Spring Break
Marching for peace
Rally attracts activists from four surrounding states to protest war
Hyrum Rappleye
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: News
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Over 70 people from Idaho, including elementary school students, senior citizens and veterans, climbed aboard "peace buses," at 5 a.m. in order to be present when the rally began at the Capitol.
We the People for Peace and Justice (WPPJ), along with several other activist and political groups, organized the event.
At 11 a.m., it was like a 1960s flashback of peace symbols, banners, signs, flags and closet hippies. The flags and banners were placed on the ground as the band Blue Haiku entertained the crowd with anti-war songs and poetry.
Others, like John Lindblom, 50, of Salt Lake City, placed the finishing touches on their signs. Lindblom wrote in red marker "Supporter of Bush War? No Disciple of Christ!" on his sign and was placing the last few pieces of tape on the back.
"I read about it this morning," Lindblom said, "so I rode my bike up here to participate. I was in a hurry, and I didn't have time to finish my poster before I left."
Those in attendance came for various reasons. Most of them have very strong opinions on the war.
"Just before we invaded Iraq," said Lindblom, "I thought it was a horrible idea. I feel it encourages terrorists to hate us more."
Others came to express their views on how congress spends taxpayer money.
"Congress should fund the fire, not the war," said Jill Curley of Salt Lake City. Curley had brought her son and the family dog to the rally.
There were some in attendance who believe the war to be a war for oil rather than a war for democracy and freedom.
"The Vietnam War was a lie," said Sgt. Dwight Allen, retired Marines, 60, who had spent two and a half years in Vietnam, "and it's easy to see this one is as well because people are dying for oil. It's a war over the control of oil."
Tristen Call, 21, Head of Amnesty International at Brigham Young University (BYU), grew up on military bases. His father was a lieutenant colonel in the army. Call is also frustrated with the war and feels the war is about greed.
"I wish we knew what to do," Call said. "I'm tired of people preferring their own greed over other people's lives."
To many protesters, greed has caused good people to do evil things in Iraq. In response to those evil things, organizations such as the Christian Peacemaker Team gathered their resources and sent small groups of people to Iraq.
The purpose of the Christian Peacemaker Team is to help Iraqi families find relatives lost in the war.
Those who went to Iraq moved into a Baghdad neighborhood. One such member is William Van Wagenen, 29, of Salt Lake City, who also attended the rally.
Van Wagenen was raised in Salt Lake City, served a mission in Frankfurt, Germany for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and graduated from BYU.
"I've seen a lot of the problems firsthand," Van Wagenen said. "Things have gotten worse. It was terrible under Saddam, and now civilians are pinned between U.N. sanctions and what is left from the Saddam regime." Van Wagenen never saw a family reunited; instead they would find information on where the relative would be, whether they were in prison or in another city.
Van Wagenen spent the summer of 2005 and again from November 2006 to February 2007 in Iraq.
"We didn't live in the green zone," Van Wagenen said. "We lived in an apartment in Baghdad. We drove around in normal cars without security. We stayed local and went out at night. Most people knew who we were, but we never really knew quite who our friends were."
Having been in Iraq and seeing the tragedy and destruction personally, Van Wagenen said he felt a religious obligation to disagree with the war and to help the Iraqi people.
"From an LDS perspective," Van Wagenen said, "I find the war very disagreeable. In our scripture, it is very clear that a preemptive war is wrong. It is only appropriate to use in self-defense. Bush went to war to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, fighting offensively, not really knowing if it is possible Iraq would use or have the weapons or not."
Speakers at the Capitol Building Plaza included Kim Spangrude, of WPPJ and Military Families Speak Out; Chris Conway, an Iraq War veteran; Breanne Gratton, of the Idaho Peace Coalition and Lacee Harris of the Governor's Council and the Northern Ute Tribe.
The crowd in the plaza nearly doubled by the time the march began at 12:30 p.m.
Diana Lee Hirschi, with Circle Dynamics, trained the peacekeepers, who made sure protesters wouldn't get out of hand, and was a liaison between peacekeepers and other organizers, started the march by yelling, "Let's start this march and end this damn war!"
One foot at a time, the crowd, led by organizers and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, slowly marched nearly a mile from the Capitol Building down State Street to the City Government Building.
Chanting "peace now," they marched with peace symbols held high in the air. They cheered loudly as cars passed by honking horns.
As they entered Washington Square at the City Government Building, the band Ask the Dust was playing.
Around a thousand people finally gathered among the fallen leaves, at the west steps of the city government building to listen to key activist speakers.
There were several booths set up where participants could buy peace t-shirts, sign impeachment petitions and write letters to soldiers in Iraq.
Banners and signs were no longer laid on the ground as they were at the capitol building but held high in the air.
As the rally began, the crowd observed a moment of silence for influential members of the Veterans for Peace who had passed away.
The majority of the speakers have been protesting wars and governments for a long time.
Lt. Col. George Muller, 65, a retired firefighter and aircraft mechanic for the Air Force, is one such activist and the first speaker. He has been protesting wars and speaking out for military mothers for several years.
"How many gold-star mothers must we have before America wakes up?" Muller said. "Democracy is a worthy achievement, but we must do it by example rather than by force."
Muller recently had been at Weber State University where he spoke with the WSU Amnesty International. Muller has not personally spent time in a war zone other than one day in Afghanistan as a representative for the United States Embassy.
People have been urged to stand up and speak out by Mayor Rocky Anderson. Anderson has been a key activist and speaker for many years.
"Fundamentally, we all have a huge moral responsibility to stop the insanity that has undermined our nation," Anderson said. "We need to stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law. People who don't speak up support the status quo. What frightens me most is the silence and complacency of the American people."
Salt Lake City was one of 11 U.S. cities that hosted a major demonstration Saturday. The other cities included were New York, Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Jonesborough, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and Orlando.
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Victoria Sethunya
posted 10/31/07 @ 8:39 PM MST
From the LDS perspective, those who hold positions in priesthood offices are of "good report", they are wise and are guided by the Spirit. One of the central duties of this offices is to keep families together by administering blessings to them. (Continued…)
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