On Monday, May 3, George Bush was at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo Michigan as part of his Michigan "bus tour". Here is an account by two Kalamazoo residents who were denied entrance to Wings Stadium because of their political beliefs:
hi everybody-
i dont know where to begin, mostly because i can't think because i am so angry/sad/dissapointed/confused. today (monday) a group of my friends (7 of us total)and i went to go hear president bush speak. i was never informed that it was a "private" event.
lisa dallacqua and i stood for 2 hrs in the rain last friday to obtain tickets, from the local chamber of commerce on wmich, to hear bush speak @ wings stadium. today when we arrived to hear the "president" speak (we were dressed "conservatively" with no plans to cause a disturbance inside. we just wanted to hear the president, with views different from our own, give his speech. we thought that this is what democracy is all about-- hearing all sides).
as we arrived we showed the event organizers our photo ids and our names matched our tickets-- we were on "the list". as we approached however, several k college republican members acted astonished that we had tickets and asked us how we got them. we told them that lisa and i had gone to the chamber of commerce and recieved them there.
the k college republicans then alerted the event security staff about our presence and then, as we waited in line to enter, were told by event security that we had to leave b/c we had been identified as "threats". their excuses were numerous-- they said we failed background checks (although none of us has ever been convicted of a felony and we had not even given them our social-security numbers), that we had been deemed "threats" to security, and that we were on a secret service list of people that would cause a "disturbance".
we all demanded to see this "list" and wanted to know who told them this information. they told us there "hear-say is enough to be escorted from the premises". the event security proceeded to tell us that if we did not leave immediately, we would be arrested.
we remained and demanded to see this "list" and said we had never been informed the president's speech was a "private" event and that we are citizens and have the right to hear our president speak-- we also wanted to know what logic/evidence had caused us to be put on a list as "threats".
the police arrived, and under the threat of arrest, we were escorted down the road and out of sight of wings stadium. our group proceeded to tell our story to FOX News (it was the only news station we could find) and then sat in a wendys... angry/sad/betrayed/and FURIOUS! Furious b/c we were denied entry to an event for which we had tickets, b/c it was the president, and b/c we were wanted to hear a view different from our own. i cannot believe what happened to us was local republican "policy". we are furious at the k college republicans as well for supporting this policy and enforcing it. the k college republicans talk about this campus one lacking a diverse political voice, yet they denied their classmates access to a differing opinion.
as a result, we wrote an article for the Index and plan on submitting articles to the Kzoo Gazette, Cincinatti Enquirer, Toledo Blade, Ann Arbor news paper, and the New York Times.
is there anything else we can do? i would love any and all input. we are all confused/angry/sad/dissapointed..etc...
peace,
one world-
ted hufstader
