We had a pretty good turnout here. It was sunny and a bit chilly (around 10 above or so). All told, there were around 40 or 50 of us (I didn't get an exact head count), a fair number of Greenies/Naderites among them.  In addition, there were a number of students, faculty, staff, and alumni from the University of Alaska at the protest.  We had a good media contingent, including a reporter from the local National Public Radio affiliate, KUAC-FM, a television reporter from one of the local stations, and a reporter and a photographer from the News-Miner , which used to be our locally-owned paper until its publisher sold it to a Denver-based chain.

Larry Paquin (center left, with 'Buck Fush' sign) jokes with Sean McGuire as the protest continues in Fairbanks.  Note the sign held by Neal Matson (center right, wearing the Christmas hat, looking at camera).  Photo by Douglas Yates.

A protestor registers her opinion of George W. Bush's "presidency" as our counter-inagural protest gets underway.  Photo by Larry Paquin.

We gathered at Bicentennial Park downtown, formed up, then marched over to the sidewalk on Cushman Street where we stood for a while, waving our signs on both sides of the street. The KUAC-FM reporter set up a table and interviewed a number of us. The television reporter took his camera across the street and filmed us while the photographer walked out into the street to get some wide shots of the crowd.

Activism gets an early start in Fairbanks. Photo by Douglas Yates.

Suzi Lozo, Sean McGuire, and Frank Keim protest George W. Bush's coronation at the counter-inaugural protest in Fairbanks

After a while, we formed up again and marched down to the bridge across the Chena. Then we went over to the parking lot across from the News-Miner building where we formed up our line and waved our signs at the window containing the Arctic Cam webcam. Anyone visiting the News-Miner's website and who happened to be checking out the webcam would have seen us in the lot for those few minutes we were there.

Protestors line Cushman Street in Fairbanks to protest the coronation of His Fraudulency, King George II.  From L to R: Cynthia Hardy, Suzi Lozo, Art Greenwalt, and Neal Matson.  Photo by Douglas Yates.

Ross Coen (Left) talks to Todd Burnside while an unidentified protestor braves the cold to let his fellow Fairbanksans know how we felt on January 20th, 2001.  Photo by Larry Paquin.

The lady who owns the Miner's Restaurant, a fairly popular local eatery near the News-Miner's building, came out and loudly demanded we get out of her lot. So we did. We went back across the bridge, back up Cushman and once back at the park, we dispersed. We got a fairly high number of wave, thumbs-up, horns honking at us, and such. There was not a whole lot of negative reaction. Then again, most people were speeding right on by and probably didn't even have time to read our signs. One of our guys was getting interviewed by the television reporter when some wingnut came up to them and harangued him for a bit. The reporter had to stop the interview until this idiot said his piece to Sean. Evidently, that was the extent of the really negative in-your-face reaction from the reactionaries.

Mike Welsh jokes with Sean McGuire.  Photo by Douglas Yates.

Protestors gather in downtown Fairbanks to protest His Fraudulency's coronation and the Death of Democracy on January 20, 2001.  Photo by Larry Paquin.

All in all, a pretty good show for basically being put together at the last minute and no advertising except sending out emails, phoning a few folks, a flyer up around campus, and being listed on the Countercoup.org site. That's my report from the Last Frontier