'Until the war goes away'

Slideshow: Students rally against the Iraq War

For those 200 students who came to the Pit on Wednesday to call for immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, solidarity meant hope that their dream could become reality.

After quoting John Lennon's "Imagine," Abby Crownshaw, a Young Democrat representative to the UNC Coalition Against the War, said she doesn't want this generation of activists to be mere dreamers.

"Every other generation that has had a major war has done something about it, and we're the generation that has been letting it slide by," she said.

"But if you get enough people protesting in the media, and getting people to realize how bad it is, it can change something."

Participants commented that the size of the protest didn't reflect the number of students on campus who oppose the war.

"When you have a war that has been going on half your life, it's background noise," said sophomore Andrew Waszkowski.

"There are protests every year and each year comes and passes and it's the same situation. You have to extend yourself outside of yourself and sympathize to be affected by this conflict."

Haley Koch, president of Solidarity with Palestine through Education and Action at Carolina, spoke first at the pre-march rally in the Pit, expressing her anger at the continued need for protest.

"Why are we here five years later?" she asked a crowd standing amidst rallying drums and theatrical puppets covering their papier-mache faces with blood-stained hands.

"Our protests have been ignored again and again. But I'll say what I said four years ago: We still care, and we will be here until the war goes away."

After the speeches, many hesitated to join the march, which went from McCorkle Place up Franklin Street accompanied by police cars and community members.

One student said she was a neutral observer; another said she wanted to go to Hunger Lunch instead.

However, one student joined in on the spur of the moment, declaring, "It's been five years now, probably about long enough."

When the marchers, stretching from Murphey Hall to Wilson Library, began chanting, "No justice, no peace, U.S. out of the Middle East!", passersby took out their cell phones to snap quick pictures.

As the crowd neared Franklin Street, a small contingent of locals held signs of support while shoppers, initially caught off guard by the flood of color and noise, found themselves responding to the protestors' passion.

Dirk Spruyt, who witnessed the Chapel Hill protests of the late 1960s, looked on with nostalgic pride.

One woman got into a political debate with her friends as they watched the protestors stop traffic at the intersection of South Columbia and Franklin streets.

"Oh, let's go kill more people than he killed!" she said sarcastically, referring to Saddam Hussein.

After disrupting a class change on Cameron Street and appealing to others to join their ranks, the group ended with a rally at South Building to ask for a change closer to home: the University cutting academic ties with the Pentagon.

But the final speeches got even more personal as students spoke of the trends of violence and hatred that plague their generation, a trend that speakers said cannot be isolated to a single war or a single protest.

Anthony Maglione of Feminist Students United called on students to recognize the small, everyday changes they can make to alter the culture of violence.

"Tomorrow, let us continue our resistance by holding ourselves accountable. Let us point our fingers towards ourselves. Let us not demand peace, but create peace."

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.