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Anti-Warrers
In this update:
- MAKE SOME CALLS TO CONGRESS TODAY
- Mark your calendar
- Who needs an armband?
- HELP NEEDED FOR MARCH 5th - PLEASE RESPOND
- Next Meeting: Tuesday March 4th, 9 PM ARH 120
- News Digest
****** MAKE SOME CALLS TO CONGRESS TODAY *******
Join over 80,000 others in making calls to Congress to tell them what
you think about war in Iraq ... today.
Call the US Congressional Switchboard:
1-800-839-5276
Say which Senator or Representative's office you'd like to be connected
to.
When the office picks up tell them you'd like to make a comment, pass
along an opinion, etc.
Tell them what you think. Start a conversation with them.
For more info about the national campaign :
http://www.moveon.org/winwithoutwar/
***** CALENDAR **********
February 26th: National Call in Day (www.moveon.org)
7 PM, Harris Cinema, Movie in Film Festival: "Return to Innocence"
directed by Vu Tran (more info below)
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Mar 3- 7:00 PM, Main (not in the forum) Lounge, Lysistrata Performance
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March 4 - 8 PM South Lounge - Nuns discussing SOA
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March 5th - [see "how you can help" section for more info]
Noonish - Die In
Lunchish - Radical Cheerleaders at dining halls (tentative)
7:30 PM- South Lounge. Arabic/English Poetry from Grinnell Professors
and Chuck Quilty from Voices in the Wildnerness
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March 10th - 8 PM South Lounge "Iraq, US Foreign Policy and
International Law" Panel Discussion
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March 12th - 4:15 South Lounge (tentative) Veteran's Speaking on War
*************** Who needs an armband? *********************
We plan on wearing armbands throughout next week in symbolic protest of
the war. If you misplaced your old one, never got one, or would like to
carry some around to give to friends... please contact Rachel Miller
[millera] with your Name and Mailbox number.
********* HELP NEEDED FOR MARCH 5th - PLEASE RESPOND ************
What you can do and who you can talk to :
Chalking on March 4th- Abby Hagel [Hagelabi] and Avram Lyon [lyonavra]
Putting up flyers this weekend - Bea Menendez [menendez]
Participate in the die-in : Barbi Rodriguez [rodrigub] and Jill Peterson
[peterso]
Help create a Peace Post (structure for written messages and
information) - Jane Hereth [herethja]
Research statistics - Rebecca Lucero [lucero]
************** Next Meeting *********
Next Grinnell Anti-War Meeting: Tuesday, March 4th, 9 PM ARH 120
**************** News Digest ***********************
- Report from Feb. 15th in London (Guardian/Observer)
One million. And still they came
> Euan Ferguson reports on a historic peace march whose massive turnout
> surpassed the organisers' wildest expectations and Tony Blair's worst
> fears
> Euan Ferguson
> Saturday February 15 2003
> The Guardian
>
>
> 'Are there any more coming, then?'
>
> There have been dafter questions, but not many. At 1.10 yesterday
> afternoon, Mike Wiseman from Newcastle upon Tyne placed his accordion
> carefully on the ground below Hyde Park's gates and rubbed cold hands
> together. Two elderly women, hand in hand in furs, passed through,
> still humming the dying notes from his 'Give Peace A Chance'. They
> were, had he known it, early, part of a tiny crowd straggling into
> Hyde Park before the march proper.
>
> Half a mile away, round the corner in Piccadilly, the ground shook. An
> ocean, a perfect storm of people. Banners, a bobbing cherry-blossom of
> banners, covered every inch back to the Circus - and for miles beyond,
> south to the river, north to Euston.
>
> Ahead of the marchers lay one remaining silent half-mile. The
> unprecedented turnout had shocked the organisers, shocked the
> marchers. And there at the end before them, high on top of the
> Wellington Arch, the four obsidian stallions and their vicious
> conquering chariot, the very Spirit of War, were stilled, rearing back
> - caught, and held, in the bare branches and bright chill of
> Piccadilly, London, on Saturday 15 February 2003.
