Moments of Noise

This was similar to the experience of Fernando Suarez del Solar, another father of a soldier killed in Iraq who protested inside the RNC. On Tuesday night, Suarez walked around the hall for 15 minutes, holding aloft a sign with a picture of his son, Jesus, who was killed in November 2003. “I stood between the Texas delegation and Bush’s father on the second floor,” he described. “When Laura Bush came onstage, I opened my sign.”

Suarez thinks that the elder Bush got a good glimpse. “And many other people saw me,” he said. “Because when the security asked me to leave, I told them I had not broken any rule. It is a peaceful demonstration. I am here according to my rights zin the Constitution to speak out. And I paid a high price for this right, because my son died in Iraq. I said, ‘You can arrest me; but remember that you are infringing on my rights as an American.’”

Suarez did several interviews and talked to a couple dozen people inside the hall. He told them the government had lied about the reason for the war, and then lied to him about the cause of his son’s death, which was originally reported as a combat casualty but he later discovered was friendly fire. “‘Too many lies,’ I told them. ‘This is why I devote myself now to peace.’” Eventually, Suarez negotiated with security to leave the arena but asked to stay outside in the hall with his sign.

And there he stood for two hours, until the convention let out and several thousand Republicans walked past him and his picture of Jesus. “Many people,” he said, “all Republicans, said they were sorry for my loss, and they agreed about the war. This really surprised me. They stopped to talk to me, and others walked by, and you could see it in their faces when they saw my sign.”

Which makes his and Medina’s protests unusually effective. Their statements were actually able to penetrate Republican indifference and mean something to the other side. These were perhaps the most important protests of the entire week and perhaps even the administration.

“When the media and the Republicans hear Code Pink, or about the protesters, they think, ‘Oh, it’s one more activist,’” Suarez said. “But when they see me and Jorge, they realize we’re not like that. And I believe others would also change their minds when they see the war fathers. We are the ones who know what’s wrong with the war.”