By JOHN YAUKEY
Gannett News Service

NEW YORK - Fourteen-month-old Charlotte Raitte was attending her first civics class: democracy by osmosis here at City Hall Park on Saturday afternoon.

"We don't want her to sit on the sidelines when she grows up," said her mother, Abby Raitte, who was among several thousand people demonstrating for and against abortion rights in the shadow of the upcoming Republican National Convention. "We want her to revel in free expression."

GROUND ZERO

At ground zero, politics make uneasy backdrop By MIKE MADDEN, Gannett News Service NEW YORK - Staring at the hole in the ground where the World Trade Center once stood, Joan Stermer wondered how anyone could question the war against terrorists that President Bush has waged. "We have to stop them somehow," said Stermer, a self-employed businesswoman from Chenango Forks, N.Y. She was taking some of her children to ground zero, following a trip to Long Island where her daughter is in college. That may be exactly the reaction Republicans are hoping for as they gather here this week to nominate President Bush for a second four-year term. Almost three years ago, Bush stood on the smoking rubble of the World Trade Center and promised vengeance. With the election about two months away, he is staking his presidency on whether Americans believe he can defend the country better than his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. And though the GOP is coming to a city that overwhelmingly supports Democrats and to a state that Kerry is heavily favored to win in November, echoes of Sept. 11 will resonate all week. While memories of the day are fresh around the country, few sights seize the emotions like ground zero, less than three miles from Madison Square Garden, the convention site. Republicans will honor Sept. 11 victims and their families on Monday, when former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani addresses convention delegates. Nothing official is scheduled at the former World Trade Center site. "Everybody who says they don't want a war - this reminds them of why we're over there," Stermer said, waving at the empty pit. Very little remains of the mess of steel and concrete that covered the site for months after Sept. 11. Only a single steel girder in the shape of a cross still stands. Construction equipment rings the site, but the memorial that will eventually sit there is far from complete. Meanwhile, just to the south sits a little reminder that politics really does know no bounds in an election year. Across the street from where the twin towers stood, peace signs and posters protesting the war in Iraq - with slogans like "Dissent is Patriotic" and "No More Lies" - dot the windows of an office building that overlooks the site. For some visitors to ground zero, it's best if the convention stays uptown. "I just don't like to see this politicized," said Kerry Waldee, 52, a dentist from Davie, Fla., who was moved by the size of the destroyed area. He plans to vote for Kerry in November. Many Democrats say politicizing Sept. 11 is exactly why the Republicans came here. "What are they doing in New York if it's not about 9/11?" said Matt Bennett, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. Democrats argue that Bush squandered his image as a strong leader by invading Iraq, which nearly half of Americans now think was a mistake. Republicans say they have only good intentions. "It's a sign of respect and our reverence for, first, all of those who suffered here and all of those who responded here," said former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, Bush's campaign chairman. "They showed us as a nation what Americans can rise up to be." Some Republicans who think Bush knows best how to fight terrorism said there's nothing wrong at all with reminding voters of the horrific attacks. "It's only right to have it here," said Tione Willox, 34, a substitute teacher from Douglas, Wyo., whose husband Jim is the state's Republican Party chairman. She and Jeanie Wright, 35, an alternate delegate who directs the Douglas Chamber of Commerce, went to ground zero early Saturday, two days before the convention started, so they could pay their respects. For Brian Dean Scott, 28, a medical student at Michigan State University, ground zero teaches a lesson about terrorism and the urgency in fighting back - and even expanding the war to Iraq. "We were attacked," he said. "You take care of your business."

The peaceful Raittes are the kind of protesters city officials hope will come to characterize the numerous demonstrations planned around the convention, which begins Monday and wraps up Thursday with George W. Bush's nomination acceptance speech.

The issues being protested are varied - from abortion to war - but the teeming throngs are largely united by the single focus of their mission here: ousting Bush.

Early demonstrations have mostly been peaceful, with several dozen arrests for nudity and throwing pasta at police officers, among other minor charges.

But that could change at any moment, a possibility driven home by the arrest of two men Friday on suspicion they were plotting to bomb a subway station. Those arrests, however, were not believed to be connected with the convention, nor the suspects with any international terrorists.

Still, in the coming days this city could find itself in the eye of angry protesters and hyped-up police squaring off amid terror warnings that indicate al-Qaida wants to attack Americans sometime during the election process.

War is forefront

Sunday's widely publicized anti-war protest, expected to attract 200,000 or more demonstrators, has city officials a little nervous, if only because of its sheer size and the intensity of some of the rhetoric.

"We're here to say no to their (GOP) policies of war, greed, hate and lies," said Leslie Cagan, one of the organizers of the protest march being planned by United for Peace and Justice.

In Boston, during the Democratic convention in July, the largest protests drew only several thousand demonstrators.

In the end, New Yorkers may simply be in for a week of political and civic goulash: a mix of unrelated and relatively harmless protests spiced with a few bizarre arrests.

But City Hall isn't taking any chances, deploying 10,000 police officers for the convention, twice the number in Boston. There are also legions of federal agents.

Fearing shades of Chicago in 1968, when demonstrators tainted the Democratic convention and gave Richard Nixon ammunition for his law-and-order campaign, Democrats have issued disclaimers in advance of the GOP gathering.

"Let me be crystal clear - we have nothing to do with the demonstrations," Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said. "The Republicans know that. Their strategy is to see if they can link us to a bunch of lawbreakers."

Anarchy and panties

Most of the protesters are serious, if not grim. A few groups are simply cute. Some are potentially dangerous.

Those protesting job losses and economic woes have some fresh numbers they'll point to.

On Thursday, the Census Bureau reported the number of Americans living in poverty rose by 1.3 million last year, while the ranks without health insurance swelled by 1.4 million.

It was the third straight annual increase in both categories.

Anti-war demonstrators have their statistical ammunition as well.

In July, 43 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, up from 37 in June. The total killed in Iraq since the war began March 19, 2003 is fast approaching 1,000. The cost of the war, meanwhile, is expected to exceed $200 billion early next year when the current funding runs dry.

Among the most worrisome wildcards in the mix are the self-described anarchists. In 1999, more than 500 were arrested in Seattle after damaging storefront businesses and clashing with riot police.

According to various Web sites set up by the anarchy groups, some demonstrators are planning to tie up traffic, cause chaos on Broadway, and crash delegate and corporate parties.

A conservative group of about 200 members calling itself the Protest Warriors plans to march alongside some of the anti-GOP demonstrators to "strike at the intellectual solar plexus of the left."

On Wednesday, the Axis of Eve, "a coalition of brazen women" will hold a panty flash to attract attention to their mission of deposing the president.

More than cops

Demonstrations will proceed under the watchful eyes not only of police officers, but legions of Secret Service and FBI officers as well. City prosecutors are reportedly prepared to process 1,000 arrests a day.

The challenge is to balance freedom of speech with security for a Republican president in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-1.

At City Hall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made it clear security trumps even budget concerns.

"First, the most important thing is to make this city secure, and then we'll figure out how to pay for it," he said before the convention.

That prompted New York City police and firefighters, working without a contract for two years, to schedule protests against Bloomberg.