Thousands rally in Austin to protest possible war
Associated Press
AUSTIN -- Thousands of anti-war protesters descended on the State Capitol
today to condemn the Bush administration's position on possible war with
Iraq while also expressing solidarity with U.S. troops and veterans.
Protesters including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, political satirist
Molly Ivins and counterculturist Wavy Gravy addressed the crowd in a
series of speeches that went beyond anti-war rhetoric to bolster the
protesters' sense of patriotism.
"We're being told that you can either be a patriot and support the
president or you can be anti-American, and that is a lie," said
Louis Malfaro, the event's master of ceremonies and a member of the
Austin Central Labor Union.
It was the second major protest on the Capitol's south lawn in a month.
An Austin police spokesman did not have an estimate of the crowd's size.
The crowd appeared comparable to that at a Feb. 15 protest, which police
estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 people.
Tens of thousands rallied worldwide, in some cases pressing close to
symbols of American power: the Washington Monument and the White House in
Washington, the U.S. air base in Frankfurt, Germany, and U.S. embassies
in Greece and Cyprus. They also took to the streets throughout Europe,
Asia and the Middle East.
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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1820399
