National Demonstrations to Keep Elian Free

by News Wire | Apr 30, 2000 | POLITICS

Thousands of Americans were holding demonstrations on Wednesday, May 10th, 2000 outside the Federal Buildings of major American cities. The goal of these demonstrations was to make Americans aware that the moral thing to do is the American thing to do: protect Elián’s right to his own life by keeping Elián free in America, since […]

Thousands of Americans were holding demonstrations on Wednesday, May 10th, 2000 outside the Federal Buildings of major American cities.

The goal of these demonstrations was to make Americans aware that the moral thing to do is the American thing to do: protect Elián’s right to his own life by keeping Elián free in America, since according to Cuban law his life does not belong to him, but to the state.

Elián’s right to his own life is the fundamental issue in this case, and this issue is being covered up by the false alternative of “family values” versus “anti-Castro politics”.

How well did we do?

The Numbers
Here are the early attendance reports from each city’s demonstrations:

Miami, Florida: 700 to 1,000 (150+ had registered by e-mail) – 2 blocks closed
Los Angeles, California: 500 (police estimate) to 1,000 (225 had registered by e mail)
New York, New York: 100 (110 had registered by e-mail)*
Chicago, Illinois: 100 (35 had registered by e-mail)
Atlanta, Georgia: 60 (40 had registered by e-mail)
San Francisco, California: 50 (42 had registered by e-mail)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 50 (40 had registered by e-mail)
Seattle, Washington: 40 (26 had registered by e-mail)
Boston, Massachusetts: 40 (30 had registered by e-mail) *
Charlotte, North Carolina: 40
Houston, Texas: pending (30 had registered by e-mail)
Jacksonville, Florida: pending
Louisville, Kentucky: pending
Kansas City, Missouri: pending
Washington, DC: pending

I will uploading city reports in the next few days.

