Camp Democracy: Anti-War Deja Vu

WASHINGTON — By a giant balloon caricature of President Bush with a Pinocchio-long liar's nose, the tents of Camp Democracy squat stubbornly in the September sunshine — a defiant little community of left-leaning causes stuck just beyond bullhorn range from the White House.

Americans are deeply divided over Bush's Iraq policy, reflected in a USA Today/Gallup Poll this week showing a 49 percent to 49 percent split on whether the war was a mistake. The most visible expression of antiwar sentiment in the nation's capital is this ragtag assemblage of activists and symbols.

"This is what's going on right now," said Sandy Clifton, a peace activist from near Austin, Texas, who said this is her 14th demonstration in the past year.

From Sept. 5 through Sept. 21, protesters from around the country are coming in shifts to show their outrage over Bush's policies.

"I had a few vacation days," explained Debbie Clark, a leader of Veterans for Peace in Atlanta, in a telephone interview. So she spent the time earlier this month helping set up Camp Democracy before returning to her job in Georgia.

"I wanted to help keep the (antiwar) message going," said Clark, who described her politics as more libertarian than liberal. "I wish I were there right now but I had no money or vacation days left."

With the Beatles song "All You Need Is Love" blasting from a boom box, a Sixties-like spirit drifted across Camp Democracy on this warm afternoon. Tourists stopped by to chat about international crises and domestic politics and the American way of disagreement.

"It's good to see activist people out expressing their opinions, especially so near to the Capitol," said James Taylor, an English teacher at the Atlanta International School, meandering through with a class. "It's a perfect example of the exercise of free speech for the students. Plus the caricatures are funny."

People stopped to pose with "Bushocchio" — the 20-foot tall balloon president with one thumb up, a jet fighter pilot helmet in the other hand and an "Impeach Me" sign on the back of his flight suit. At least as popular, though, were the big, sculpted paper mache heads of the "Bush Chain Gang:" the president, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"One man went back to his hotel and put on a tie and had me take a picture with them. He said he was going to use it for his Christmas card," said Barbara Cummings, an activist from San Diego who wore a black tank top with "Impeach Bush & Cheney" on the front and stuck a small American flag in the French braid of her blond hair.

"His wife said, 'Honey, don't do that. Dad will never speak to you again,'" Cummings recalled. "Her father is a big Bush supporter."

While Camp Democracy is united in opposition to the war in Iraq, it is supported by an alliance of groups with an array of additional causes. Velvet Revolution, Consumers for Peace, Code Pink, the Rainforest Action Network, Veterans for Peace, the National Organization for Women, the National Immigrant Solidarity Network and the Justice through Music Project are among the sponsors.

For the students from Atlanta, strolling through the tents was like walking through a time warp to the era of hippies and love beads and Vietnam War protesters.

"I'm a mystic," said Ronald Lee Vaught, who manned the camp's meditation tent. "I do chants for peace and teach people how to meditate."

He has created a conglomerate mantra from many religions.

"We all want the same things — unity, peace, joy, prosperity, integrity of our families," said Vaught, who sports a bright sunburst tattoo and said he came from Orange County, Calif. He recited his peace poem: "Peace in our hearts/Peace in our hands/Peace in our minds/Peace throughout all the lands/Peace, yes we can."

Nearby, the "Impeachmobile" showed a handcuffed president in prison stripes. In the shadow of the Washington Monument, a graveyard of cardboard tombstones symbolized the war dead. A session on non-violence training was going on in one tent on the National Mall. Activists painted placards in another.

Someone asked the Georgia students — all sophomores at the private school — what they thought of Camp Democracy.

"It's cool," said Mehmet Ozelci.

John Handford said he is "supportive" of the antiwar sentiments.

"I'm not," said Eric Fischer. "We've got to stick by our president."

"It's a good thing that people are showing their opinions," said Emily Robey-Phillips.

Unlike the earlier era of love and peace and protest, though, these tents were full of folks the ages of the students' parents and grandparents and not their contemporaries.

"I'm trying to find something effective to do to save the world for my children and grandchildren," said Dave Clifton, a retired engineer and Sandy's husband, who came from Leander, Texas, near Austin.

"All our lives, we've been concerned about the short-sightedness of government," he said. "I thought Vietnam would leave a legacy of enlightenment about unnecessary wars but now we have the same thing happening again."

Although he joined Army ROTC to avoid conscription in college, Dave Clifton said he protested against the Vietnam War. He said there isn't the same fervor in the antiwar movement now "because there's no draft."

"Back then, everyone had some skin in the game," he said.

Mona Hall from Dallas wore a button declaring "Grandmothers Uniting for Peace." Her 20-year-old grandson is a college student but she said flatly that she wouldn't let him fight in Iraq.

"He will not die for George Bush's oil," she said.

Susie Kirk, a member of Code Pink Austin and a substitute teacher in Creedmoor, Texas, rode a day and a half in a van to reach Camp Democracy. She is staying with a woman who supports the antiwar cause, she explained, "and was willing to let me sleep on her couch."

"I came because I wanted to speak out against the current administration. I want to express my outrage," said Kirk, who plans to go to the office of her congressman, Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, and Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, both Republicans, to make her views known.

A man in a straw cowboy hat and T-shirt saying "Wellstone for President 2000" wandered by. Another man introduced himself as the camp manager and said, "I'm zool, lower case. It's my taken name."

On Wednesday night, the camp's occupants will march to a nearby theater for the opening of the movie "The U.S. vs. John Lennon." On the boom box, the Beatles sang, "All we are saying is give peace a chance."