Bush was there to take part in a panel about health savings accounts. People at the protest a block away held signs calling for universal health care, for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and for impeachment of Bush.

Juan Figueroa, president of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, who was an invited panelist, said in a press statement, “While there may be a place for health savings accounts, they do not address the fundamental issues at the root of the nation’s and state’s health care problems." In a subsequent interview, he said he was pleased that Bush's visit called attention to the health care solution, though he wishes the event had been more of a dialogue than "an informercial."

Union leaders, including John Olson, head of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, spoke about the need to “hold the line" on health care benefits, but the line is not holding. A six-week strike by 3,500 Sikorsky workers over that very issue was settled on Sunday in the company’s favor when workers voted to accept a new contract that, for the first time, will require them to pay 20 percent of their health insurance costs.

Brian Petronella, president of Local 371 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, said universal health care is an urgent need. “When we go to negotiations -- we represent workers at Shaw’s and Stop & Shop -- [management] says, 'Why should we provide health care when Wal-Mart is not providing health care for 800,000 of their employees?’ So, it becomes a problem in negotiations."

Mark Colville of the Amistad Catholic Worker House in the Hill has gone to jail many times in defense of his activist, pacifist beliefs. Holding a sign that showed a large photo of a dead Iraqi girl, he said, “I’m here because I’m ashamed of being a citizen of this country at this moment, and I refuse to let this country be given over to criminals and murderers and thieves. So we gotta get out in the streets and denounce and expose the crimes of the government and call for the Constitution and the laws of this nation to be enforced." Among those crimes he listed “torture, rendition, holding people without charge, invading countries…he’s a war criminal."

David Drzal (at left) held up his own sign. “I just believe that this war is bankrupting this country and my children’s future. He has an unlimited checkbook on this war. There’s no end in sight; it’s a quagmire. There needs to be an exit plan."

Three freshwomen from Hamden High skipped school to come to the rally. Morgan DeGraffenried said it was better than sitting in class. “It’s definitely better because we’re actually doing something here -- not that education isn’t important," she quickly added. “But this is part of being a citizen -- holding up our rights."