By Debra Sweet and Cat Watters

On Thursday, June 18, GW Bush received the "Father of the Year" Award from the Mothers & Fathers' Day Council inside the Hilton Hotel on 53rd Street and 6th Avenue in NYC .The Council is a group that seems to exist to pander to war criminals and other upholders of "traditional American values."  This event was a benefit for Save the Children.  We were outside the Hilton Hotel for about 90 minutes, making the point to media, passersby, and people attending the Bush luncheon that Bush is responsible for starting - on the basis of lies - a series of wars which have led to the deaths of over one million Iraqis, in addition to people from Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and the death and injury of thousands of US troops.

We  were outside the hotel chanting, “George Bush, War Criminal not Father of the Year”, “George Bush Kills babies,” and holding signs that read, “SHAME, Father’s Day/Mother’s Day council, George W Bush is a War Criminal Not Father of the Year”.  Debra said, “We’re out here to say GWB is Godfather of the Year. In the 80’s the U.S. funded elements that became Al Qaeda. They funded them unintentionally by leaving all this war material in Iraq for people to pick up. They created sectarian war fair and the whole country came apart, so the U.S. is responsible for creating ISIS so now Islamic fundamentalist are now seen as the obvious answer to U.S. Imperialism.”

Is it worthwhile to keep beating this issue? We think so, and we learned from this outing.  We got an interested, and interesting reception from African Americans and European tourists.  'WHAT?  Why would he get an award?"  Bush supporters told us he was the "best" President ever, and that we'd never see another like him.  We cheered that one.

Photo: Bud Korotzer

Video: Cat Watters