Despite restrictions and police enforcement, protesters tried to make their voices heard

CENTRAL POINT — While President Bush was cheered Thursday by an invited crowd, several hundred opponents of the president’s policies said they were disenfranchised by a policy of "dedicated protest zones."

Air Force One descended through the morning’s smoke-hazed skies to a scattering of applause mixed with some boos and hisses. Approximately 200 people waving flags of support and banners of dissent mingled in a cordoned-off section of the airport. The grassy fields at the outermost edge of the airport were as close as new security standards allowed spectators to gather.

At the Jackson County Expo, more than 5,000 people entered the Compton Arena and listened to Bush speak while members of the World Wildlife Fund, Peace House, Headwaters, the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and other groups were contained in a "protest zone."

As temperatures and tempers rose, several protesters left the designated area. Refusing to remain behind a 6-foot cyclone fence in an asphalt parking lot, the protesters sought shade and a way to deliver their message. The protest spilled onto the roadway outside the Compton Arena, where some of the approximately 250 demonstrators attempted to block the presidential motorcade with a sit- in.

Jackson County Sheriff’s Lt. Dewey Patton told the protesters they would be arrested if they did not return to the area behind the fence by 1 p.m. Heading a force representing seven different law-enforcement agencies, Patton ordered all his officers to stand ready.

Beginning at about 12:45 p.m., nearly a dozen Medford police officers stood in the hot sun in full riot gear for more than an hour while a few of the protesters placed flowers at their feet, sang, chanted and demonstrated peacefully against cutting old growth forests and invading Iraq.

Democratic congressional candidate Peter Buckley of Talent was among the participants in the day’s protests. As the 1 p.m. deadline came and passed, Buckley stood at the road’s edge and expressed his frustration with the new protest policy.

"I never thought that in America, we’d be seeing something that looks like an amendment zone. The only place you can now exercise your First Amendment rights is behind a 6-foot cyclone fence," said Buckley, who is seeking election in Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District. "It’s a sad day for America. We’re a democracy."

Buckley said he was "ada-mantly opposed" to Bush’s policies. "He’s leading us in the wrong direction, domestically and internationally."

Buckley said protesters believe Bush "will side with big money interests" on a forest thinning plan.

"It needs to be a policy that works well for forest workers, the forest industry, world communities and environmental concerns."

Shortly before 2 p.m., the sit-in protesters were told the president had left through another exit. The group quietly walked away down the street.

Patton says he had received word at 1 p.m. that the Secret Service had made the decision to re-route the president’s departure to avoid the protest. He says he chose to let the protesters believe they were blockading the motorcade in hopes to keep the peace and avoid arrests.

"No sense in fighting with them," said Patton. "Let’s just take him (Bush) out the back way."

Many members of the protesting organizations said they did not support blocking the road, but had hoped to be able to discuss areas of common agree- ment and to promote collaboration. During the one-hour standoff, members of several of the groups tried to get those on the roadway to return to the designated area. But they, too, were frustrated with their inability to be heard.

"This is so disappointing that we aren’t getting to speak to our issues," said Cate Hartzell, an Ashland City Council member. "There needs to be a bridge between environmental industries and community interests. I came here today to talk about that bridge."

Others said there are some areas of agreement with the president, but major areas of concern.

"We can agree with some of the components of the (forest thinning) plan ... working with communities right away with thinning," said Dominick DellaSala, director of the World Wildlife Fund’s Klamath Siskiyou Program. "But what we don’t agree with is ... weakening environmental laws and logging old-growth forests which will only make the risk of fire greater for our communities in Southern Oregon."