Oct. 22, 2012 - A handful of people traveled from St. Petersburg to Boca Raton for a demonstration at Monday night's presidential debate which focused on U.S. foreign policy.  We joined up with activists from ANSWER and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, including presidential candidate Peta Lindsay.

The secret service and police would not allow us anywhere near the debate itself - we were at least a mile away from where Obama and Romney were at Lynn University.  Supposedly the reason we couldn't get any closer was because Lynn is a private institution and we were not allowed on their grounds.

As we were leaving the protest we came across a group of about 100 people marching with the Dream Defenders - a new group formed to address issues facing youth, immigrants and other people of color.  So we joined the march and protested for another couple hours. Fifteen people were arrested for sitting in the middle of the road during the protest (photo).

A few of the assumedly inexperienced organizers for the Dream protesters appealed to us to put down our signs that denounced both candidates’ foreign policy (here's a pre-protest picture of the signs).  We explained to them that it was a foreign policy debate, that freedom of expression should be respected, and that working in solidarity with each other is paramount, which many of the Dream protesters understood.

So, even though our freedom of speech was infringed upon by the republicans, democrats, secret service, police, and by some of the Dream organizers, it was still a worthwhile endeavor.

We were hoping to have more photos, but it was very dark outside so we weren't able to get any more clear pictures.