Demonstrators on both sides of the nation’s oil crisis picketed a stretch of Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, Md. on Wednesday July 9.
Motorists passing two Exxon gas stations between Leland Street and Hampden Lane between 5 and 6 p.m. were greeted by signs supporting both alternative energy research and offshore drilling.
MoveOn.org, which had scheduled the event to raise public awareness on Sen. John McCain’s energy policies, was surprised to be disrupted by a group from FreedomWorks.
“We did not know this counter-protest would be going on,” said Ellen Leary of MoveOn.org as the evening closed. “We’re just packing up. It’s become their event.”
“For someone to come in and usurp someone else’s event and turn it into their event is wrong. It’s just bad, wrong. This is Karl Rove politics.”
FreedomWorks organizer Nan Swift said she received word of MoveOn.org’s event through the site’s mailing list. The demonstration was also listed on MoveOn.org’s website.
While the site claimed the event would boast over 30 demonstrators, less than ten were present. MoveOn.org was matched by FreedomWorks picketers, who joined the event at the Exxon station near Leland Street. The two groups then marched down Wisconsin Avenue to the next Exxon, stopping at each station to display signs to the rush hour traffic.
While ideological differences separated the demonstrators, they peacefully stood side by side for the duration of the demonstration, and even took part in healthy debates on energy issues.
MoveOn.org demonstrators handed out flyers highlighting McCain’s connection with major oil and gas companies, claiming the Presidential hopeful was tied down by the oil industry.
MoveOn.org supporter Peter Erickson, holding a sign which read “It’s Time for an Oil-Free President,” made the argument for massive change in oil dependency.
“What we need is massive involvement of the whole American people, the industrial sector, the government, pulling in one direction to make massive change,” said Erickson, “or we’re going to face serious problems for decades to come.”
Erickson spoke at length with FreedomWorks supporter Andrew Brown, who held a sign saying “Drill? Yes We Can!”
“They want to blame the oil companies,” said Brown. “It’s kind of a conspiracy theory that big oil is in the pocket of the republican or conservative movement and that we’re all just funded by these big evil corporations when really, the oil prices are just the function of economic markets.”
Ben Giles is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia. Pictures taken by Santiago Leon. A video of the event can be viewed here.
