Local groups march for peace

George Bush and Osama bin Laden, clad in orange jumpsuits, led a group of more than 1,000… George Bush and Osama bin Laden, clad in orange jumpsuits, led a group of more than 1,000 people Saturday in a march against the war in Iraq. At least their faces did.

The march – which started at an East Liberty Presbyterian church and ended in Oakland – was held by the Thomas Merton Center anti-war committee in commemoration of the three-year anniversary of the start of the war. The march was three miles long, to signify “three years too many.”

Pitt junior Chris Rudzki, in an Osama bin Laden mask, joined others dressed as Saddam Hussein, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Bush.

The statement was made to “equate Saddam with the likes of the Bush administration,” he said.

Kevin Carivad, a Pitt grad student, dressed as the president.

“We’re war criminals just like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein,” he said. “Everything they did in Iraq, we’re doing ourselves.”

As the group marched down South Negley Avenue, groups of people stood on their porches and lawns to watch.

In the middle of the protest, members of Code Pink – an organization of women for peace – carried a clothesline of pink lace dresses that read: “Give Bush the Pink Slip.”

Wearing pink feather boas, pink cowboy hats and pink Converse sneakers, they chanted: “We’re women, we’re marching, we’re not out shopping!”

Some groups marching included Raging Grannies, Veterans for Peace and the Pittsburgh Organizing Group.

As the group walked through Shadyside, both waiters and shoppers came out to the sidewalk on Walnut Street to observe. Some chanted with them and others raised their fingers in the peace symbol.

Catching the public eye was the main goal of many of the protesters.

“It’s not like we think we’re going to stop the war,” Pitt sophomore Abby Lerner said. “It just needs to be put back into consciousness.”

Lerner and fellow Pitt student Marta Spangler marched together with a sign that read, “Honk for peace.”

In Oakland, the group stopped on Forbes Avenue, outside the military recruiting station and chanted, “Shut it down! Shut it down!”

When the wire gates that the police had previously erected to keep protesters at a distance fell, the police formed a human shield in front of the station. Some police wore riot gear and held plastic shields.

The march allowed anti-war protesters to congregate together to voice their discontent with the war in Iraq, Pitt sophomore Noah Flegeal said.

“It’s all about the strength of a crowd,” he said. “And coming together with all of these people.”