Line the Inaugural Route on January 20
Be there by 9:00 am!
The Bush administration is planning to privatize Pennsylvania Avenue so that Corporate America and the ultra-right can line the route of march. To succeed they must push antiwar demonstrators and all those defending civil rights and civil liberties off to the margins and try to scare people into silence.
7,000 Endorsers: “We’ll Line the Parade Route”
The Bush administration and the government are trying to prevent people from effectively accessing the inaugural route. Some groups have announced plans that also divert protestors from lining the front of the inaugural route. Agreeing to permits from the government for demonstrations at far off places in Washington DC effectively removes anyone who attends these actions from being able to line the inaugural route.
Why any group would meekly consent to having their “protest” miles away from the inaugural route is incomprehensible. The streets belong to the people, and protest is quite legal, including on the inaugural route. Protestors have a right to be there, even if we have to fight for it.
Some groups have advocated that people who do go the parade route should conform to the administration’s efforts to limit dissent by volunteering to be silent and carrying no signs.
This is not dissent, this is cowardice.
The ANSWER Coalition is fighting for inaugural route permits
On Monday, protest organizers from A.N.S.W.E.R. and their lawyers met with the National Park Service, which has been delaying meeting to discuss the permit requests. Despite the fact that A.N.S.W.E.R. applied nearly a year ago for areas along the inaugural route of Pennsylvania Avenue, law enforcement has stated that it will not yet tell the protest organizers whether and where they will grant inaugural route permits.
Bush wants to allow his supporters and his corporate constituents to take ownership over Pennsylvania Avenue to conduct a stage-managed sanitized spectacle bestowing legitimacy on his lawless enterprise. To accomplish this he must find a way to banish dissent from the scene of the planned spectacle.
It is crucial that protestors be there so the world sees the dissent. The best way to do this is to be at the inaugural route before 9 am.
Continuing…