Protesters pack it up, pack it in

After losing 30 pounds in 17 days, Mike Butler decided it was time to resume eating.

He… After losing 30 pounds in 17 days, Mike Butler decided it was time to resume eating.

He had been fasting since Sept. 4, in the Pittsburgh Organizing Group’s End War Fast.

But when Butler became too exhausted and was in medical danger, other group members stepped in to take up the cause.

Eight POG members were fasting by the time the group’s month-long protest of the Iraq War and military recruitment came to a close. Member Laney Trautman had been on a juice fast since Sept. 17.

“I’m just getting comfortable with not eating,” Pitt sophomore Sheila Hubbard, who started fasting Wednesday, said.

The protesters, who occupied the sidewalk in front of the Army recruitment station on Forbes Avenue for the month of September, left their post at noon yesterday.

Immediately after evacuating the sidewalk, POG and other community members gathered in Schenley Park for a potluck finale – both to celebrate a successful month and to let those who had been fasting finally eat.

“My expectations have been exceeded,” Adam Staniszewski, who fasted for a week, said.

POG member Ryan Williams said that overall he agrees, though he cited the police and drunken Oakland passersby as the two biggest obstacles in the month-long protest.

“You have countless conversations with all sides,” he said, explaining that their month-long presence helped people on the streets of Oakland become more comfortable and open to their cause. “You get to enter into this dialogue.

“It makes them feel that there is a place if they want to become active,” Williams said.

The protesters, who began the month with a 24-hour permit on Sept. 4, began having problems with the City police immediately after their permit expired the next day. In the following weeks, several POG members were cited or arrested – mostly for obstructing the sidewalk.

On Sept. 18, POG filed a lawsuit against the city of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police claiming that their First Amendment rights were being infringed upon. Shortly after, an agreement was established that allowed protesters to both sit and lie on designated portions of the sidewalk.

“There have been a lot of great things that have happened this month,” Williams, who named the lawsuit as one of the highlights and the Sept. 15 war protest and march on Forbes Avenue as another, said.

And now that the month is over, POG vows to see their cause through to the war’s end.

“So many people have put a lot of work into [the cause],” Staniszewski said. “A lot of people are excited to invest energy in different things now.”

POG has a slew of plans for the coming months – most focused locally, but some, like a protest against the IMF and World Bank in Washington D.C., are more nationally based.

“But this month is one to reflect,” Williams said.

Because September was such an important month politically, Williams hopes that POG’s presence in Oakland has stirred up thought about the war and its implications. And now that it’s over, the group plans on taking a step back to evaluate their progress.

“This is not us leaving for good,” Hubbard said. “I hope our absence doesn’t stop the dialogue about the war.”