Obama Protest Roundup

BOSTON and Cambridge MA - What happens when a sitting President gives two speeches in your city in a single day? Well if you live in Boston you get two protests - one for each appearance by the Commander-in-Chief. The action kicked off late Friday morning at MIT - where approximately 600 people gathered along Mass. Ave. in front of the Stratton Student Center. Nearby inside Kresge Auditorium Pres. Barack Obama spoke to a capacity crowd on US clean energy initiatives. Though the vast majority of the crowd gathered in the hopes of seeing Obama over 60 people - most organized on short notice by the Boston area anti-war coalition United for Justice with Peace and the environmental organization Secure Green Future - held signs to protest the US occupation of Afghanistan inaction on climate change health care reform and foreign policy towards Iran among other issues. Billie Jo Joy a local artist and activist was dressed from head to toe in boxing gloves and held a sign that read "Profiting off of illness is just plain sick." Performing as the character The Everlasting Woman Joy walked along Princeton Avenue talking to members of the crowd and posing for photos. "She comes out when society needs her help " Joy told Open Media Boston. "The fight is not over for a strong public option. If it takes nine rounds let's let it take nine rounds. Let's knock out these special interests. Knock 'em out cold and get some real true health care for American citizens." Photos by Jesse Kirdahy-Scalia James DeLuca was wearing a Greenpeace shirt and stopped to talk with Open Media Boston about Obama's efforts to curb carbon emissions. "We want President Obama to take a leadership role on this issue. Tell the Senate and the House we can't have these weak bills. We can't have politics in a scientific discussion. The science says we need to get down below 350 parts per million and the bill that is going through the Senate right now is looking like 450 parts per million. We want him to go to the climate conference in Copenhagen in December and promise that we are gonna take a leadership role on this." Ali an organizer for the Boston Iranian Coalition told Open Media Boston he was disappointed with Obama's reaction to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's dubious re-election and the lack of US support for Iranians who protested in the wake of election fraud. "Ahmadinejad was put in power and during the uprising many people were killed raped imprisoned. And unfortunately the Obama administration concentration on nuclear issue which is an important issue but ignoring and being tight-lipped about human rights in Iran it's not gonna be in the national interest of the Iranian people or American people. […] There was many documented cases regarding killing rape imprisonment of Iranians but we did not hear anything formally or informally [from the Obama administration.] They are trying to 'put their national interests in the forefront ' but unfortunately these are short term interests. If they're looking for any long term interests if there is no peace there will be no stability." The second protest got underway in Copley Square just outside the Boston Public Library when about a dozen mothers and children from asamom.org - a national group of mothers organizing for what many commentators have stated is a conservative platform - started picketing opposite The Westin Copley Place hotel where Obama was soon to speak at a fundraiser in support of Gov. Deval Patrick. Susan Meaney an asamom.org member from Beverly Farms MA explained why her organization was protesting the President "We are a group of moms who generally don't take part in the political conversation. But recently we've become very scared for our kids future. So we got together we started talking we formed a web site. And we're just here to support change that's positive for our children's future - not for what's going on right now. "We believe in fiscal responsibility. I think that the economic policies that are going on right now are absolutely horrific. They're stealing from our children and selling them to China for 5 bucks - it's really really scary. They're printing money that we don't have. We're going into debt for this kid right here who's 2 1/2. In the meantime we have Michelle Obama with 24 servants. They need to run their government the way that we as moms run our households. We have fiscal responsibility. We need some social responsibility. Having people in charge of safe school czars who believe in NAMBLA is just not something that we're interested in having in our government. I think as moms we can make better decisions than they can." Meaney stated that her group does not represent any particular political party - and has members with varying political viewpoints. Photos by Diana Mai. Copyright 2009 Diana Mai. As the scheduled 12:45 p.m. start time for Obama's second Boston speech grew closer a group of about 50 protesters appeared next to the Copley Square Park across the street from the first group. Most of them represented LGBT organizations around Boston protesting White House policies towards gays in the military. Paul Sousa of the LGBT direct action group Join the Impact MA explained "We are here to urge President Obama to follow through on his LGBT rights promises and specifically to take action on the issues that he has sole authority over. Namely signing a Stop Loss order - which would immediately halt the discharge of openly gay soldiers - and also to stop the defense of DOMA in court." Sousa continued "DOMA - it stands for the Defense of Marriage Act. It denies marriage to same-sex couples. All 1138 federal marriage benefits. Well that's Section 3 but that's what most of the court cases are dealing with right now. He [Obama] instructed his DOJ [Department of Justice] to defend it in court when he has no obligation to do so. And that's why we're here today." The last group of about 15 on the scene was AFSCME Local 402 - a union representing 500 workers at the Fernald Center in Waltham MA. Lisa a Fernald worker who chose not to disclose her full name said "The facility I'm sure everyone knows is scheduled to close in June of 2010. So not only are we advocating for our own jobs of course but the clients that are scheduled to move out. They're being evicted from their homes. Being put into other facilities that are supposed to be scheduled to close as well. So it's a two-fold thing - we're here representing ourselves and Local 402 as well as the clients." Jeff Shay an officer with AFSCME Local 402 elaborated "It's the cruelest thing that I've ever seen happen. A group of severely developmentally disabled individuals - they're just going to up and move these people. Shut down the facility. We thought Deval Patrick was our friend. But now of course he's a turncoat like the rest of them. It's just criminal. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs as a result you know. " The event drew perhaps another dozen protestors on various issues - primarily peace activists opposing the federal policy on the ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan - and at least 200 passers-by most of whom appeared to be area workers and tourists draw by the large police presence and colorful picket signs. However if the crowd was expecting a glimpse of the Presidential motorcade they were disappointed to find out that the President was whisked in and out of the hotel via one of its many elevated or underground entrances - well out of public view. Both protests ended without incident. There were no disturbances and no arrests. Listen to the full audio of President Obama's speech below or download the file. Professor Ernest Moniz a physicist and Director of the MIT Energy Initiaitve introduces President Obama. Recorded by David Goodman/IBIS Radio. MIT protest coverage by Jesse Kirdahy-Scalia. Copley Square protest coverage by Jason Pramas. Bookmark/Search this post with: Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Newsvine Facebook Google Yahoo Technorati