< Back | Home

Students and staff of Western and Macomb citizens gathered outside of Chandler Park Saturday to take part in a rally to end the Iraq war.

Anti-war activities take to the streets

Students and citizens acknowledge the fourth anniversary of Iraq War through peaceful gathering

By: Geoff Rands

Posted: 3/26/07

The fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion was commemorated in Macomb Saturday morning with an anti-war demonstration, public speakers and live music.

The annual event, sponsored by the Macomb Area Alliance for Peace and Justice, garnered a crowd of more than 60 students and Macomb residents.

"What can you do after you send messages to Congress and they debate resolutions that are tepid?" said MAAPJ member and event organizer Sally Egler. "The only thing to do is take to the streets."

"What's great is you can't really spin a protest," said Greg Johnson, senior political science major.

Planning for this year's event started Jan. 1 when the American death toll from the Iraq war reached 3,000. Members of MAAPJ determined that they needed to begin planning for the anniversary "because it was obvious this wasn't going to go away anytime soon, and indeed, now we have a surge. So who knows when the end will come? If the end will come?" Egler said.

Attendees stood along the sidewalk on the north side of Chandler Park to begin the event, holding various signs for an hour. Some of the signs had quotations from renowned thinkers of past generations, and others simply stated, "We are the deciders."

While many passing motorists honked and waved to show their approval, one passer-by merely mooned participants, prompting a masked young man to shout into his megaphone, "It's easy to ignore the American public when your back is turned!"

"This is passive, which it should be," said Western theatre professor Ray Gabica. "But the passive resistance of Gandhi doesn't really work in the world today. It's the guy with the biggest toy, the strongest toy, the smallest telephone that wins. But if for nothing else, this gets the discussion going."

Following this demonstration, the group moved to the First Presbyterian Church on North Dudley Street due to the threat of poor weather for speeches by six Macomb residents, including journalism professor Mohammed Siddiqi, who had not spoken to any media sources regarding the war in two years.

"How can we allow tyranny, oppression and injustice to become our identity?" Siddiqi said. "How can we allow Guantanamo to continue? How can we let our soldiers die every day? How can we let hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians lose their lives?"

Many, both presenters and attendees, echoed Sally Egler's earlier statement. "Recently deceased columnist Molly Ivans was always puzzled that the American people weren't out banging pots and pans in the street over this arrogant haplessness we've seen in this administration ... If government and media are ineffectual, then we are the balance," presenter David Egler said.

"We're not going to be listened to with old huff like this, it's going to take mass demonstrations (as took place during the Vietnam war)," said presenter Rich Mathers.

One student, who wished to remain anonymous, said they feel that the growing support against the war is "a good and bad thing. Sixty percent of the population is against the war, so some people feel that they don't need to come out."

David Aguina, a soldier who has completed a tour of duty in Iraq, appeared at Chandler Park in military dress to support the war, and politely told anyone who would listen of the four peace activists captured in Iraq in November 2005.

"You know what the terrorists thought of them?" Aguina said. "They tortured one of them to death ... What the terrorists did to that guy just shows what the terrorists think of all these people right here. They would do the same thing to any of them."

The demonstration lasted much longer than the three scheduled hours; attendees were slow to leave the church, lagging behind to chat and sign petitions to create a Department of Peace in the American government.

Attendees also made known their interest in participating in weekly demonstrations at the northern edge of Chandler Park, which will be held regularly from 11-12 p.m. "until something is done to stop this war," Egler said.

She added that any people interested in peace are welcome to join in these weekly demonstrations.

But this will not be the last time MAAPJ organizes an event on the anniversary of this date, no matter what, said event emcee Alice Davenport.

"Our last one will be a party to celebrate," Davenport said. "Not only that, but we know that whoever is in the White House, we'll probably find something that could be better, so we'll keep getting together for that."