ustxtxb_obs_2004_09_24_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

FEATURE We Don’t Want Him Either Guerilla Theater Gets Rough in New York City BY JAKE BERNSTEIN resident Bush Back to Texas, No! Send him to The Hague! How ’bout Abu Ghraib?” chants a small contingent from the Tejas Bloc aka the Radical Tejas Bloc. They are standing against the Ford Theater on 42nd Street in New York City. It’s about 5 p.m., the day before the Republican National Convention is to begin. Only blocks away, an anti-Bush march that set out in the morning, 400,000 strong, is still working its way downtown. It’s the largest protest of a political convention in the history of the United States, and it moves slowly. The 10 or so activists at the Ford are mostly from Houston. To come to this famous street, they’ve broken off from the main bloc of Texans, about 50 compatriots from across the state united behind a large banner that says, “Yee-Haw! Is Not Foreign Policy.” The Houston activists have a banner too. It reads, “We Don’t Want Him Either.” During the march, the Texans felt honor bound to respond to the ubiquitous “Send ’em back to Texas” signs. “There is a negative stereotype of Texas out there,” notes Steve Boudreaux, a ship inspector on the Houston Ship Channel. Boudreaux had flown in on Saturday to join the bloc. He has short hair, a beard, and a t-shirt with Bush’s picture and the words “International Terrorist” written on it. A recent convert to political action, Boudreaux traces his “big awakening” to 9/11. He says he was largely apolitical before ‘Se Per s.” .140,00$5″ photos: Courtesy of Steve Boudreaux that day, an Aggie with two daughters. He had been in the Merchant Marines during the first Gulf War. But as he watched the propaganda that accompanied the “war on terror,” Boudreaux couldn’t swallow the official line that America was attacked by those jealous of its freedoms. “What a bunch of happy horseshit,” he says. Guarding the doors to the theater are about a dozen burly policemen. Glimpses of a police surveillance blimp floating over midtown are visible between buildings. On every corner stand policemen with wads of plastic handcuffs hanging trom their belts. Pedestrian and vehicular movement is tightly controlled. The NYPD set the tone on Friday when police arrested 160 cyclists from the probicycle group Critical Mass for a ride-in that normally 4 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 9/24/04