Anti-Nixon Protesters Refuse to Mourn

Not everyone mourned the passing of Richard Nixon.

In Portland, Ore., a tombstone-shaped sign read "Honk If You're Glad Dick is Dead," and several people who drove past did.

"Lots of people laughed. Lots of people smiled," said Eddie Ludwig, who carried the sign among a small band of demonstrators in downtown Portland. "I haven't had one negative response. I was expecting to get run off the curb."

The tiny group that gathered yesterday just a few hours before Nixon's funeral in Yorba Linda, Calif., provided only a whisper of what it was like during his administration, when hundreds of thousands protested the Vietnam War.

Margaret Labadie, 72, and her son, Marc Labadie, 47, remember that era well.

Both took part in big anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C.

Mrs. Labadie even wore a "Throw the Bum Out" button she kept from the days of the Watergate scandal that eventually forced Nixon to resign.

She and the others said they were upset with the favorable coverage Nixon has received since his death last Friday.

He died of a stroke in New York at age 81.

"I'm offended because I was among many protesters many years ago," she said.

In Albany, N.Y., cannons boomed at noon in memory of Nixon in a ceremony that drew a few hundred state workers.

As the cannons fired, a man wearing a rubber Nixon mask walked through the crowd, climbed on a step next to a statue and gave Nixon's familiar two-armed victory sign salute.

Some heckled the protester, who identified himself only as "Richard Milhous Nixon."

"Why don't you show some respect?" someone yelled.

"He didn't show respect for the people he bombed," the man answered before disappearing through the crowd.

In Portland, the protest took place without incident, although someone left a death threat on demonstration organizer Dan Handelman's answering machine.

"I was looking at the newspaper on Monday and it said the flags were going to fly at half-staff for 30 days, federal workers are getting the day off and there's no mail being delivered," Handelman, 29, said.

"I thought that was a little extreme reverence for a man who was basically kicked out of office."