Another Peaceful Citizen Thrown Out of Bush Event in Iowa
[The spelling convention “pResident” is that of Blog for Iowa and not that of the author of this story.]
Hi, my
name is Mike Van Hulle, 19, from Davenport, IA, and I would like to
raise an issue that I feel needs to be discussed. I will first
tell a story about the Bush rally that occurred in the Quad
Cities. I decided to attend the Bush rally because I wanted to
hear my pResident speak. I had no plans of protesting, I just
wanted to listen to him and hear him out for an entire speech. I
wanted to see if there was a difference between what I have seen
through sound bites and his public speaking. As I was walking
into the event, I saw someone from my former high school working the
event. I thought he knew me as being a very liberal-minded person
and I walked up to him and said in a joking manner, “I'm glad to see
another Assumption student supporting Bush.” He thought I was
serious and said “Yeah!” and pumped his fist. I then explained,
“I'm sorry, I was just joking. I am actually a Kerry supporter.”
(Actually, another joke as I am undecided in the election, though I am
against Bush. I just was trying to make a friendly joke with the
kid. Apparently, he didn't get it.) He then said angrily,
“I can get you kicked out for this.” I said, no, you can't and
walked away and said “Go Kerry!” in a manner that was not directed for
everyone around to hear, but at the person I was talking to. Less
than a minute later, I was asked to leave by a man who would not
identify himself, even after several requests for him to do so. I
told him I was not a protester and I planned on listening to [Bush’s
speech]. When I politely refused to leave, he went to get a
police officer to escort me out. After a short conversation with
the police officer, who was very rude, unwilling to allow me to ask
further questions, he began yelling at me and I left the scene (at this
point with the officer I was on a city sidewalk outside of the
blockaded area for the speech, and I was still told I had to leave the
area). I had done nothing wrong, nothing disruptive, and clearly
I was not guilty of any crime, yet I was not allowed to see [Bush’s]
speech.
I then
went to the Kerry Campaign offices, who allowed me into an invitation
only event that Kerry held because they felt that wrong had been done
to me. I even told them that I was truly an undecided voter at
the time and not a full-fledged Kerry supporter. I ended up
meeting John Kerry and having a conversation with him. The
Republicans did nothing but make me feel unwanted, while the Democrats
welcomed me with open arms. Now, I am a Kerry supporter and all
it took was for him and his people to be willing to give me a fair
chance to listen to what he had to say, something the Bush group could
not do!
I feel I
have been cheated by the Bush campaign. It was wrong that they
kicked me out for simply saying I was a Kerry supporter. Everyone
has a right to hear the pResident speak if they want to and that
shouldn't be taken away because you don't support the pResident.
I believe there are certain parts of the Constitution they ignored by
denying me this opportunity. I have called the Bush national
campaign and local media groups to try and get this message out:
People who do not agree with the pResident, especially people who are
not attempting to disrupt the event, should be allowed to see their
pResident (even if it might cause a severe headache).
Mike Van Hulle,
Davenport, Iowa
Mike added this to his report:
I am not
surprised to see that other people were also asked to leave for simply
being a Kerry supporter. In fact, there was at least one teenager
that I spoke with before she attempted to enter who entered wearing a
Kerry t-shirt. She was on the local news later saying her ticket
had also been ripped apart. Her Republican friend who came with
her also was not allowed to enter. Something needs to be done
about this.
I would
also like to let you know that there were people at the rally asking to
get signatures to get Nader's name on the ballot. They said
“Support pResident Bush by signing up to get Nader's name on the ballot
in order to take away votes from Kerry.” They also found it
appropriate to remind people, “This does not mean you support Ralph
Nader.” The Bush-Cheney shirts had already answered my question,
but I asked them if they worked for the Nader campaign. The
person responded and laughed, “Yes!” Sleazy politics to the
extreme!
Thank you for turning in this report, Mike!
Blog For Iowa 