Patrick Gavin/The Examiner
How long do political protests last nowadays? Just long enough for the cameras to click.
MoveOn.org wanted to mark the fifth anniversary of President Bush’s unveiling of the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln by doing what MoveOn.org does best: Protest against President Bush. The e-mail to supporters encouraged them to come join a rally on Pennsylvania Avenue to speak out against “an unwinnable civil war” and remind journalists that “Iraq continues to be a costly mistake.”
But if you showed up even slightly late, you may have missed the whole darn thing. MoveOn.org unveiled its 50-foot “Mission Accomplished?” banner in front of the White House right on time (10:30 a.m.), let the cameras click and effectively shut down the operation eight minutes later.
Oh wait: Maybe not. At 10:39 a.m., the banner was unveiled again. Why? “A very important photographer wants to take a picture,” one organizer said. “And promises he’ll do something with it.” But of course. …
Although the “Mission Accomplished” banner has never been popular with the public, we thought we’d ask the protestersfor a more preferable phrase.
“Yeah, ‘More War,’ ” said Elizabeth Gaines from Maryland, channeling Bush’s 2003 mentality at the MoveOn.org’s rally. What would she have written on that banner? “Mission Unaccomplished” or “War is not the Answer,” she said.
The nearly 50 protesters offered their own slogans in chant form: “Health care, not Warfare!” and “Invest in America, not War in Iraq!”
Nicholas Carl from Virginia had all sorts of suggestions. “Perpetual Militarism,” “Perpetual Violence,” “Perpetual Cycle of Violence for Profit.”
For Eileen Denny, whose brother is currently fighting in Iraq, the slogan “Overtaking Sovereign States One at a Time” might have been an improvement on the “Mission Accomplished” banner. Sorta long though, no? “Well, I’m not that good at slogans,” she told us.
Matthew Famiglietti, who’s running for Congress in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, proposed “We’ve Lied to the American People” and “We’ve Created a Hell for the American People.” As for Famiglietti’s own campaign slogan, he conceded that he hadn’t any, but quickly whipped up two on the spot: “”We Need to Rebuild the Economy” and “End the War.”
Alan McConnell from Silver Spring said the “Mission Accomplished” banner should have read, “Impeach Them Both.”
Not everyone there was a Bush hater. With his daughters by his side, Bob Mobley from Delaware got in to several verbal confrontations with the protesters and told us that “the only thing these people believe is that America is bad. I believe that America is good.”
Slap it on a banner, Bob.
