So Kentucky is a ridiculously Republican state in the US...in my hometown, there are probably about four democrats, and they're all shunned. In spite of that, yesterday, at the University of Kentucky (right outside my dorm, in fact) protestors assembled to protest GWB's inaugaration. Of course, they scattered soon after the police showed up, but it's still kind of surprising for our state to have such a thing happen.

You're not allowed to protest his inauguration? Or did they just run off cuz they were pussies? [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

More the latter, of course, though Kentucky doesn't really look favorably upon protests...

Maybe because freedom of speech only applies if it agrees with the "W. Agenda"

<font color=plum>Actually, it isn't surprising at all that some college students protested President Bush. College is the time when we begin to firmly establish our own identities and many people this age speak out agains the current establishment as part of that identity building.

North Carolina is also a deeply conservative state, but there were several protests during Bush's first term on some of our more popular college campuses.</font>

<font color=plum>There were a number of protestors along the parade route that George Bush followed after the Inauguration and there was even a protest at the Inauguration itself. A few people raised a large sign that said "No More War" (or something similar) and one of the protestors began heckling Bush during his address. He was removed by police because he was creating a disturbance and MOST of the people in attendance wanted to hear what Bush had to say. They also took the sign down because it was blocking the view of some of the people directly in front of the balcony Bush was speaking from.

There were some minor skirmishes between protestors and supporters, but the police only arrested a total of 5 people.

As long as the protests were peaceful and didn't infringe on others, they were allowed to say whatever they wished.</font>

This kind of thing shouldn't be too rare. My college (in Texas, no less) had a protest when Bush I came to speak. It wasn't a general protest; it was specifically designed to point out the ill effects of his policy decisions on Central America.

He probably didn't notice (or wasn't informed), but in any case he's not worth the money as a public speaker. He'll make a one hour speech out of small talk and war stories.

And similarly to what Cerek said, when you have a high concentration of people on their own for the first time in their lives, who are learning new (and often disturbing) things about the world around them, political activism isn't rare. At least it shouldn't be rare.

Protests at universities? Say it isn't so! Of course you're going to have protests against bush there. These places are nothing but leftist indoctrination centers, where diversity of thought is discouraged.

You've never been to a university, have you?

I wish! Then my reading lists wouldn't be half as long as they are...curse those different viewpoints!