Bush appearance met by protests outside Blair

It was over 60 minutes before President George W. Bush was scheduled to speak at Blair as part of his nationwide photo-op tour touting his Social Security plan. But 2005 Blazer grad Luke Hanlein was already present as one of a few hundred protesters rallying against his plan on that issue and the war in Iraq.

"Been here since 8:45," Hanlein said. "We shut the…street down," he commented with an expletive.

Indeed, Montgomery County police closed off the University Boulevard side of Blair, partially as a place for the protestors to gather, but also to shield the President, who was just dozens of feet away in the school.

Judging from the dozens of police officers, Secret Service and the 14-school-bus barricade shielding Blair from the Colesville Road side, one could have thought that Blair was a well-guarded fortress instead of a public school. The cops did keep the crowd under control and peaceful for the most part.The only skirmishes came around just prior to 11 a.m., when President Bush was about to leave. Sensing this moment, one protester with a bullhorn yelled, "Bush's motorcade is coming! Let's block him!" He was about 25 minutes early on that prediction.

Around 100 of the protesters, to that point confined to University, calmly crossed Colesville Road and stood on the far side of the street, parallel to the exit where Mr. Bush left. Some protesters were holding signs saying "I Love Social Security," but most were upset over the Iraq War. One middle aged woman who crossed the street, a proclaimed "mother of eight," pasted the "Faces of the Fallen," photos of recent deaths in Iraq, from The Washington Post onto cardboard as her sign.

As police shadowed the protesters to make sure none of them tried to make a run at the President six lanes of highway away, about 25 or so zealous teens tried to make their sentiments even more clear by standing on Colesville and blocking three lanes of traffic. Some teens were yelling, "Whose streets? Our streets!" The officers, disagreeing with that statement, shoved back the protesters and then began shoving anyone on the sidewalk, protester or not, with little or no rhyme or reason.

Jane Hurst, a mother of two Blair graduates, she said, came to protest, and while the teens were in the street yelled, "Civil disobedience! If they try to arrest you, go limp!" She was asked why, not just as a protester but also a mom, she thought these kids were testing the officers and why she was seemingly encouraging them to do test the line between a peaceful protest and the backseat of a police car.

She replied, "I don't think they want to be arrested. These people," referring to Bush and other Republicans, "don't want us to be heard. If we have to be arrested for our voice to be heard, so be it." Fortunately, it did not come to that and nobody left in handcuffs.

The woman holding the "Faces of the Fallen" poster was shoved by a Montgomery County officer and was upset at their aggression. "I can't believe cops pushed me!" she said, "I'm so [ticked]! I'm 60!"

As he cooled off following the rally in the pulsing heat and humidity, 2005 Blair graduate Dan Greene commented on the intimidating power of the police officers. "The cops," he said, "all looked like cops from 'Half-Life,'" referring to a popular computer game where the police are heavily fortified machines.

While there were still some protesters on University, all of the loudest opponents of Mr. Bush had made their way to Colesville Road by 10:45 a.m. The crowd cheered mightily any time a passing car gave a honk and a wave or thumbs up of approval to their cause.

Three 18-wheeler trucks honked, proving that a rally can be even more effective than the "pull!" motion when trying to coax a trucker into blowing his horn. A U.S. postal worker honked and waved, sending the crowd into a roar.While waiting to "greet" President Bush, the crowd yelled various chants, almost all of which rhymed. One or two of the now couple hundred protesters would start a chant, generally about the war, and it would spread to the crowd until they got tired of yelling it, usually in a minute or two.

Around 11, the president's motorcade actually headed south on the northbound side of the road, both to avoid the protesters and a potential 12-car synchronized U-turn in mid-morning traffic at one of the three busiest intersections in the county. When Mr. Bush left, the crowd of protesters on Colesville gave him the one-finger salute and booed loudly. The protesters were unable to see him as he left, but booed and flipped off all 12 cars for safe measure.

As the president left school, the crowd began to cheer, then quieted, and began to disband. What was left for the protesters was a sense of pride in their organization. Jason Meer, a rising junior, said that this protest was all word-of-mouth and "organized in a day."

Around 9:45 a.m., the crowd peaked in size, as Mr. Bush entered Blair to speak, with about "400 people," said Greene, now a volunteer for Progressive Maryland, the group who organized the rally.

In fact, there were signs around Four Corners advertising the rally the same way one might see an underground concert promoted, just from person-to-person. "Rally on Thursday!" one sign taped to a traffic signal at Colesville and West University Boulevard said.

Greene's friend, Phil Kim, also with Progressive Maryland, said that the Rock The Vote organizations and other unions came to protest his social security plan.

But all in all, the protesters were happy with the turnout. "Four hundred people with a day's notice," Greene said. "That's pretty good."