World Can’t Wait’ Kicks Off In Texas — North Texans Unite At Anti-War Protest For Different Reasons
North Texans Unite At Anti-War Protest For Different Reasons
LEWISVILLE, Texas David Honish, brandishing an upside-down American flag, stood at the front of a group of 40 protestors to the side of the on-ramp of I-35 northbound in Lewisville last Thursday afternoon.
The 51-year-old Vietnam-era veteran with his symbol of distress seemed more fearful of his country’s political climate than the unseasonal October heat outside the office of Republican Rep. Michael Burgess.
“This is the most threatening period to the constitutional republic in the nation’s history, and I never thought I’d live to see anybody more evil than Nixon or stupid than Reagan. We’ve got one guy who has exceeded them both,” said Honish, referring to President George W. Bush.
This protest in Lewisville one of over 200 that occurred in American cities last Thursday may have caused rubberneckers to slow highway traffic but was for the most part peaceful as was the action in downtown Dallas near Dealy Plaza later that evening.
Kelley Allard, 35, of McKinney said she took the Lewisville event as an opportunity to have her 11-year-old daughter Sydney Duckels practice using the rights bestowed in the U.S. Constitution.
“Right now she’s currently studying the history of the American government, what civil liberties are, and I just think it’s important that she’s here,” said Allard, adding that her daughter’s social studies teacher gave her the “thumbs up” for attending the event.
When asked if she and her friends talk about the Iraq war, Duckels said that she doesn’t normally do so, but the discussions in her social studies class are “very talkative” making the period run by “very fast.”
“It makes be feel good (to be protesting here),” she said.
Not feeling good about the Lewisville event was Tim Roth, a resident of Carrollton who was seen quietly taking pictures for his self-described conservative blog, the Texican Tattler (http://mysite.verizon.net/jimroth/).
“If you would look at the people driving by and seeing the gestures and the looks that you’re getting, I’m guessing that you’re not garnering any support whatsoever,” he told the Iconoclast. “This is a very strong pro-Bush area. It’s pissing people off.”
Roth said the protest along the highway was poorly placed and badly timed because it caused unnecessary traffic congestion as students from the University of Oklahoma, such as his own son, were driving in from the north to attend the Oklahoma for the Texas/OU college football game in Dallas Saturday afternoon.
“They’re coming home today because the (O.U.) campus is shut down Friday. My son will be caught in this, so he’ll be very excited,” explained Roth.
The southbound I-35 traffic seemed to be moving regularly toward Dallas, but a few drivers in northbound lanes complained on Roth’s blog of accident-like driving conditions by the protest that day. The Iconoclast saw one car driver stop her vehicle along-side the protest to speak with a demonstrator-friend. She did stop traffic on the access road, causing the SUV driver behind her to honk his horn in frustration.
The Public Information Officer of the Lewisville Police Department, Officer Richard Douglas, told the Iconoclast that traffic along the Lewisville section of I-35 is normally steady during the afternoon hours, though “anytime of the day we can have a peak or a low,
