[Peace] Iraq war protest held on campus

Fri Mar 14 09:40:51 CDT 2008

 [image: The News-Gazette.com]   Iraq war protest held on campus By Paul
Wood <http://www.news-gazette.com/news/reporter/pwood/> Friday March 14,
2008

Heather Coit/The News-Gazette

Erik McDuffie, center left, a University of Illinois faculty member, spends
a die-in talking with Brian Dolinar, foreground, a member of CU Citizens for
Peace and Justice, as they join others in protesting the continued war in
Iraq on the UI Quad in Urbana on Thursday. Protest organizers ended the the
almost two-hour rally by using chalk to trace participants during the die-in
to provide a lasting impression.

URBANA – Local anti-war activists marked America's fifth year in Iraq on
Thursday with speeches on the Quad, a march through Campustown and a
"die-in."

About 35 marchers gathered on Anniversary Plaza south of the Illini Union
just before noon, strode past the Alma Mater to Green Street, turned west to
Fifth Street and came back on John, then took a turn around the University
of Illinois quadrangle.

The protesters themselves noted that the turnout wasn't huge, with speaker
Alex Kueny noting that the Vietnam War was not protested in its first five
years, and that the protests peaked 10 years into the war.

Two-thirds of Americans oppose the current war, Kueny, a freshman in
history, told the crowd.

Protesters took a page from Vietnam era protesters and chanted "Hey Bush,
Whaddya Say, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today," a rhyme once used to
castigate Lyndon Baines Johnson.

"No Justice, No Peace, U.S. Out Of The Middle East" was another popular
slogan.

Mark Mallon, a junior in English who helped plan the protest as part of the
Prairie Greens Party, said he was pleased with the response.

Another Green Party leader, Susan Rodgers, said organizers had tried to get
the word out in a hurry using techniques unavailable to Abbie Hoffman, such
as Facebook and e-mail lists.

There was no evident counterprotest, though a few people shouted their
disagreement with the marchers as they walked along Green and Fifth streets.

The noon hour was a big time for high school tours, and a crowd from
Naperville fell in behind the marchers near the English Building.

One incoming UI student from Naperville, Kristen Meder, said she looked
forward to demonstration as part of her Illini experience.

"Megaphones! I love it!" she said as her group veered toward the English
Building.

Although most of the marchers were college-aged, Mark Enslin has been around
since the headier times of the 1970s.

The composer, a teacher at the School for Designing A Society, carried two
poster-sized signs as he walked his bike with the marchers.

In his opinion, the current war is celebrating its 17th anniversary, dating
back to the end of the first Gulf War of the president's father.

Enslin said a climate of militarism keeps up pressure for war in the media
and elsewhere, and opponents of the war need to do the same thing, pressing
every day for an accounting.

Another veteran protester, UI law professor emeritus Francis Boyle, renewed
a call for the impeachment of the president and vice president, as well as a
Nuremberg-like trial of U.S. leaders for what Boyle described as "genocide"
in the Middle East.

Another speaker, Green Party county board candidate Walter Pituc, said the
war is costing this country $12 billion a month, money he suggested could be
better spent on education or taking care of homeless veterans.
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Comments

[image: The News-Gazette.com, The East Central Illinios Online source for
news and advertising] <http://www.news-gazette.com/>

-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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