Vice president's visit draws hundreds of protesters

About 500 people took to the streets Friday morning to protest Vice President Dick Cheney's campus visit, making the demonstration Penn's largest since 1999.

The protesters, a mix of Penn students and community members, were showing their opposition to the proposed war in Iraq, which is being championed by the Bush administration.

Shouting slogans like "One, two, three, four, we don't want your oil war, five, six, seven, eight, stop the killing, stop the hate," the protesters marched from College Green to Walnut Street and held a rally in front of the Pottruck Health and Fitness Center, catty-corner to Huntsman Hall where Cheney spoke to honor his friend Jon Huntsman at the buildings opening ceremony.

"I think this is great," said Medical School facilities employee Tom Hutt, chairman of Philadelphia's Green Party, as he held one end of a huge Green Party banner.

"The Congress just rolled over and died," Hutt continued. "This is absolutely what people have to do to get this message out because the elected leaders aren't doing it."

The crowd at the protest was a mix of young and old, with students -- and even a few babies in strollers -- joining Penn "senior associates," older people who take classes at the University.

"I want to protest Cheney's secrecy," said Philadelphia resident Aaron Bannett, a senior associate. "We hope to show that we're not a silent minority but that there's a majority who feel similarly."

The protesters also represented a broad swath of the ideological spectrum, from members of the College Democrats to the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, a radical city group.

They carried signs with slogans like "Regime Change Begins at Home," "Make Peace" and, adding humor to the protests, "More Dick, Less Cheney, More Bush, Less George: Queers Against the War."

Approaching the issue with a sense of humor is important, said Temple doctoral student Pam Detrixhe, who was wearing a multi-colored fool's hat with bells on the tips.

"I think this whole thing is absurd," she said. "I think a movement for peace has to have some joy in it."

Women's Studies Chairwoman Demie Kurz said she wanted the Bush administration to pay more attention to the sentiments of its constituency.

"I don't think this administration is listening to large segments of the population," Kurz said. The proposed preemptive strike on Iraq is "not in the best interest of world security or America. [Bush] was not elected with a majority of the votes. I don't think he has a mandate to do this."

Second-year Social Work graduate student Janet Barker also stood in front of Pottruck, doing her own small counter-protest.

"I'm representing the minority," Barker said. "Personally, I think they have no basis for their protests... I have to support my leaders, and I have faith in the Republican Party."

Penn and Philadelphia police officers were out in large numbers Friday morning, too. Dozens of them formed a line between the protesters and Huntsman Hall.

After Cheney's motorcade sped away from the building at about 9:30 a.m., the officers dispersed slightly and the protesters who were left crowded right up to the steps of Huntsman Hall. Some of them shouted to the Huntsmans, "Send your kids to war!"

Jon Huntsman, Jr., son of the Huntsman Hall donor, said he was actually glad that the protesters were there.

"We welcome them," Huntsman said. "This makes our country great. I told my own kids to take this in and when the time comes, to decide for themselves."

College senior and Penn for Peace member Lincoln Ellis, who helped organize the protest, said he was pleased that so many people showed up.

"For a Friday morning, when most people are at work, I think it's a pretty good turnout," Ellis said.

The demonstration was the biggest at Penn since 1999, when about 1,000 students descended on College Green to protest the institution of a restrictive new alcohol policy.

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