[EDITOR'S NOTE: Our regular edition of the G21, along with Part 2 of this Special Report, will appear on Tuesday, 23 January. -- Ed.]

AMERICAN DREAMS:

G21 SPECIAL REPORT: Boos to the Chief

Part 1 of 2

20 January, 2001 11:30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) - The first US Presidential Inaugural of the 21st Century took place today. Hundreds of thousands of Americans turned out to view the event and line the parade route --- many of them protesters who endured the rain and cold (and police strategies to contain the protest message) for long hours. The inaugural parade ran nearly two hours late, adding to the frustrations of those for and against the Bush presidency. This Reporter was there to cover the event and comment on what the Mouthpiece Media has thus far provided.

First, some general observations:

1. For the first time since the second inaugural of Richard Nixon, over 25 years ago, Americans turned out in large numbers to protest the election of a new President. Authorities expected and budgetted for 20,000 protestors. Estimates now show that over 60,000 people arrived in the nation's capital.
   
   
2. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN US HISTORY, checkpoints were set up along the parade route to inspect citizens before letting them view the event. Purses and backpacks were checked before US citizens were admitted to the parade route. Some argued that their right of free assembly was thereby compromised. The anger was palpable and the lines long, often funny, but mostly frustrating.
   
   
3. One of the shortest "inaugural walks" in US history occured today, despite relatively mild weather, because Bush emerged from the new, armored presidential limousine only at the very end of his walk, to find hundreds of booing protestors at Washington's Freedom Square. He quickly jumped back into the limo and sped to a subsequent area where Republican supporters --- who had paid $150 and up for a reviewing stand seat --- would provide a more "appropriate" photo opportunity for the ritual.
   
   
4. Though some media outlets, intentionally in our view, played up the isolated incidents of "vandalism" DC police report at this hour that only SIX (6) people of the tens of thousands of protestors committed acts requiring arrest. Notably, some media organizations, confronted with an audio feed of the parade containing more boos than cheers, ran "commentator" gibberish rather than actual audio during their "live" feeds of the event.
   
   
5. What this reporter viewed on the ground was a broad spectrum of the American public outraged by the Bush installation, many of the older protestors stating this was their first protest ever; outraged by how they were treated when attending one of our country's most cherished rituals; outraged by the level of police interference in their chance to express their views (lines of abreast police being four deep in some areas of the parade route,) and --- and this is IMPORTANT --- despite police efforts to divide the groups of protestors from the Bush supporters --- a parade route covered by LOUD and VOCAL views against the agenda of a new Chief Exectuve who did not leave his vehicle for over 90% of the parade route.

This is one of the most physically arduous stories I've had to cover in a long time. I'll tell you why below....More