Maine activist plans shoe-hurling action
By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 7, 2009
Kennebunk activist Jamilla El-Shafei is at it again. On Friday, between 3 and 6 pm at Portland's Meg Perry Center (644 Congress Street), the Kennebunks Peace Department "Chief of Peace" will collect shoes to throw at the White House on the day before Barack Obama takes office. In an e-mail, El-Shafei (who has demonstrated her contempt for George W. Bush on several previous occasions) described the protest as "an act of disdain for the President who is leaving office and not held accountable for impeachable offenses and war crimes."
El-Shafei plans to drive the shoes down to Washington, DC, next week. On Monday, January 19, several anti-war/anti-Bush speakers will gather in Dupont Circle for a rally. Then, protesters will march to the White House to try to throw shoes over the fence, in a reference to the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush during a December press conference. Retrieved shoes will be donated to the non-profit Peter Bug Shoe Repair Academy, which teaches cobbling skills to inner-city youth.
In a Portland Press Herald column over the weekend, Bill Nemitz wondered at what point liberals — who have mined such a rich source of anger and disillusionment for eight years — need to just "get over it."
To people who harbor similar skepticism, El-Shafei responds:
"I ask them if they could look in the face of a Gold Star mother and father, who lost a son in Iraq for a war based on Bush's lies, and say 'Get over it!' Bush has left a path of destruction from Iraq to the economy here at home and although the pain may fade people will never GET OVER IT! If hurling shoes gives them some satisfaction as a statement about the Bush presidency then I am happy to provide the venue for people to express their anger that this criminal was not held responsible."
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