September 30, 2004

Four corners with two different political views

Harry Shaw, left, in front of Bush supporters Hugh Ricciardi, center left, and his sister, Jo Dunphy, center right. Bush supporters have been demonstrating at Xenia Avenue and Limestone Street on Saturdays at the same time peace activists usually gather.

By Lauren Heaton

For two years a group of local residents has stood at Xenia Avenue and Limestone Street every Saturday at noon to oppose the war in Iraq. They’ve sat through rain, shine, snow and sleet, and nothing, they say, not even a visit from Bush supporters would move them from their spot.

Two weeks ago, that theory was tested when a group from the Bush camp got their signs together and marched on the intersection to face off against the peace demonstrators. Several longtime Yellow Springs residents and a family from Champaign County gathered on the southwest corner from noon to 2 p.m. and waved and smiled as cars drove by, honking in support of President Bush.

One Bush supporter, Hugh Ricciardi, said that members of the group have relatives fighting in Iraq, and they support the war, which they say is protecting Americans from terrorists. Ricciardi, who grew up in the village, said he wants the chance to voice his political views here.

“I’m tired of people saying we don’t belong here, I pay taxes too, and I deserve the right to be here,” Ricciardi said. “They say they’ve been here for two years, but I live here too, and if they want to be fair, that means they owe me the next two years.”

But some in the peace camp said they felt offended by the counterdemonstrators who chose to oppose them at the same time and on the same corner their group has been occupying. Self-described peacenik Joan Ackerman said it was “rude” of the Bush supporters to crowd them out of their usual space, and that it would have been more polite to choose a different time of day to express their views.

Peace demonstrator Mary Chapman said she felt “sad” about the counterdemonstrators across the street from her. President Bush is “destroying our place in the world,” she said, and she cannot wait another four years for the situation to get worse.

As she spoke a car drove through the intersection, and man hung his head out of the window. “There’s a price for peace, dummy!” he shouted.

Chapman smiled, knowing there are also many who honk in her group’s favor. Just then a man on a bicycle rode by. “Stop the war,” he said without slowing down.

On the first day the two groups shared the intersection, Sept. 18, each faction remained mostly on its own corner. Yellow Springs police officer Al Pierce responded to a call from the Bush camp about a resident who was yelling at them from her car. Later, Pierce also interceded in a heated discussion between Bush supporters Doug Fisher and Brad Fisher and antiwar protester Josh Tulecke, who had approached the Bush corner to express his views.

By the following Saturday, Sept. 25, more peace demonstrators approached the Bush supporters to engage in “verbal fighting” and encourage them to choose a different time and place to express their views, according to peace demonstrator Hazel Tulecke.

But Wanda Fisher said she and other Bush supporters insisted that they had a right to choose any corner in the village at any time of the week to express their support for the troops overseas. Fisher and others in her group peacefully stayed on their corner and tried to mind their own business, she said.

“There were quite a few hecklers who wanted trouble, but the best thing to do is to ignore them, and that’s what we did,” Fisher said.

But Hazel Tulecke said she wanted to exchange perspectives and reach an understanding with a group that seemed to believe something different from what she does. So she went over to the Bush group and tried to start a dialogue with Fisher, who lives north of Springfield. Tulecke wanted to find out why Fisher supports Bush and to share with Fisher why she does not.

“[Bush] is protecting us from this terrible terrorism,” Fisher told her. “Without him we wouldn’t be able to stand here in the street without having someone bomb us.”

Tulecke told Fisher she did not necessarily like John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, but that she would vote for him to get rid of Bush, who, she said, “stands for the super rich in a world that isn’t super rich.”

Fisher later said she did not come to Yellow Springs to have a discussion with those who think differently from her. She did not see the point in exchanging views because she was not going to change her mind, and they weren’t going to change their minds, she said.

“We just love our man [Bush] so much. He’s a good Christian man, and we just want to support him,” Fisher said.

Tulecke had a different idea about what an exchange of perspectives might do.

“A good reason for coming to this demonstration is to see whether we can hear each other and relate to each other as human beings,” she said. “If we can talk to each other and learn to see each other as human beings, then we will have done something.”

Last Saturday’s demonstration became a contest of “who can stand where and who can shout louder,” Tulecke said. But the attempt to talk was “not very successful,” she said, and until people can start listening to each other, neither side will accomplish anything.

But having different views is just fine with Bush supporter Jo Dunphy, who said she just wanted to be free to express herself without being harassed.

“If a group who has three corners cannot stand there without insulting a group with one corner, without instigation, there will never be world peace,” she said. “The only thing we were asking to do is stand on public property and be left alone, and if that can’t happen here in Yellow Springs, there will never be peace.”