With blaring speakers and crashing drums, protesters gathered in King Memorial Commons in an attempt to drown out President Bush’s State of the Union address.

Alex Hunter, a senior anthropology major, organized the protest and said it was part of a nationwide protest started by The World Can’t Wait. Sixty-four cities including New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco planned protests in affiliation with WCW.

The WCW is an organization whose goal is to “Drive out the Bush Regime.” The group is mostly made up of college students, Hunter said.

Some of the protesters in MLK Commons were part of the Labor Rights Alliance, and the Northern Coalition for Peace and Justice.

“Today was chosen because tonight is the State of the Union address,” said Jacob Miguel, a sophomore music major.

The protestors carried signs that said “Bush Lied Soldiers Died” and “Bring the Noise! Drown Out the Lies.”

They also set up speakers and played music and speeches by John Cage, an anti-war and anti-consumerism protestor.

“When Bush is making his speech we’re gonna be making noise because that’s all that’s coming from him. Noise,” said John Long, an Aurora resident who led a group of drummers at the event.

Steve Meskimen, a former NIU student, was walking through MLK Commons during the protest. He said when he was younger he had to register for the draft in Vietnam but did not go, though at the time he would have gone.

“[The Vietnam War] wasn’t about the removal of communists from Asia but it was about the money, and isn’t it what this war is about,” Meskimen said.

Meskimen also was carrying a copy of Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune. He pointed at the headline, “Largest. Profit. Ever.,” a story about Exxon’s $36.1 billion profit in 2005.

“That’s it, right there,” he said.