>
> Are there any more coming? Yes, Mike. Yes, I think there are some more
> coming.
>
> It was the biggest public demonstration ever held in Britain,
> surpassing every one of the organisers' wildest expectations and Tony
> Blair's worst fears, and it will be remembered for the bleak
> bitterness of the day and the colourful warmth of feeling in the
> extraordinary crowds. Organisers claimed that more than 1.5 million
> had turned out; even the police agreed to 750,000 and rising.
>
> By three o'clock in the afternoon they were still streaming out of
> Tube stations to join the end of the two routes, from Gower Street in
> the north and Embankment by the river. 'Must be another march,'
> grumbled the taxi driver, then, trying in vain to negotiate Tottenham
> Court Road. No, I said; it's the same one, still going, and he turned
> his head in shock. 'Bloody Jesus! Well, good luck to them I say.'
> There were, of course, the usual suspects - CND, Socialist Workers'
> Party, the anarchists. But even they looked shocked at the number of
> their fellow marchers: it is safe to say they had never experienced
> such a mass of humanity.
>
> There were nuns. Toddlers. Women barristers. The Eton George Orwell
> Society. Archaeologists Against War. Walthamstow Catholic Church, the
> Swaffham Women's Choir and Notts County Supporters Say Make Love Not
> War (And a Home Win against Bristol would be Nice). They won 2-0, by
> the way. One group of SWP stalwarts were joined, for the first march
> in any of their histories, by their mothers. There were country folk
> and lecturers, dentists and poulterers, a hairdresser from Cardiff and
> a poet from Cheltenham.
>
> I called a friend at two o'clock, who was still making her ponderous
> way along the Embankment - 'It's not a march yet, more of record
> shuffle' - and she expressed delight at her first protest. 'You
> wouldn't believe it; there are girls here with good nails and really
> nice bags .'
>
> Cheer upon cheer went up. There were cheers as marchers were given
> updates about turnout elsewhere in the world - 90,000 in Glasgow, two
> million on the streets of Rome. There was a glorious cheer, at
> Piccadilly Circus, when the twin ribbons met, just before one o'clock.
>
> The mood was astonishingly friendly. 'Would you like a placard, sir?'
> Sir? The police laughed. One, stopping a marcher from going through a
> barricade in Trafalgar Square, told him it was a sterile area, only to
> be met with a hearty backslap. 'Sterile area? Where did that one come
> from.' 'I know,' shrugged the bobby. 'Bollocks language, isn't it?'
> And the talk was of politics, yes, but not just politics. There were
> not the detailed arguments we had had, even during the last peace
> march in November, over UN resolutions and future codicils. This march
> was not really about politics; it was about humanitarianism.
>
> 'I'm not political, not at all. I don't even watch the news,' said
> Alvina Desir, queuing on the Embankment for the start of the march at
> noon. 'I've never been on a march in my life and never had any
> intention. But something's happened recently, to me and so many
> friends - we just know there's something going wrong in this country.
> No one's being consulted, and it's starting to feel worrying - more
> worrying than the scaremongering we've been getting about the
> terrorist threat. I simply don't see how war can be the answer and I
> don't know anyone who does. And, apart from anything else, as a black
> woman in London, it feels dangerous to spread racial tension after all
> that's been done.'
>
> A Cheshire fireman nearby said: 'They will take notice of a protest
> like this. Our MPs, and Blair himself , were voted in by ordinary
> people like those here today. Blair is clever enough not to ignore
> this.'
>
> Linda Homan, sitting on bench at 9.30 in the morning, watching a
> bright and dancing Thames, had come down early from Cambridge and was
> wondering at that stage whether many would turn up. Palettes of
> placards lay strewn along the Embankment, waiting. A trolley was
> pushed past filled with flags and whistles; there were more police -
> then, way back then - than marchers. 'I've never felt strongly enough
> about anything before. But this is so different; I would have let
> myself down by not coming and I think this will be something to
> remember.'
>
> For Linda, like so many along these streets, it was her first march.
