Yesterday was the Rutgers Walk Out 2008 and although I had both class and the head doctor I skipped both to attend this rally for peace. At 1:23pm students were invited to walk out of their classrooms in protest to the war in Iraq. At the rally many speakers, musical artists and poets expressed their feelings about the war in Iraq. The two that struck me the most were Kristofer Goldsmith, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, and the mother of Lt. Seth Dvorin, an officer who was killed while serving in the Iraq War. Both of the aforementioned speakers have first hand expirence of the negative effects of this war and it was very moving to listen to them.
There was one little boy probably about nine years old and he made a sign out of construction paper which had a peace sign on it. He waved it and clapped whenever the crowd was cheering. At one point Mrs.Dvorin actually gave the little boy a high five.
After the rally Smidge and I decided to march the 4-miles or so through New Brunswick. It was truly amazing. Over three hundred students, community members, faculty and alumni marched along the major roads of New Brunswick frequently stopping to sit down at various busy intersections. I think my favorite part was sitting down in the intersection of George Street and 27. All of us just simply sat down and remained silent for five minutes to recognize the five years we have been fighting in Iraq. People were honking at us to move because we did block traffic for about ten minutes but everyone just threw up peace signs and stayed quiet.(Side note: I thought it was really funny that as soon as we all sat down in the intersection 1/3 of all the marchers decided it was the perfect time for a cigarette)
Marching through the downtown buisness district of New Brunswick was great, people in restaurants were waving and giving peace signs. There were plenty of people who looked confused though. When we got to the military recruitment center there were fifteen or so counter protestors with American flags and really bad attitudes. They started to make a bit of a fuss and some protesters were getting upset. Smidge and I were a little nervous that a fight was going to break out. It was actually kind of ridiculous because the reqruitment office is in a large high rise office building and the people in the other offices had no idea why there were three hundred people standing around their building chanting for peace. Some ladies on the second floor opened the window and waved and cheered us on.
At a house near George street and College ave a man on the second floor was waving his fatigues out of the window while we passed. At one point one of the protesters was injured, I think he sprained his ankle because people were helping him limp to the stairs of a church to sit down. We happened to be chanting "Show me what democracy looks like. This is what democracy looks like." at the time and one of the guys marching next to Smidge and I casually said, "Someone should show that guy what a nurse looks like". It was hysterical.
When the march came to the end of the originally scheduled route one of the organizers, Erik Straub, gave the crowd to options. Have a speak-in at the Chapel or continue onto Rt.18. Obviously everyone wanted to march on the highway. Especially since we had cops surrounding us and I think everyone wanted to scare them just a little bit. We had to be just slighlty more radical. So we marched on both sides of US Highway Rt18. The cops cleared the south side of cars and they thought they had us under control but we decided to jump over the barrier and walk inbetween cars on the highway. It was amazing people walked on all sides of the cars completely stopping traffic. One of the larger canvas banners was spread over cars while we walked. I was shocked at how many people looked angry at us. One older man in a buisness suit and BMW actually gave us the finger! How can you respond to peace signs with so much hate?! His wife was in the car too and she looked generally disgusted. I hope that I can find a video of the whole thing somewhere on-line. It was a great experience and very good practice for the aids walk.
One more thing. There were countless news crews at the rally and the march. There were even news helecopters but when I searched online this morning for related articles I couldn't find any except for the one in Rutgers own paper, The Daily Targum. The only coverage I saw of the march was a three minute story on News Channel Twelve. I love how the media wants everyone to stay home, nervously watching the news. Its Ok. You can get up and say something. Its your right to.
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Iraq War Veterans Page)
Call the Whitehouse and tell them what you think:
202-456-1111.
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Yesterday was the Rutgers Walk Out 2008 and although I had both class and the head doctor I skipped both to attend this rally for peace. At 1:23pm students were invited to walk out of their classrooms in protest to the war in Iraq. At the rally many speakers, musical artists and poets expressed their feelings about the war in Iraq. The two that struck me the most were Kristofer Goldsmith, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, and the mother of Lt. Seth Dvorin, an officer who was killed while serving in the Iraq War. Both of the aforementioned speakers have first hand expirence of the negative effects of this war and it was very moving to listen to them.
s like "hanging by a thread," the media is having a field day with this one, naturally. One article written by Brandon Keim discusses the well known fact that this ice shelf was already floating in the ocean and will not affect the sea level. Thanks Brandon. It's no surprise that he's written for the Christian Science Monitor. I can't even believe that Christian and Science can be in the same title. Anyway, educate yourselves.
Drinking, gammbling and legalized prositution. Why didn't I go to Nevada for my birthday?
