DENVER—Robert McLaughlin held aloft a banner supporting abortion rights. He avoided eye contact with a man with a guitar who belted out an anti-abortion song: “It’s a baby, not a molecular glob!”
McLaughlin tried to ignore the heated exchanges around him, shifting his weight between his feet and looking like he was trying to find his ride home.
“I don’t know. It’s weird,” said the decorated 67-year-old former staff sergeant, wearing a “Veteran for Peace” T-shirt at the dueling rallies Saturday outside the Planned Parenthood of the Rockies’ headquarters.
McLaughlin is one of several thousand demonstrators in Denver for the Democratic National Convention that begins Monday. When pressed why he was a counter-demonstrator at an anti-abortion rally, he confessed it was his first one.
“I’m really here to protest the Iraq war,” he said.
McLaughlin, a retired fisherman from New York City, said he was at a Times Square anti-war rally last month when someone handed him a pamphlet for the anti-war group The World Can’t Wait. He said he called and arranged to come to Denver as part of a protest group.
Once here, he was assigned to live at a house with about 30 other people. They were assigned to attend various protests throughout the city.
McLaughlin is also scheduled to attend a “Funk the WAR-Dance” march Sunday along the 16th Street Mall. Demonstrators are encouraged to bring drums and instruments. On Wednesday, it’s an anti-war concert featuring Rage Against the Machine.
“I’m just trying to keep up with these 20-year-olds,” he said.
But the march close to his heart is the Iraq Veterans Against the War March scheduled for Wednesday. Hundreds are expected to march from Cuernavaca Park to the Denver Coliseum.
McLaughlin said he’s worried he could be arrested because organizers don’t have a parade permit for the march.
“I don’t want to be arrested, but I’m putting $400 on my debit card, just in case,” he said.
