posted 07-23-2003 12:23 AM
Ran across this and decided that I would paste it, remember there are democrats and republicans alike that run in this crowd.
100 march on Bohemian Grove
Protesters' numbers dwindle after several hours of skits, speeches
July 20, 2003
By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
From the dim interior of the Pink Elephant bar in Monte Rio, Jim Hall looked out into Saturday's bright sunlight at protesters marching to the gates of the Bohemian Grove.
Hall, a San Quentin prison guard in his mid-40s, shook his head slightly. He'd planned to march, he said, had driven from his Marin County home to join in, but several hours of protest theater turned him off.
"I was disappointed," he said. "The speakers were not informing, they were just denouncing."
The Bohemian Club's annual encampment draws government and corporate officials, entertainers and others to a 2,700-redwood grove along the Russian River. It also draws protesters, who say public policy is being secretly made at the grove.
Saturday's march along Bohemian Avenue, like the Fireside Talks inside the grove, is an annual fixture of the three-week gathering that began 10 days ago.
About 100 people took part in the march, 50 percent fewer than last year and a small fraction of the turnout in 2001, when the demonstrations resumed after an eight-year hiatus during the Clinton administration.
Through the afternoon, speakers and performers attacked the Bush administration before about 200 people at the Monte Rio Amphitheater.
"I think (the Bohemian Grove) captures why capitalism is fundamentally undemocratic," said Skip Spitzel, 39, an audience member waiting for the march to start.
"It allows corporations to amass enormous wealth in a way that can inordinately influence government, said Spitzel, who traveled from Santa Cruz to join in the protest.
Hall, the prison guard, said he's "extremely concerned" about the issues demonstrators have raised in connection with the grove, what he termed "the aggregation of power of all sorts into a few hands."
And earlier in the day, he said, he'd found the sort of "intellectual content" he'd sought in discussions with Sonoma State University Professor Peter Phillips and a few others manning information booths set up in Monte Rio before the march.
But a lineup of often-profane stage presentations sent Hall to the Pink Elephant. "It was the antithesis of an intellectual discussion," he said.
Waiting for the march to start, and watching clutches of people leave the park, activist Mary Moore, who started the protests in 1980 but has stepped aside from a lead role, said the theater may have gone on too long.
"I do wish the march had gotten going earlier," she said.
The rally aspect of the day served a purpose, said Moore, but "I think that's less effective, the whole idea is to have a presence at the gate."
The protest, titled Fat Cats' Festival and Parade, was sponsored by the local chapter of Not in Our Name, a group formed to oppose the Iraq war.
"People are used to this event pretty much being only march," said Susan Lamont, an organizer. "But we're just as interested in the education aspect."
About 70 Sonoma County sheriff's deputies and CHP officers monitored the protests, and reported no problems or arrests.
You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jhay@pressemocrat.com.
[Edited 1 times, lastly by the professor on 07-23-2003]
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