D.C. Protest 2000!

Two Protests in One!
Reported by Amy Nasir

Robert, Eric, and I drove to Washington D.C. for the Earth Day Countermarch on April 22, 2000 sponsored by the Center for the Moral Defense of Capitalism and the Ayn Rand Institute. We left from Metro Detroit on Friday, 4/21, in the wee morning hours to arrive 10 1/2 hours later. We listened to many taped lectures on environmentalism, and read articles aloud in the car.


L to R: Eric Lakits, Kelly Koenig, Robert Nasir, Amy Nasir


L to R: Eric Lakits, Nick Provenzo

 When meeting at the dinner/briefing that night, we met Nick Provenzo, Rob Tracinski, Lee Sandstead, Jack, Susan, and Dave Crawford, Craig Biddle, Sarah Peyton, Kelly Koenig and many other wonderful Objectivists. Later that night, Nick Provenzo, Rob Tracinski, and the three of us stayed up late and had a night-cap at the lounge at the Hyatt Washington. (We had Nick and Rob all to ourselves! Wow!).
We awoke at 6:30am with a sense of urgency. We were to meet Nick and Rob downstairs at 7:20am. Then it happened. Eric turned the TV on and we witnessed the horrific scenes of Elian Gonzalez being dragged out of his relative's home in the darkness at gunpoint. After a few minutes of disbelief, I ordered Eric to switch the stations. I couldn't believe that those bastards would go through with it. I could barely keep myself standing. We mustered up our remaining strength to leave for breakfast on time. When we met Nick and Rob downstairs, we were happy and relieved to hear that we were going to protest this disgrace along with Earth Day. We wouldn't let this attack on Elian's freedom go without a fight!

We organized on a street corner with the picket signs ready to be assembled for the Earth Day Countermarch. As we walked down to the National Mall, I kept my focus on action. I didn't have time to reflect on tragedy.  Robert walked beside me and helped carry me along with his encouraging glances. 

 

When we arrived, we found out that we could not picket at the National Mall due to the expected over-kill of eco-cadets and the like, although none of them had bicycled over yet.

(However, on the way to the city, we saw one dirt-kisser riding over the paved highway with a sticker on his bumper saying, "Tree-Hugger," stuck to the back of his SUV...of course). 
So we walked to the back of the White House to organize our two protests.
It was 9am when we started out with our Earth Day Countermarch signs, walking around the blocked-off street.
After about an hour, a press agent from MTV news interviewed Rob Tracinski.
 
Shortly thereafter, Nick decided that some of us would march with the new signs advocating Elian's freedom, which were expertly assembled by Robert. 

After a while, there were enough new signs for all of us to march with. Thus, the beginning of our second protest! 

    

With Earth Day practically being ignored by the press, it was important and very rewarding for us to protest the government's raid and seizure of Elian Gonzalez. 

It was strangely fortunate (although mournful) for us to have been in Washington, ready to march, on the day this tragedy happened.

 

Surprisingly though, the day was not all doom and gloom. There were some very inspiring moments. 
Before we marched for Elian, there were a few people (not Cuban-Americans like the press would want you to believe) who were holding up enlarged pictures of Donato Dalrymple holding Elian in his arms while the armed INS agent pointed the gun toward them.
These protesters were shouting out their anger at Reno and Clinton. There was a very heroic man standing in the middle of the street alone, holding a sign that read, "Shame," in large red text with, "Asylum for Elian," in smaller text underneath. He stood there holding the sign in the air with two hands, glaring in anger at the White House in front of him. 
Throughout the day, various people came up to us and asked for picket signs to march with us. Robert was barely able to get away from his sign-making workshop. The most noticed slogan read, "This would be illegal in Cuba."

There were others who brought their own signs and marched with us. We walked for hours, up and down the sidewalk between the two gates at the back of the White House, holding up our signs, confident and alert. (It took us half way through the day to realize that Ed Locke, himself, was marching with us!) 
We handed out "Keep Elian Free" flyers (made by Craig who took the initiative to go to Kinko's). Craig and others stopped to talk to people. There were many people who asked to use our signs for pictures -- our protest became a tourist trap!
 

 
I noticed that the protestors not in our group held stern, angry looks, while some people in our group looked oddly out of context. It was hard not to feel at ease and happy. I was surrounded by Objectivists whom I respected and admired. I had to keep recalling what I was upset about a few hours earlier. And so I did.
The only opposition was a punk kid who, half-snarlingly, half-grinning, kept barking, "Send 'im back! Send 'im back!"  Later, a stocky man meagerly showed up with flyers stating the profundity, "Family Values. Elian + Juan Miguel."  Very bizarre.
There were more people who cheered us on than denounced us, and the others just looked bewildered. Most people took our flyers.

 

At 6pm, when we ended our march and put our signs down, a Cuban-American women (one of only two I saw there) who marched with us couldn?t stop thanking us for what we did. She was in tears crying to us, "God bless you." I wish now that I would have given her a big hug, because there were no words to express the intensity of emotion I was experiencing.
We joined most of the others for dinner at TGI Fridays. Nick Provenzo gave a rousing "thanks" to all of us. Robert, Eric, and I were bestowed the honor of the group that traveled the farthest to Washington D.C. And Robert was deemed the hero of the day for doing such a wonderful job making signs.

 

I had a wonderful time talking to Sarah, Craig, and especially Dave - a 13 year old Objectivist! In spite of the somber circumstances, it was a joy to have participated. In this case, as in all cases, the irrational, the ugly, the tragic can never be taken as the rule. And it certainly cannot be taken that way when advocates of reason are all around you!

Thanks to Nick Provenzo and Rob Tracinski. You guys are wonderful!