Hundreds of people protesting the groundbreaking ceremonies of the George Bush Presidential Library marched from Mockingbird Station to the corner of Mockingbird Lane and Airline Road Tuesday morning. (TYLER WILLIAMS/The Daily Campus)

Protesters gathered outside of Ford Stadium Tuesday to express their discontent with the Bush administration.

Marching from Mockingbird Station to their designated location, they carried signs that decried torture and the Iraq war, chanting “Arrest Bush” as they approached SMU.

Hadi Jawad of The People’s Response, the group that organized the effort, said that he estimated 150 to 200 protesters made an appearance, and said that he felt the event was successful.

“The first thing that comes to mind is everybody’s safety. As far as everyone coming and expressing their first amendment rights and going home safely, that was a victory,” Jawad said.

While Jawad felt today was a success, he said that the lack of student participation in The People’s Responses planned events was disappointing.

“It was kind of the elephant in the room,” Jawad said. “Even if every student disagreed with us, which I find hard to believe, we need disagreement to test our own convictions.”

Cindy Sheehan, a well-known anti-war activist whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, participated in the rally.

Sheehan, who has held widely publicized protests at George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Tex., said that she felt that this protest compared favorably to protests she had attended in the past and echoed the sentiments of the “Arrest Bush” picket signs carried by many of the protesters.

“Instead of profiting off of his crimes he should really be on trial in The Hague,” she said. “That’s just a fact.”

Sheehan also said that those who support Bush and the war should be put on trial as well because “they are complicit in murder.”

Sheehan told The Daily Campus that the most important message that the protesters were sending was one of accountability.

“Just because we have the biggest military in the world doesn’t give us the ability to commit war crimes,” Sheehan said.

Protesters listened to speeches and testimony from several well-known members of the anti-war community, including Ann Wright, a former United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department who now speaks openly against the Iraq War, and Coleen Rowley, a 2002 Time’s “Person of the Year.”

Rich Hancock of Rational Broadcasting, a progressive radio show based in Dallas, emceed the event.

The event did not only attract those who were disenchanted with the Bush administration. Several people, including a few SMU students, showed up to show support for Bush and the new library.

“Every SMU student should be proud that we get to host the bush library,” senior sociology major Andrew Stallings said.

Stallings organized a Facebook group called, “Protest the Protesters,” and said that its intention was for SMU students to show their support for the library and give a viewpoint different from that of the protesters.

“Every one should have a right to say what they think, but they go too far with the ‘Arrest Bush’ signs. You can’t just make things up,” Stallings said.

Several members of the community also came to show their support. Local resident Jim Howell stood along Mockingbird Road with a sign that read, “Thank You Pres. Bush.”

Howell wanted to thank Bush because “he stood up for us,” and said that SMU having his library was “a great honor.”

The protest was peaceful, for both sides, from beginning to end and the protesters had no altercations with police, said Jawad, who expressed his gratitude to the SMU Police Department.

“We had a wonderful experience dealing with Chief Rick Shafer and Deputy Jim Walters. The SMU Police were very cooperative and very supportive,” Jawad said.

Shafer also felt that the event went over well. “Today’s demonstrations were characterized by the mutual respect we were expecting between protesters and law enforcement. It was a very good day for SMU,” he said.