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The "Counter-Inaugural
Coalition" held a "Counter-Inaugural Banquet"
outside Union Station while the Presidet-Elect's party partied
inside. Ellen Thomas of the Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil was emcee
for the event. "It was quite a rush," she remembers,
"every word I spoke made the crowd roar. Frankly, it made
me understand for a moment what the addiction to politics might
be."
Homeless dinner tops 'counter' events
THE INAUGURATION:
A GRAND OLD PARTY
The Baltimore Sun
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1989
By Susan Baer
Washington Bureau of The Sun
WASHINGTON -- Tonight, as the limos pull up to Union Station.
one of the three sites for the $1,500-a-plate inaugural dinner,
and women in glittery gowns and men in tuxedoes step out, another
group of people will be gathering just yards away --Washington's
homeless.
The Washington Peace Center, a coalition of more than 70
peace and justice groups, is setting up a soup kitchen-style dinner
outsilde Union Station to call attention to the disparity between
the high price tag that accompanies this, the
most expensive inaugural week ever, and the great number of
homeless and hungry people in the country. "It's a horrible
waste of money," says Mark Anderson, one of the coordinators
of the dinner for the homeless, which is to be held from 5 p.m.
to 8 p.m. "We want to focus on the gap, between the rhetoric
of the incoming Bush administration and its way of presenting
itself. The gap is too glaring to overlook. If George Bush is
serious about a kinder, gentler America, he's getting off totally
on the wrong foot. We're trying not only to criticize, but to
offer another agenda for a truly kinder, gentler America."
The Community for Creatlve Non-Violence. which is assisting
in the dinner, yesterday held a news conference to deplore the
inaugural's cost, put at upward of $25 million.
NOTE: Due to threats from employees
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who might be interested.