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A powder-caked woman, dressed in lemon-yellow skirts and covered in shiny sequins marched down San Francisco’s Grove Street on stilts Saturday, like a lemon-meringue pie making a stiff debut.  

“I was told that people on stilts were barred from the inauguration,” she said. “So I’m dressed like someone at an inaugural ball.” 

An outraged, sometimes outrageous, parade of protesters marched from San Francisco’s Civic Center to Jefferson Park on Saturday to protest the inauguration of the George W. Bush as President of the United States. The rally swelled with citizens who felt the Republican party had corrupted the democratic process.  

Berkeley resident Kath Rodgers, who wore a paper sign that declared, “He’s not my president.” 

“There’s no way you could stay home today,” Rodgers said. “Then you’d have to accept the lie,” she said.  

Signs attested to that sentiment with slogans like saying “Hail to the Thief,” “Don’t blame me, I voted with the majority,” and “Prune the shrub.”  

While wry humor abounded — a common way to deal with what many called “tragic” election results — one earnest sign encapsulated many of the feelings of the crowd — George W. Bush, selected though racism and voter fraud. 

Denise Stripling was among the group who had come from the Unitarian Fellowship in Berkeley. Stripling, an African-American originally from South Florida condemned the voting irregularities in her home state, but said they were not out of the ordinary. But this year Stripling could not approve of business as usual. 

"We have to send a message to the new president that their failure to adhere to the people's selection is akin to a Texas lynching," she said. 

Police estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 people attended the rally and march, but Richard Becker, Western Region Co-Director of the International Action Center said that well over 15,000 people were in attendance.  

That number, he said, is two to three times as many as the International Action Center expected when they began planning the rally in October. The rally was planned to protest the inauguration of either Bush or Vice President Al Gore. The events surrounding the election brought out a crowd of people about the election, but the main point of the rally was to look beyond the question of Florida’s electoral votes. 

“Is Bush legitimate? No he’s not. But if Gore had won, that doesn’t mean the election would be fair,” said Becker. 

“The unfairness of the electoral process goes much much deeper. Both Bush and Gore were selected to be the nominees by big money.” He said that the International Action Center organized the rally to educate people about issues like racism, the death penalty and US militarism. Speakers touched on issues like socialism and the US embargo on Iraq. 

Many Berkeley groups heeded the call, and came out to representing their organizations. Penny Rosenwasser from Berkeley's Middle East Children's Alliance, rallied the crowd, reminding them the 5,000 children die each month in Iraq from sanctions there. 

A large contingent from UC Berkeley — Students for Justice in Palestine — wore black armbands and brought signs calling for a reexamination of the US’s support of Israel. UC Berkeley Law student Will Youmans felt that the 2000 elections provide a window into the lack of democracy in foreign policy making.  

“Everyone there will have feelings that the elections are a fraud. Our ability to link the shoddy state of democracy to biased foreign policy might be illuminating to people who have not made the connection,” he said. 

Although Becker hoped that the Monday’s rallies across the nation would begin a new movement to, he said, “put the needs of people here and around the world first.” Many of the marchers felt the most important point, at least for now, was to start with a condemnation of the inauguration. 

Kate Kline May of Berkeley made the trek on Saturday specifically to challenge what she views as a corruption of democracy. 

“I believe sincerely, as do many lawyers and professors, that they stole the election by chicanery,” said Kline May of Berkeley.  

While the confluence of causes brought spirit and numbers, she worried that what for her was the major issue, the election, could become obfuscated by the myriad causes. 

Long-time Democrat Joyce Glick agreed that the march made one pointed message. “I think it has to go down in history that this election was a fraud,” she said. 

Judith Scherr contributed to this report.