Protesters Prepare for Anti-War Rally in Capital

"War is NOT the answer"; "Peace is Patriotic"; "Attack Iraq? NO!"

These slogans on bumper stickers, along with others, littered the cars outside of The Community Church of Chapel Hill Unitarian Universalist on Saturday afternoon.

The Campaign to End the Cycle of Violence, an organization at UNC that grew out of responses to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, sponsored a nonviolence, civil disobedience and anti-war workshop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Community Church.

The workshop was held one week before expected mass anti-war protests in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the Martin Luther King holiday.

The campaign, along with other N.C. peace and justice groups, is organizing buses from across the state to attend the national protest.

While members of the media were not allowed to report on the activities inside the workshop, some participants spoke about the experience afterward.

Rob McDonald, a Duke student who attended the workshop, said it allowed participants to practice the techniques geared toward peaceful demonstrations.

"We also learned what you can expect to happen to you if you do break a law," said McDonald, who plans to attend next weekend's rally in Washington.

During the workshop, the participants acted out situations that could be expected to happen, said UNC freshman Tim Stallmann.

"We did a lot of role-playing so we could get a sense of how it feels to be engaged in non-violent resistance," he said.

Role-playing was not just a way to get physically ready for resistance but also a way to get mentally ready, said UNC freshman Liz Mason-Deese.

"We dealt with the feelings we had during the role-playing and discussed, 'How it made us feel?' afterward," she said.

Those who attended the workshop did so for various reasons.

"I wanted to get more involved," said UNC freshman David Brown. "I felt it was a good opportunity to find out more about the peace movement."

Mason-Deese said she wanted to learn about civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance at the workshop before the possible war with Iraq begins.

"The war in Iraq is getting so close, and civil disobedience has been such an effective tactic in the past, with Ghandi and Martin Luther King," she said.

Nicole Rowan, a Durham resident, said she wanted to meet people who shared her beliefs.

"I knew I wasn't the only one who was against the war in Iraq," she said. "I came here to meet people who also felt this way, and I did."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.