LANCASTER, Pa. – It was almost the smell of revolution in the air Tuesday night.

About 400 protesters jammed into every crevice of Penn Square‘s three available corners to protest today’s visit President Bush.

The square’s hub, the austere Soldiers and Sailors Monument, was draped with banner-waving protesters yelling anti-Bush and anti-war cries to responsive protesters across the street.

“Tell me what democracy looks like!” one group shouted.

“This is what democracy looks like!” another responded.

The protest was called by the Lancaster Coalition for Peace & Justice, but members of several other groups protested, as well as a fair number of individuals. Their issues were as varied as their protest signs.

“What’s ironic is George Bush coming to town to give an award to a wonderful little girl for raising money that will go into health care, while he’s threatening to cut health care to children in the same week,” said Lancaster protester Matt Chambers, who distributed “WISDUMB” bumper stickers to the crowd. “Is that what (Bush) expects? Children to raise money for health care?”

Over by a giant banner that read “How many lives per gallon?” another issue came up.

“I’m worried about my son’s future,” protester R.B. Payne of Lancaster said. “We’ve spent so much of our children’s future already in Iraq. (The administration) is making millions through the contractors for this war, and they’re all connected to the contractors. They don’t want this war to end. They’re making millions.”

Protester Johanna Gosse recently moved to Lancaster. She said she was attracted to the area’s “vibrant anti-war movement.”

So on Tuesday night she was in her glory.

“I’m here to show my resistance to the Bush administration and my anger that he’s expecting a warm welcome here,” Gosse said. “People in Lancaster County do not support the war. People are fed up. Just look at the group here.”

It was an impressive showing for Lancaster, where anti-war protests are often smaller, silent candlelight vigils. But Bush’s visit — paired with a rousing downtown protest just a week and a half ago by the newly formed Lancaster chapter of the revived ’60s movement Students for a Democratic Society — might have fueled Tuesday’s crowd.

Protesters’ signs, lining the entire square save for the darkened corner occupied by the former Watt & Shand facade, fueled those in traffic to honk horns for peace. The protest could be heard inside nearby office buildings, from which workers peered down onto the scene.

“This administration is totally out of control,” said Kip Adams of York, who also protested the Vietnam War in its day. “Congress needs to cut funding to this war now. There’s a saying, ‘Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam.’ Defund the war, bring the troops home.”

Flag-draped coffins lined the square’s corners, drummers kept a beat and a giant banner showing a big fist and reading “Take the power back” billowed in the wind.

There was no shortage of originality in signs Tuesday night: “Pitts and Bush vs. Kids and Troops,” “George W. Bush: al-Qaida Recruiter of the Year” and “George Bush Go to Health.”

Bill Teodecki said he was pleased to see the protest drew people of all ages, types and backgrounds.

“I like LCPJ events because it’s not just people who like to protest,” Teodecki said. “It’s people who really believe in a cause.”

Matt Smucker, a peace activist who now lives in New York City but long protested in Lancaster with LCPJ before he moved, also was impressed with Tuesday’s turnout.

“This is possibly the most spirited protest in Lancaster‘s history,” Smucker said. “Lancaster is rejecting this war and this president.”

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com

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