[Peace] check out the Quad Wednesday morning -- chalk bodies asking for the troops to come home

[Karen Medina]

Dear Peace,

Under the cover of darkness, the Campus Anti-war Network gathered on the University of Illinois Quad this evening and drew literally hundreds of chalk outlines of bodies on the sidewalks. They wrote some of the usual slogans like "College not combat, troops home now", "End the war", "Over 1,000,000 Iraqis dead", "Occupation is not liberation"  and some not-so-common things like "Bush does not care about the troops. He only cares about Halliburton" and "How many dead bodies do you think the average Iraqi child has seen?".

If it does not rain tonight, the bodies will be underfoot for tomorrow morning's classes.

But there must have been loads of classes and exams this evening as well, for there were large numbers of students walking by the chalkers all evening. Even if the chalk is washed away by morning, the messages were seen by loads of people. 

One homeless Desert Storm veteran riding by on a bike stopped to argue with the chalkers, and after half an hour of conversation he was coming up with slogans for the chalkers to write as well. 

One by one, the Campus Anti-war Network is making a difference.

-karen medina