> Twelve-year-old Charlotte Wright, who came up by train from Guildford,
> Surrey, on her own. 'My parents aren't very happy about this but I
> think it's important. Bombing people isn't the right way to sort a
> problem out.' Jenny Mould, 36, a teacher from Devon. 'I drove up last
> night. It took seven hours but it was definitely worth it; the
> Government should, it must, listen to the people, otherwise what's the
> point in democracy?'
>
> Retired solicitor Thomas Elliot from Basildon, Essex, a virgin marcher
> at 73, said: 'I remember the war and the effect the bombing had on
> London. War should only be used when absolutely necessary.' Andrew
> Miller, 33, from New Zealand, whose feeling, echoed by all around, was
> that 'all the different groups that are marching today show the world
> that the West is not the enemy, that British people do not hate Islam
> and Arabs and the coming together of people is the greatest way
> forward.' Lesley Taylor, a constitutional law lecturer who's lived
> across here for 29 years, holding a forlorn placard reading 'American
> against the war.' Why only one? 'I don't know any other Americans
> here. In the Eighties here I saw a lot of anti-American resentment,
> and now it's back. I accept that the perception of George W. Bush has
> something to do with this, but still... these are the same people the
> thinking middle-classes, who were so shocked and honestly sympathetic
> after September 11: how can they turn so nasty so quickly?
>
> 'Because America is making your Prime Minister go against the huge
> majority of the British people. And that won't be forgiven. Look about
> you. That's what this is about; not fierce party politics but a simple
> feeling that democracy, British democracy, has been forgotten.'
>
> Chris Wall, a Nottingham mother who had brought down eight children
> with her: 'They talk about it at school and that's a good thing.
> Children need to be aware of what's happening in the world. And this
> is, of course, a peaceful protest.' It remained so all day, despite
> the numbers; by five o'clock police were reporting only three arrests.
>
> In Hyde Park itself, a long line of purple silk lay on the grass,
> facing Mecca, and Muslims took off their shoes to pray. Beside it,
> artist Nicola Green had set up her Laughing Booth, and was encouraging
> people in to, obviously, start laughing, on their own, and be
> recorded; it was, she says, the most disarming of all weapons. The sky
> above the nearby stage grew dark, and the park grew even more
> astonishingly full.
>
> Charles Kennedy won loud applause for stating that 'The report from
> Hans Blix gives no moral case for war on Iraq'; George Galloway won
> both applause and laughter for suggesting a new slogan: 'Don't attack
> Chirac'. Mo Mowlam warned: 'We will lose this war. It will be the best
> recruiting campaign for terrorists that there could be. They will hate
> us even more.'
>
> Will yesterday, astonishing yesterday, change anything? The facts are
> undeniable. Perception is all.
>
> If you look more carefully, in fact, at the warlike Wellington statue,
> a new tale emerges. The driver of the chariot is a boy. The reins are
> slack. The horses are not rearing with anger, but pulling up in
> mid-charge. Behind, the fierce, all-powerful figure is not the Spirit
> of War but the angel of peace, carrying an olive branch.
>
> Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
***********************************************************
The Anti-War Update and Digest is published by:
--Eli Zigas
antiwar@grinnell.edu
Norris 1st
X 4039
To subscribe or unsubscribe, contact me.
____________________________________________
MODERATOR: Should the people of the world look at the United States,
Governor, and say, should they fear us, should they welcome our
involvement, should they see us as a friend, everybody in the world? How
would you project us around the world, as president?
BUSH: Well, I think they ought to look at us as a country that
understands freedom where it doesn't matter who you are or how you're
raised or where you're from, that you can succeed. I don't think they'll
look at us with envy. It really depends upon how our nation conducts
itself in foreign policy. If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent
us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us. And it's
-- our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and
that's why we have to be humble. And yet project strength in a way that
promotes freedom. So I don't think they ought to look at us in any way
other than what we are. We're a freedom-loving nation and if we're an
arrogant nation they'll view us that way, but if we're a humble nation
they'll respect us.
Second Presidential Debate, 2000
http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2000b.html
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