. People were dancing in the aisles, so we joined in. After we’d been standing there by the stage for 10-15 minutes, the “motivator” began introducing the next speaker. In a few seconds, to loud music, wild cheers, and exuberant adoration, Dubya himself came strutting out, right past us, with that big, you-know-what grin, and climbed onto the stage. We dug out the ARREST BUSH banner, checked to make sure it was right-side up, and unfurled it and waved it as far over the heads of the security guys as we could. We had about ten seconds of good banner-waving before Security realized what was going on. They grabbed the middle of the banner, and a little tug-of-war ensued. I said to the biggest guy, who was nose-to-nose with me, “We’ll make you a deal: we’ll go nicely if you let us keep the banner.” Then it was “Okay, ladies, you’re outta here” time, so they began escorting us away from the stage. It was a long way, and we’d said we’d go “nicely” but hadn’t mentioned anything about “quietly,” so we used the opportunity to quite loudly yell our message to the crowd: “Bush is NOT inspirational! On his watch: Abu Ghraib, Katrina, 9/11, Gitmo, torture, lies, rendition, illegal spying, illegal, immoral war. Bush is NOT inspirational! He’s a war criminal! Torture is illegal!” We had a long time to list things and repeat ourselves. When we got out into the lobby, we kept yelling, and the reception was all positive. The working people got it. I said to the guard escorting me, “C’mon, you agree with us, right? Don’t you wanna help us make a citizen’s arrest?” He gave the old, “Just doin’ my job, Ma’am” response, but he smiled. Outside the front door, we got out our ARREST BUSH banner again, and stood directly in front of the Convention Center. Throngs of people had to pass by us. We’ve done our share of sign-holding in cold and unfriendly territory, but this was one of the iciest receptions yet. They spewed the expected low-information, Fox-inspired, one-liner comments, like: “Bush is the best president we’ve ever had;” “Get a job!” “We had to go over there so they wouldn’t come over here;” etc. Others, in the most combative, haughty, and condescending of tones, asked us questions, like, “Would you be doing this if you had friends or family in those towers?” and “Why in the HELL would you want Bush to be arrested?” Our personal favorite, and the most-asked question of the day was: “Are you with ACORN?” One lady filmed us for a long time on her little camera, getting less than two feet from our faces and spitting out, loudly and aggressively, every right-wing talking point she’d ever heard: ”Whatdya think of THAT, huh?” When we calmly and respectfully tried to answer, she’d cut us off and start answering her own question or changing the subject. Finally, a person with a news crew from Europe came over and said, “I know we’re supposed to remain objective, but off the record: Why are you even wasting your time with these people? Sometimes you just can’t reason with people who are stupid.” We told her that we preferred to think it was ignorance rather than stupidity, that we’d done this many times before, and that, if you can stay calm and interject some facts and truth into the conversation, it can spark a little light-bulb moment, and even bring some people around. Hopefully, that’s what happened this time.