EDITORIAL – POG protesters reach day 15 of fast

More than two weeks have passed, and the Forbes Avenue demonstrators of the Pittsburgh… More than two weeks have passed, and the Forbes Avenue demonstrators of the Pittsburgh Organizing Group are showing no signs of giving up. They are halfway to reaching their goal of a month-long fast to protest the Iraq war.

Mike Butler, one of the POG members who is fasting, said in a letter to the editor to The Pitt News that the goal of the fast is to “draw attention to the occupation of Iraq and military recruitment.” But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be working.

Local news media outlets have shockingly failed to cover extensively the POG’s protest. It’s a shame, but the POG’s actions are not attracting major media attention like other anti-war marches and protests have in the past.

Unlike those typical anti-war marches, the POG protest is not loud and angry, but that is precisely what makes it so significant. The POG concedes that a group fast will not magically stop the Iraq war or miraculously get President Bush to bring the troops home, but that’s not its goal. The group does not seek to shout its ideas down at us through megaphones; rather, it simply wants to encourage us to think, to remind us day after day that we are fighting a war.

That is why this protest works. It hasn’t been done before, making it, perhaps, the most effective way to get our attention. And this uniqueness is what leads us to ask questions and reflect more on the motivation behind the protest – something our apathetic generation desperately needs.

More than half of Americans believe that the Iraq war was a mistake – which means most of us probably agree with the POG’s stance on the war. But while we may be opposed to the war, our generation doesn’t seem to be genuinely interested in it. We sometimes skip over news articles about the war, or we change the channel when an update comes on the news. Many of us don’t vote, yet we complain about the government. Most of us are not as passionate as our parents probably were in the 1960s, and most of us would probably not be willing to fast for one month to protest the war.

But what’s impressive is that Butler, a member of our notoriously apathetic generation, is passionate. The POG is pushing through our apathy to make a meaningful statement – even if it that statement could be futile.

So people are learning about the protest gradually, by word of mouth or throughout the blogosphere, where, based on a few Google searches, it seems Butler is gaining much recognition. People are hearing about it little by little, proving that the POG is not protesting in vain. And if Butler and the group make it to day 30, we have no doubt that more and more people will start to care.

Whether or not we agree with the POG’s method is not important. But we respect the demonstrators’ courageous efforts and are impressed with their enduring passion. Moreover, we are sympathetic to their cause – the war is wrong, and it should end. No, their protest won’t stop the war, but it will certainly change the way people view it – just in time for the next presidential election.