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More than 15,000 people packed a waterfront park Saturday, many waving American flags and patriotic signs, as speakers including Gov. Jeb Bush showed their support for the troops fighting in Iraq.

The military men and women are "the next greatest generation," Bush said.

"Each generation has its defining moments," said Bush, the president's younger brother. "This generation's legacy is being written now, on the seas and in sands of the Middle East."

The Rally for America was the latest in a series of such gatherings across the country inspired by syndicated radio talk show host Glenn Beck, who was looking for a way to counter anti-war rallies.

"We are here for those people who are in the desert right now," Beck told the crowd. "They are fighting fights that our children won't have to fight later."

Demonstrators in Oakland, Calif., protested the war and its cost, and residents of one New Jersey town turned out to protest their mayor's ban on yellow ribbons on public property.

Several hundred people in Hartford, Conn., stood in a cool drizzle to show their support for the troops.

"People who are against this war just don't get it," said Bob Tomasiewicz of Glastonbury, Conn., who drove to the rally in a pickup truck with "Go Protest in Iraq" painted on back.

"Sept. 11 changed everything," he said. "We have to fight terrorism wherever we find it. Saddam Hussein is a terrorist."

The Enduring Families Walk in Jacksonville, N.C., was billed as a nonpartisan bolstering of the troops, many of whom hail from nearby Camp Lejeune.

"This ain't time to be a Democrat or a Republican," said Chuck Dellasantina, a retired Marine and one of about 1,000 who made the 1 1/2-mile trek. "It's time to get out and support the troops."

But the tone was decidedly partisan in Detroit, where Rep. John Conyers told 300 to 400 people that the war is "unconstitutional" and "immoral."

"Well, George Bush, on November 2, 2004, there will be the biggest regime change you have ever seen," said Conyers, a Democrat, adding jokingly that he promised his staff he would not mention the "I" word impeachment in public.

Marchers in Oakland said they expect domestic programs to suffer as billions of dollars are spent on war and its aftermath. The rally came two days after each chamber of Congress approved similar supplemental appropriations bills that would give President Bush $62 billion to replenish defense funds depleted by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and about $8 billion for Iraqi reconstruction and foreign aid.

"So much of the federal budget is going to war expenditures," said Nancy Nadel, Oakland's vice mayor. "The federal government is sending unfunded mandates to do homeland security locally. We'll spend so much of our budget on police and fire that there'll be no other services we can offer."

In New York City's Harlem neighborhood, several hundred anti-war demonstrators rallied to commemorate the nonviolent calls for world peace made by slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King. King was assassinated 35 years ago Friday, on April 4, 1968.

Some in the crowd held signs pointing out that the military is made up of a large number of minorities.

"Our youth joins the armed services to escape poverty," said Charles Barron, a city councilman. "Our youth joined the armed services to get better education, not to be somebody's cannon fodder for oil."

Also among the protesters were several Muslims. "We have no business in this war," Hamzi Latif said. "They say it's not a war against Islam but to me it is."

Surrounded by a blue wall of police officers, an estimated 1,500 people marched through downtown Chicago to show their opposition to the war.

"Control your horses, control those sticks in your hands," former death row inmate Aaron Patterson urged police in a speech before the march. "Let's march peacefully today."

Patterson was referring to a demonstration two weeks ago when thousands of people created a massive traffic jam on Lake Shore Drive, prompting police to made more than 500 arrests. Department spokesman Pat Camden said there were no arrests Saturday.

Participants in a small peace rally on Washington's National Mall listened to folk music and poetry near the Washington Monument.

"We want to show there is still an alternative to war," Jamie Holbrook, 18, a freshman at George Washington University. "We want to move away from people talking at you and shouting and make it more of a peaceful type of event."

Because of cold, wet weather, only a handful of people stopped to listen to a ceremony in Boston that included the reading of the names of dead and missing U.S. and British troops.

"I may have been ambivalent about going to war. But we're there and I feel like we should back the troops 100 percent," said Becky Nurre, 40, visiting Boston from Denton, Texas, who shed a tear as she stopped to listen.

photo credit and caption:

Francis O'Neill holds up an American flag as he wears a shirt he designed, during troop support rally in Pleasanton, Calif., Saturday, April 5, 2003. The rally was sponsored by a local group called World Peace Through Action. The shirt depicts the famous photo of the flag raising at the World Trade Center in New York. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

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