Professors for peace, not war

A troupe of demonstrators circled the Cathedral of Learning Tuesday, to protest U.S…. A troupe of demonstrators circled the Cathedral of Learning Tuesday, to protest U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. The day marked the two-year anniversary of the United States’ first bombings in Afghanistan, which launched the current military campaign against terrorism.

Local activist groups, the Thomas Merton Center and the Pittsburgh Professors for Peace and Justice, organized the march.

“[What] we are here to show is that we are still vigilant,” said Tim Vining, executive director of the Merton Center “We are watching what is happening in Iraq and it has become clearly an occupation and is not about liberating the people of Iraq, so we are here to say that it is time to bring the troops home.”

Ken Boas added that, “We need to make our voice heard – that we oppose this war, we oppose this occupation, and we oppose the policies of the Bush administration.”

Boas, a Pitt English professor and member of the Pittsburgh Professors for Peace and Justice, added that the Bush administration’s policies are against democracy, free speech and human rights.

Protesters were about evenly divided between students and older community members. Many carried signs with such slogans as “Bush lied. They died. U.S. out. U.N. in” and “Money for jobs not war.” Two demonstrators wore T-shirts advertising Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic presidential hopeful, who has been strongly anti-war.

“We need to be aware of the underbelly of the actions that have been taken in Afghanistan and Iraq,” protestor Tom Blancato said. “People are buying the Fox News channel version of ‘We are out there saving the world.’ The truth of the matter may be very very different.”

“I believe that the sanctity of life should be the top priority of any government,” Craig Dicht, another protester, said. “I don’t believe preventable deaths should be allowed to happen, and I believe that, in this war, every conflict has been a perfect example of a government disregarding that very fact, that every life is precious.”

“It’s an over-simplistic view of the world when you feel you have to respond to violence with more violence,” he added.

Emily Bell flaunted a collage of photographs of the Pentagon immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on it. According to Bell, these images indicate that a plane did not cause the damage and that the attacks were part of a conspiracy.

“Nobody can answer my question. Why I can see no wreckage whatsoever of a Boeing 757?” Bell said. “The hole is smaller than a Boeing 757. The wall didn’t fall down for half an hour, and when it did fall down, it was a very tidy heap, and there is no [plane] wreckage.”

Tuesday’s protest consisted of 50 people, a tiny turnout compared to the 5,000 who demonstrated in Oakland last January or even the 200, according to the Merton Center, who gathered in Schenley Park in August.

According to Vining, the anti-war and anti-occupation sentiments have not dwindled; they have just taken different forms.

“I think what’s happened is that the peace movement has become much more mainstream,” he said. “You hear the mainstream press and people who are not normally anti-war who are now questioning the occupation in Iraq, who are questioning the amount of money we’ve spent there and who are realizing that there are no weapons of mass destruction. It doesn’t make the news because they are not organization rallies but when we have the majority of the people [questioning the occupation], that speaks for itself.”

Boas said, “The peace movement is regrouping. They are talking amongst themselves how to best reorganize and oppose what will be a long-term struggle to overthrow these forces of repression.”