Muskies travel to capitol to protest war in Iraq

Gretchen Cook
News Editor

   Standing in the pouring rain outside the New Concord BP gas station, eight Muskingum College students excitedly waited to begin a journey of peace.

   Students from the Muskingum College Green Party and the Black & Magenta traveled to Washington, D.C. on Oct. 25 to take part in a peace rally against going to war with Iraq.

   Green Party treasurer sophomore Anna Cohen organized the trip. On Thursday, Cohen contacted a man from Columbus, in order to have Muskingum's group travel with him.

   The "Stop the War Against Iraq Before it Starts" rally began on Saturday in the Constitution Gardens adjacent to the Vietnam War Memorial.

   The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rainbow Push Coalition, Veterans for Peace and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation were just a few of the people and organizations that endorsed the rally.

   Jackson and the Black Panthers were among the speakers at the event.

   At 7 p.m. Friday night, the Muskingum group stood outside in the soaking rain awaiting their bus ride to Washington, D.C.

    "Rain or shine, sniper or no sniper I will protest," Cohen said.

   Muskingum was surprised to find that the bus supposed to transport them to the District of Columbia, in fact, was an 14-passenger van.

   Filling the van's capacity, the students endured a long seven-hour trip to D.C.

   However, spirits remained high. Senior Scooter Renninger said Muskingum students were eager to make a political statement.

    "I felt that there was a big need to go out and speak and have people's voices heard, especially from Muskingum's campus, where I don't think a lot of people will really care, it seems like," Renninger said. "I think it's going to help out and, hopefully, the leaders of our country will listen to the people. It'll be able to make an impact."

   After a few pit stops and getting lost a couple times, since no one seemed to bring a map along, the group finally made it to the nation's capital.

   In D.C. the group searched for a campsite. They set up camp at a community park, behind a soccer field.

   An alarm clock proved unnecessary since young soccer players woke the campers in the morning. It was the first time the players were permitted to play soccer outside since the beginning of the sniper attacks.

    "This morning the little kids playing soccer asked if we were hoboes, and then actually said goodbye to us, and said `bye, hoboes`," senior Megan McKee said.

   A few students created protest signs with statements like "W.W.N.D." (what would Nader do) and "Drop Bush not bombs."

   After a heated detour on foot through Georgetown, the group finally arrived at the rally to hear speakers before the march around D.C. began. An estimated 200,000 protesters gathered by the reflecting pool in front of the Washington Monument. Babies, dogs, elderly, teens and remnants of the 1960s all protested. According to the Washington Post, police arrested three protestors at the march.

    Sarah Wolf, a representative of the International Socialist Organization out of Chicago, confronted sophomore Wes Johnson about his beliefs. Wolf vehemently protested the possibility of war with Iraq and the capitalist system of the United States.

    "I think that the U.S. government is actually the biggest terrorist," Wolf said.

   Wolf said the answer to political problems would be to create a socialist system.

    "I want to fight for a real socialist system. I think we could have a system where in every workplace people democratically controlled the production," Wolf said. "Democratically deciding we need milk, so we're going to produce more milk. We're not going to produce metal for bombs."

   Once the march finally began protesters flailed their signs, which displayed comments like "Dykes and tykes for peace" and "Bush and Dick make love not war." They shouted chants like "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Attack Iraq? We won't go" and "George Bush you can't hide. We charge you with genocide."

   The march lasted over two hours. Despite its large turnout it did not seem to receive any reaction from politicians, but there was a small group of war supporters at the rally.

    "They're not going to prove anything to anybody. They're preaching to themselves. The only people watching are people who are curious as to what's going on and to laugh, and their own people," Johnson said. "No one's going to believe anything because they don't want to be wrong. You can't change someone's beliefs if you're trying to tell them they're wrong."

   After the protest, the group began a difficult journey back to Muskingum. With an extra passenger on the van and the lack of deodorant, the van's closed quarters caused cabin fever.

   Stopping on the outskirts of D.C. for dinner at an "Asian Restaurant," a policeman informed the group to get their food and leave.

   After an exchange of heated words, drinking on the van and one too many smoking breaks, the group split in Hagerstown, Md. Everyone returned to Muskingum safely on Sunday.

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