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News :: Peace |
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Champaign-Urbana -- and World -- Still Say ‘No’ to WAR |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ricky Baldwin
Email: baldwinricky (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!)
Phone: 217-328-3037
Address: 801 E California Av, Urbana, IL 61801 |
17 Mar 2004
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Local and national events mark the first anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq this Saturday, March 20.
Dr. Mohammad Al-Heeti, who has just returned from Iraq, will speak at the Urbana Middle School. Urbana City Councilwoman Danielle Chynoweth, community activist Imani Bazzell, and Meg Miner, a US Air Force veteran, peace and social justice activist, and local librarian, will speak at the Champaign County Courthouse. |
(Urbana) On Saturday, March 20, local anti-war activists will mark the first anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq with music, poetry, and local speaker Dr. Mohammad Al-Heeti, who has just returned from a visit to Iraq. The event begins at 3PM at the Urbana Middle School, 1201 S. Vine in Urbana.
The Middle School event will be followed by a Peace Walk from the Middle School to the Champaign County Courthouse, where there will be an Anti-War Rally featuring speakers Urbana City Councilwoman Danielle Chynoweth, community activist Imani Bazzell, and Meg Miner, a US Air Force veteran, peace and social justice activist, and local librarian.
"I'm speaking because I served during the bloodiest century this world has ever known,” said Miner. “I hope to get people thinking about why we pride ourselves on being a peace-loving people but spend half of our tax dollars on anti-peace programs. We have to start working now to keep this century from being worse than the last."
Miner is far from alone in this sentiment. Many thousands of Americans are expected to attend anti-war commemorations around the country on or near the Iraq war anniversary March 20. Chynoweth, who sponsored last year’s successful resolution against the USA Patriot Act, says Americans have good reasons to be angry.
"In the last year, Iraq has seen blood, disease, and hunger,” says Chynoweth. “Americans have seen threats of WMDs revealed as fabrications, a ban on media at the funerals of dead soldiers, the linguistic sleight of hand that turned ‘body bags’ into ‘transfer tubes,’ the arrests of Americans and foreigners held for months without access to a lawyer. Where is the America that I love?"
The commemoration is sponsored by AWARE (the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort). |
See also:
http://www.antiwar.net
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This work is in the public domain |
