January 21, 2005

Students Protest Bush Policies

By CONNING CHU

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Friday, January 21, 2005 - Several protests were held on San Gabriel Valley campuses Thursday as students voiced opposition to the war in Iraq and George W. Bush's second term as president.

Mt. San Antonio College students walked out of class at 11 a.m. and held their protest in the campus quad. In Glendora, high school students picketed along the sidewalks at noon.

"If you feel a way about something, then it's your duty to do something," said Alexa Lamoureux, 16, president of the Glendora High School Libertarian Club. She was joined by about 15 fellow students and the club's adviser, John Saunders.

"I disagree with what the U.S. is doing," said Joey Sweet, one of Lamoureux's fellow protesters. "We shouldn't be attacking countries and intervening in other people's affairs."

But their protest was not without its challengers. Across the street, Nick Jonson, 17, wore a "God Bless America" T-shirt and held a sign that read: "Sore Losers."

"I'm protesting the protest," he said, adding he liked the president.

Kyle Brown, a friend of Jonson's, agreed.

"I believe (Bush) has a very strong ideology and he's working very hard," Brown said. "Whatever great threat there is against our country, be it right or wrong, we must protect it."

At Mt. SAC, an estimated 200 protesters rallied in the quad and brought a pinata that looked like Bush, organizer Richard Moreno said. He said they put the pinata on a mock trial for "war crimes" they said the real-life Bush committed while the crowd chanted, "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!"

Afterward, Moreno said they broke open the pinata and feasted on the candy inside.

"We just want the people of the world to know that (Bush) doesn't have our mandate," Moreno said. "We not only protest his inauguration, but also his foreign and domestic policies, especially the war on Iraq."

Moreno, who also is the executive director of the Global Resistance Network and a Mt. SAC student, said students from other campuses, such as Charter Oak High School, also had walked out of class at 11 a.m. Thursday in protest.

Some of the students then went to Westwood to join in a march on the federal building, he said.

__________________

Conning Chu can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2393, or by e-mail at svintern@sgvn.com.

Back to Home Page