WASHINGTON, D.C. – Hundreds of residents from in and around the city of Syracuse including students from Syracuse University joined thousands from all walks of life and every corner of the country to descend to Washington, D.C., Saturday, Jan. 27, to send a message to Congress to reject massive new appropriations for the war in Iraq.

Protesters staged a series of rallies which culminated in a march on the Capitol. Vietnam-era activists stood side-by-side with toddlers for peace; members of Code Pink, a women’s group for peace were next to active-duty service men and women. The message was clear – their voice strong: not one more dime, not one more death, not one more day.

‘It’s important for people of our generation to show we care,’ said Cailin Neal, an intern with the Syracuse Peace Council. ‘During the Vietnam War they had the draft. Today it’s so much easier for college students to pretend the war doesn’t affect them.’

While being anti-war has become synonymous with being ‘anti-American,’ the colorful throngs of protesters rallied for peace not in spite of their love for America, but because of it.

‘I was disgusted watching Bush call for an additional 21,500 additional troops during the State of the Union. He still doesn’t get it – we should be pulling out of Iraq,’ said Hannah Kane Morgan, a freshman environmental science major who held a homemade sign that read: ‘Loyalty to my country: always. Loyalty to my government: when it deserves it.’

The national peace march was organized by United for Peace and Justice, an anti-war coalition of 1,400 organizations, with support from True Majority, Working Assets, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the National Organization for Women.

The SPC – a comprehensive grassroots peace and social justice organization whose issues of particular concern include military spending, the war culture, military conscription and nuclear power – chartered three buses to take local residents to the daylong event.

‘It’s amazing to see so many people who feel the same way about war,’ said Molly Payne, a freshman wildlife science major.

This was the first peace march for Tom and Stephanie Schmidt, residents of Whitesboro, N.Y. Their son is currently on his second tour of duty in Iraq.

‘It’s important to be part of events like this so our son doesn’t have to do a third tour,’ Tom Schmidt said.

‘We feel the inconvenience we had to go through to get to D.C. – lack of sleep and exhausting ourselves, is nothing compared to what our son goes through on a daily basis,’ Stephanie Schmidt said.

Among the celebrities who appeared was Jane Fonda, actress and activist who was criticized during the Vietnam War for sympathizing with the North Vietnamese. She told the spirited crowd that this was the first time she had spoken at an anti-war rally in 34 years.

‘Silence is no longer an option,’ she said to cheers from the stage on the National Mall. Fonda likened the current conflict in Iraq to the Vietnam War, citing ‘blindness to realities on the ground, hubris and thoughtlessness in our approach to rebuilding a country we’ve destroyed.’

Actor Sean Penn said politicians would pay a price in 2008 if they did not take firmer action against the war.

‘We’ve heard the excuse from politicians that if they knew now what they knew then [sic],’ he said. ‘Well we’re telling them now if they don’t stand up and adopt a resolution as binding as the death toll, we are not going to be behind those politicians. We are dependent on Congress, but Congress is dependent on us.’

Actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins also spoke.

‘This past November the American people sent a resounding signal to Washington, D.C., and the world. We want change,’ Robbins said. ‘We want this war to end. And how did Bush respond? 21,500 more will risk their lives for his misguided war. Is impeachment still off the table? Let’s get him out of office.’

Emboldened by growing public opposition to the war, Democrats took the first step toward a wartime repudiation of President George W. Bush on Wednesday, when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12-9 for a non-binding resolution declaring that the president’s increased troop levels in Iraq is ‘not in the national interest.’

Laura Photts, a resident of Norwood, N.Y., said she’s disappointed in the Democratic Party for not taking a stronger stand against the president.

‘I was always taught there was a system of checks and balances in our government,’ she said.

Photts said she’s a baby boomer who grew up on stories of fascism, told by people who fought, lived through and vividly remember it.

‘I never understood how Germany got that out-of-control,’ she said. ‘Now I know.’

In solidarity with the massive national demonstration, the SPC organized a local demonstration to bring the message home. Protesters marched around Clinton Square and to the Federal Building. The event took place simultaneously with the peace rally in Washington, D.C., giving residents who were unable to make the trip to the nation’s capitol an opportunity to voice their support for peace.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights and community activist who attended the rally in Washington, D.C., said, ‘Peace is controversial. But so is war. The fruit of peace is so much sweeter.’

Published on January 28, 2007 at 12:00 pm