I was disappointed in your coverage of the very valiant and numerous inauguration Day protesters, buried on page A29 amid sections full of glory and praise to this President, who was elected among some very valid, indeed unresolved to many, controversy. As you state, protesters seemed to outnumber supporters all along Pennsylvania Ave. I was one of those who braved the weather in DC to protest at the inauguration, and can attest to the truth of this.

I especially take offense to your comments in "150 rally near subway station" (A29, the Nation) that "at several points during the demonstration, protesters appeared to have a tough time deciding what to chant. One group started to yell, "Reelect Gore in 2000," but someone stepped in to tell them that the chant didn’t actually make sense." The next paragraph begins with "Confusion aside,…."

This may have been an attempt at replicating a common chant "Re-Elect Gore in ‘04". In DC, "Re-Elect Gore (and Lieberman, often) in ’04" signs were omnipresent. Obviously, this slogan is a reference to the fact that the nearly 600,000 who voted Gore, and those in Florida who had their votes discredited, do feel that their man was in fact elected. While Bush was having lunch at the Capitol from 2-3, leaving both minions and detractors freezing and wet in the sleet waiting for his scheduled 2:00 parade, these Re-Elect Gore signs flashed everywhere.

In fact, when I arrived at South Station, this was the first sign I saw held by a ticketed protester, a delightful woman dressed in Puritan garb who claimed to have the same ancestor as Bush. "Shame on you, Grandson George" she chanted.

Susie Davidson

Brookline

I began at a large rally at Dupont Circle by VoterMarch, one of three such meeting places for protesters. The signs were outrageously clever - "Clarence Thomas was the only Black to vote for Bush", "The whole world knows how stupid you are," "Re-elect Gore and Lieberman in 2004", "I Dissent", "Supremely Selected", "Bush - Major League A--hole" as well as paper-mache effigies, the most notable one of the 5 Justices with a big middle finger out.

Granny D, a 91 year old campaign finance activist who has walked across America demanding fairness in elections, was phenomenal (she mentioned GrannyD.com which I haven't had time to check yet). I left before Michael Moore so as to join the first march to hopefully catch the parade or parody shall I say. At one point we were barred by a line of baton-weilding cops from a place we had a legal permit to gather in. However there were many cops who whispered that they were on our side, and others beeped their horns or shouted their support from the balconies we passed. The biggest obstacle my friends and I faced were the constant opposition from ignorant and deluded Bushites (many of whom I admit we taunted over their devotion to start). I was shocked to see that they largely believed that Bush won the election fair and square, and continued to compare Bush with Clinton until I remind some of them that Clinton was not the one running against Bush, rather Gore, and for all they hold against Gore their personal morality arguments fell. They seem to hold a bitter vendetta against Clinton and Hillary, and I always told them they hadn't seen nothing yet with Hillary and would have her to stay. Several times we had to pull out the trump card that there were 600,000 more of us at last count than them, and the truth hurt, didn't it. I had a debate with a Black woman who was convinced that there was no Black voter intimidation in FL but rather Blacks in say Little Haiti were the ones harrassing other Blacks to vote Democratic. She truly believed this.

Bush left us all waiting in the driving sleet while he ate lunch in the Capital for an hour and the parade was over an hour late. I of course announced this loudly. I and two other protesters managed to wrangle our way up to the front of the barricades, and I hope that Bush-it saw my huge THIEF sign and my friend's umbrella with STOP THIEF on it. There was a busload of Floridians who came up for it who were a delight. They spotted Lieberman and Haddassah walking by Union Station and stopped the bus. He hugged every one of them.

It was very difficult to find anti-Bush or pro-Gore memorabilia. The few stores I ran into had none, and you can be sure I vocalized about why no Gore stuff when he after all won the popular vote. The guy I got most of my anti-Bush stuff from was rustled out of Union Station a couple of times and we had to go down an alley like it was a drug deal. I imagine they had their permit requirements, but I'd safely say that if it were someone selling inauguration items they would have no problem amongst the ball gear-clad people in the station.

I didn't make it to the human chain at the Supreme Court as we became disoriented in the streets and three local people we asked had no idea where it was (?). So we went back to the festivities at Dupont.

On the whole, though exhausting and drenching, I and everyone I spoke with was glad we went and was pledged to the continuing fight for justice. On to the Feb. 1 news numbers which will embarrass Bush-it if all agencies participating have similar results which I expect they will.

Outta here, and thank you to those who have written me privately.