Media Coverage

NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw reported the demonstrations in a 15 second story Wednesday evening.
AKEF led the news in Miami, Florida’s Miami Herald, which ran the headline: “Demonstrators seen coast-to-coast” and reported: “From Miami to Jersey City, D.C. to L.A., hundreds of demonstrators marched to federal courthouses, waved Old Glory, sang the national anthem, shouted “God Bless America!” and listened to Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Their cause: to keep Elian Gonzalez in America. “Americans to Keep Elian Free” exercised their civil liberties Wednesday with rallies in 15 major U.S. cities and even down under in Melbourne, Australia.” This is an American issue,” organizer Mark Da Cunha, 29, said in Miami. “It involves individual rights which should concern all Americans.” The story is available by clicking here.
Cable News Network’s (CNN) Headline News regularly reported the AKEF rallies during its top stories rotation and repeatedly aired footage of the Washington, DC, rally.
Fox News Channel aired footage of one of the nationwide demonstrations during its hourly headline reports.
New England Cable News reported news of the national AKEF demonstrations during their 10 and 11 o’clock news broadcasts and aired footage of the Atlanta and New York’s demonstrations.
Los Angeles TV station KCAL, channel 9, aired 10 to 15 seconds of footage of the Los Angeles rally on its 10 o’clock news broadcast on May 10
San Francisco area TV station KNTV, channel 11, reported and aired the San Francisco rally in Union Square during its 6 o’clock news broadcast
Chicago’s AKEF speaker, Adam Mossoff, was interviewed by a popular Indianapolis, Indiana talk radio host on the eve of the Chicago rally
Boston’s demonstration was aired live at noon on Boston’s channel 7, WHDH, again at 12:30 pm, and again during the evening news broadcasts.
Charlotte, North Carolina’s CBS News’ affiliate, WBTV, aired the Charlotte demonstration
Pittsburgh’s Fox TV station, WPGH channel 53, aired covered, reported and aired footage of the Pittsburgh demonstration on its 10 o’clock news broadcast on May 10. WPGH-TV reported the AKEF demonstrations, reported national coordinator Mark Da Cunha’s petition and noted that it has over 11,000 signatures. Also, Fox also ran a clip from an interview with a demonstrator who compared Cuba to a Nazi concentration camp and equated communism with slavery.
Seattle’s demonstration was reported in the Seattle Times, which published a photo of demonstrator Amy Chase and her son, surrounded by posters.
Pittsburgh’s rally received prominent and extensive coverage in the city’s major newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in an article available at: this link
Charlotte’s ABC News’ affiliate, Channel 9, aired footage of the Charlotte rally.
CBS News’ Atlanta affiliate, WGNX channel 46, fully covered and reported Atlanta’s rally and aired an interview in a video clip available at: this link
Seattle TV station KIRO covered and aired footage of the Seattle rally on May 10
Atlanta’s CBS station, WGNX, had also presented an interview with Atlanta coordinator Scott Hughes as one of its lead stories on the Sunday 11 o’clock news broadcast
Atlanta’s rally was featured during a news broadcast on San Francisco’s Spanish language TV station KDTV, channel 14, which also aired interviews with Atlanta demonstrators. The segment concluded with footage of the San Francisco demonstrators’ march to Union Square and an interview with San Francisco demonstrator Israel Sanchez
Spanish-language San Francsico TV station KSTS, channel 48, aired interviews with three demonstrators
World Net Daily article
Associated Press (AP) interviewed Los Angeles spokesman Scott Holleran, whose comments were quoted in several AP stories used by newspapers, magazines and Web sites
Boston speaker Peter Schwartz was interviewed by a reporter for National Public Radio about the ethics of immigration
New York coordinator Andrew Hazlett was interviewed by Radio Marti
Los Angeles spokesman Scott Holleran was interviewed by Catholic Family Radio in a pre-rally broadcast
San Francisco news radio station, KSFO (560), made several announcements about the AKEF rally there on May 10
Los Angeles demonstrator and Vietnam War veteran Ronnie Guyer was interviewed for 30 minutes on LA’s K-LITE 1390 AM by Christian talk radio host Jane Chastain
The Charlotte Observer interviewed Charlotte coordinator Daniel Wahl and quoted him saying that the demonstration was primarily for freedom
Pittsburgh’s rally was also reported in the area’s Tribune-Review newspaper.
Southern California’s May 11 edition of the Orange County Register reported the AP story on page 16 of the news section
Miami Herald published an announcement of the Miami and nationwide demonstrations
Boston Globe interviewed Boston coordinator Catherine Courtemanche
The Charlotte Observer interviewed speaker Gary Hull, who called Castro’s government “a destructive, inhumane dictatorship” and said “There is no freedom of speech, no free association. There’s no rights at all, let alone, as Janet Reno claims, the rights of a father.”
Boston Herald interviewed Boston coordinator Catherine Courtemanche
The national AKEF rallies were reported by MSNBC at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/386305.asp
Los Angeles demonstrator Matt Moreles’s essay in favor of Elian’s individual rights was published in the UCLA Daily Bruin and U-Wire, a college newspaper syndicate and is available by clicking here.
CNN covered the Los Angeles rally and interviewed speaker Leonard Peikoff, Ph.D., and several demonstrators
NBC News’s Los Angeles affiliate, KNBC, covered the Los Angeles rally
CBS News’s Los Angeles affiliate, KCBS, covered the Los Angeles rally
ABC News’s Los Angeles affiliate, KABC, covered the Los Angeles rally
Chicago’s super station WGN covered the Chicago rally and interviewed Chicago demonstrators
WBZ News Radio 1030 covered the Boston rally
The Associated Press covered the Boston rally
The Boston Herald and the Boston Globe covered the Boston rally
AKEF rallies were covered in a string of wire reports and articles in newspapers, magazines and on the Web:
Excite News on Demonstration
Excite Photos
Excite Photos 2
Miami Herald Breaking News
CBS Marketwatch News Alert 1
CBS Marketwatch News Alert 2
Yahoo Article on Elian Rally
Yahoo Article 1
Yahoo article 2
Washington Post
Yahoo News
CNN Covergae
LA Times
National Review
LA’s Spanish language newspaper, La Opinion, published an article on the asylum hearing with a photo of one of the rallies and a caption reporting the nationwide rallies
Fox News
Detroit News
Miami Hearlad

Demonstration Photos

Pittsburgh, Blake Scholl: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~reason/elian

Lower-resolution versions of the same pictures are at: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~reason/elian/smaller

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20000510/us/cuban_boy_protest_75a.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20000510/us/cuban_boy_protest_nn5.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20000510/us/cuban_boy_protest_cvy.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20000510/us/cuban_boy_protest_hut.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20000510/us/cuban_boy_bhx.html

News Wire

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