1,500 protest Bush presence Two arrests made for trespassing

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KENNEBUNKPORT – Tracy and Jim Luiselli hoped for a tranquil escape to Maine over the weekend, but international affairs intervened.

“We just came up for what we thought was going to be a quiet little day or two,” Tracy said Sunday morning as the couple’s two children explored a jetty near the beach. They arrived Saturday from their home in Carlisle, Mass., but had made reservations well before President Bush invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to join him at the Bush family’s Walker’s Point summer retreat.

When the Luiselli family arrived, resort staff told them, “‘Gee, you picked a wild weekend,'” Tracy said.

Sunday was wild because Bush and Putin, who was said to be arriving at about 4:30 p.m., drew about 1,500 protesters to this tourist-oriented seaside village of narrow streets and scarce parking. The world leaders’ presence also drew news organizations from around the world, each jockeying for angles from which to record the event.

Despite the charged mix of heightened local law enforcement and Secret Service presence and impassioned opposition to Bush, there was no violence and only two arrests. Two people whose names were not available at press time were arrested for criminal trespass for going beyond the barricade set up on Ocean Avenue.

The large group of protesters, expressing anger over the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Russia’s occupation of Chechnya, and demanding the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, gathered on the village green at 1 p.m. for a rally featuring music and speakers.

Jamilla El-Shafei, a co-organizer of the event who also has formed a group called the Kennebunk Peace Department, said from the stage, “Contrary to rumor, I am not a member of al-Qaida.

“But I do know a few terrorists. They live over there on Walker’s Point,” she said, gesturing to the east.

“Impeach the bastards,” she said to cheers.

A mile down the road on the parade route the demonstrators later used as they marched toward Walker’s Point, about 25 people gathered to show their support for U.S. foreign policy and Bush and Putin.

Saying they were members of a new group called Gathering of Eagles, they stood on the roadside below the Colony Hotel pool, holding flags and signs that stated: “Victory is the only way to end war” and “Thank You United States Military Families.”

Earlier in the day, Kennebunkport Police Chief Joseph Bruni said he worried about a clash between the protesters, who had secured a parade permit, and the pro-Bush group, but other than competing chants as the demonstrators walked by, no problems materialized.

“We’re just here to support the troops,” said Sean Delevan of the Queens, N.Y., chapter of Gathering of Eagles.

“Freedom don’t come free,” he said. “I know we send a bad message when we constantly question our leaders.”

“We fight them there or we fight them here,” chimed in Byron Grant of nearby Eliot. Grant said the group included many Vietnam veterans.

One of those veterans, Bill Wolf, drove through the night from his home in Winthrop, N.Y., to participate in the counterprotest.

“We happen to believe we have to support the troops. We’re the silent majority, finding its voice,” he said.

But those opposing Bush’s war policy were in the majority in Kennebunkport on Sunday.

Last August, about 700 people turned out for a rally and march when the president visited the family compound. Putin’s visit spurred more to attend, putting the village on the world map again, as it was when the president’s father, George Herbert Walker Bush, was president.

“He’s [Putin’s] doing the same thing in Russia as Bush is doing here,” said Mark Lipman of Boston. “Both of them are empire builders.”

Jacky Peters of Kennebunk didn’t begrudge the president his visit, but said it was important for her to demonstrate her opposition to his policies.

“I don’t blame him for coming to Kennebunkport. It’s a beautiful place to be in the summer,” she said.

Carlotta Girouard and her 2-year-old son, Eli, traveled from Center Ossipee, N.H., for the rally. Her activism came about, she said, “because of the [Bush] policy of pre-emption,” with which the president justified invading Iraq. She attended an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., in January, and has been attending local events also.

Bands performed during the rally. One group, led by Pat Scanlon, a banjo player and Vietnam veteran, invited all of the veterans in the crowd onto the small stage. Approximately three dozen climbed up, including a 91-year-old veteran of World War II.

To cheers, Scanlon said two men – Bush and Putin – controlled enough nuclear weapons to kill the world’s population 50 times over.

“That’s disgusting,” he said. “We need nuclear disarmament.”

Mary Perry of Orono said the opportunity to make a statement was worth the trip to southern Maine.

“It’s important that people’s attention be focused on what needs to be done, and that’s to impeach Bush and Cheney and end this war,” she said.

Scott Mills of Brooksville brought his daughter to the rally, in part because of a rumor that Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich would attend. He did not, but Mills said he was glad to support the calls for an end to the war in Iraq and for impeachment.

As a speaker from the stage referred to “cranky Republicans,” Al Earnhart of Cape Elizabeth raised his hand. Why was he here?

“Because he got tired of throwing things at the TV,” his wife, Allison, chimed in before he could answer.

“We’ve been misled,” he then said. “We’re going in the wrong direction. We have national treasures that are becoming national disgraces.”

Sandy Bodamer of Rockland, whose son is serving in Iraq and who is active with the anti-war group Military Families Speak Out, said she would tell the Gathering of Eagles group that supporting the war is not supporting the troops.

“You haven’t been paying attention,” she said would be her response to Gathering of Eagles, and she called the U.S. invasion an illegal war.

The march featured elements of street theater. A man dressed as Bush invited people to strike a likeness of bare buttocks he wore. A group from Waldo County rolled a coffin bearing a likeness of the Statue of Liberty inside. A man had affixed a sign to his dog reading, “I pee on Bushies.”

As the demonstrators passed the group supporting Bush, three preteen girls with the pro-Bush group chanted “U.S.A.” into bullhorns. The protesters retorted by chanting “Bring them home.” There were no standoffs.

Secret Service and local police barricaded Ocean Street about a half-mile from the Bush estate, and protesters, after chanting and drumming for a few minutes, peacefully dispersed.