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News :: Peace |
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Report From Protest At Boeing Missile Plant, Sunday March 23rd, St. Charles Missouri |
Current rating: 3 |
by Meridith
Email: bmmk (nospam) soltec.net (unverified!) |
25 Mar 2003
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Looking up I see peace activists gathering in the park in front of me for the Midwest Regional Resistance. Soon we will assemble and march in a solemn funeral procession to the gates of Boeing Missile Plant in St. Charles, Missouri. This plant was chosen because it is the site where the missiles being used against the people of Iraq at this moment were relentlessly manufactured twenty-four hours a day, seven-days a week. |
It is a beautiful Sunday morning. So warm and calm that at first it is hard for me to imagine that at this very moment my county is waging a war of “shock and awe” by raining missiles of death and destruction over the people of Baghdad. But it is true, and turning on the radio I hear reports of Americans being taken prisoners of war and dying from friendly fire. I hear news of the advancing US invasion and sounds of protests from around the world. I listen to these updates and lower my head in sorrow for the needless suffering experienced by those caught in this crossfire and I wonder when those who plotted this senseless war for greed, power, and domination will feel the weight and totality of this suffering upon their soul?
Looking up from the radio I see peace activists gathering in the park in front of me for the Midwest Regional Resistance. Soon we will assemble and march in a solemn funeral procession to the gates of Boeing Missile Plant in St. Charles, Missouri. This plant was chosen because it is the site where the missiles being used against the people of Iraq are relentlessly manufactured twenty-four hours a day, seven-days a week. Among other goals, I hope our march raises awareness about the enormous amount of money the U.S. spends its military and the fact that the U.S. exports more weapons, oftentimes arming both sides of a conflict in clear disregard for any other motive than profit, than any other country in the world. I read that George Bush requested $74.7 billion to finance the war in Iraq. I know this is criminal and will use this opportunity to denounce the diversion of resource for peace, health, education, childcare and housing to finance weapons of destruction that kill innocent civilians and undermine efforts for peace with justice.
Before the march begins an interfaith prayer service is held and people share words of sorrow, solidarity, and hope. Among the coffins, stretchers with wounded “bodies”, and shrouded mourners, a woman distributes “signs of life” in the form of flowers, birds, and butterflies. We carry these to symbolize our hope and resistance. Shortly after 1:00pm we begin to process to the gates of Boeing. Police accompanies us on horseback, motorcycles, and foot. A helicopter circles repeatedly above our heads as the sun grows hotter and beats down on our slow deliberate procession. Our march contains many diverse elements. A grandfather in a long black shroud wears a skeleton mask and carries a doll in his arm to symbolize child causalities of war. A woman on crutches moves with a determined cadence at the back of our group. A small child of six helps his father carry a coffin only three feet long. Women carry flowers and stare blankly from behind black netting. Our posters bear pictures of Iraqi children with messages begging onlookers to remember that they are not collateral damage but have names like Noora and Ahmed. Other signs read “Veterans for Peace” and “Support our Troops: Bring Them Home”. We are a solemn and centered group. At the moment our country wages a war against the people of Iraq and puts American troops in danger we march to the site where missiles that carry out needless death and destruction are made and demand an end to the killing.
As we process I personally feel a life force moving within me. I carry it and focus on this source of strength as we approach the gates and are confronted by counter-demonstrators who begin to shout insults at us.
“Traitors! Liars! Prostitutes! You are Baby Killers! Get the Fuck Out of My Town! Go Home Bastards! You ungrateful scum! I died for your right to be here! Saddam would kill you if you did this in Iraq! Bomb them all!”
As planned, a member of our group sounds an air raid siren and we drop to the ground. Some of us lie motionless, symbolizing the death of Iraqi soldiers, innocent civilians and American troops. Others kneel over the dead of war, weeping and praying.
I fall and lie on my back. I have been carrying the photograph of a young Iraqi child who has rashes all over his skin and lies motionless on a table. I embrace him in my arms and stare up into the blaring sun. I hear the siren and imagine bombs falling over Baghdad at this moment. I think of Kathy Kelly who spent several days with while she was in Champaign. I know Kathy is in Iraq and I wonder how she is. I think of my friend Roaa and her grandmother who lives in Iraq and has refused to leave her home. I wonder how they are. I think of the thousands of Iraqi civilians in danger and I think of American servicemen and women who are unnecessarily in harms-way. The sirens continue to blare. The counter demonstrators grow louder and I sense them moving closer.
“You Fucking Traitors! You’re lying there like you’re dead! I hope you’re dead, I hope you never get up! Hear that siren, that’s Saddam’s chemical attack on you all right now!”
I begin shaking. My body grows tense. The sirens continue and the shouting grows louder. I remember the picture of the boy I am holding in my arms. A sense of calm overtakes me. I do not hear the shouting any longer. I focus on the sun and think of the boy. I know I am ready to stand at the gates of Boeing to bear witness to this site of death and destruction. The sirens stop. We slowly stand up and come to the gate.
Our presence here lasts for three hours. Boeing has its own security force posted inside and outside the barbed wire fence encircling the plant. Security forces stare down the Citizens Inspection Team and refuse to open the gates. The counter-protestors form a line behind us and have to be restrained by the police. Their harassment continues and at one point they bring in a line of motorcycles and rev their engines into a deafening roar. The police horses are spooked jolt backwards. We refuse to be threatened and continue our presence. We build our own energy through drums, guitar music and song.
After several hours Boeing finally opens the gate. Those not able to risk arrest move away from the plant while the Citizen Inspectors cross the line in an act of civil disobedience. In all, thirteen people from our group are arrested and over 300 participate in the funeral procession.
Walking back to the park, children from the counter-demonstration ride alongside us and yell insults. An elderly couple comes to their door to hiss in disapproval. A young boy peers from behind a house but is soon yanked away and told to go inside by an angry father. A woman sits on a stoop next to a yard sign that reads “Jesus” while her young son gives us a “thumbs-down”. Coming back into the park we see that a windshield of one of the organizer’s cars has been smashed with a rock.
I begin to help everyone pack up. I notice families continue to ride their bikes and children have not ceased playing under the now setting sun. As we start our car the radio reminds us of the latest US military targets taken in Iraq. I look back at the plant and see trucks go in and out, carrying missiles that will most likely be used to kill innocent civilians in the next US war for greed and domination. I know our physical presence will soon be gone. The highways blocked off for our march will be re-opened and counter-demonstrators will go home. Tomorrow the paper may print a story but for many our action is already old news.
Yet in the face of this reality I do not doubt for one moment the importance of our presence and acts of nonviolent civil disobedience at Boeing today. In the time of this horrific invasion, waged by our country, the sole world super power, against the impoverished suffering people of Iraq, in the time of a war that violates International law, the UN Charter, wishes of the International Community and defies any last shred of morality and humanity and is sure to kill thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and many American and Iraqi troops as well, we must ask ourselves, WHAT DID I DO? I feel a moral obligation to speak and act against this act of aggression. This war will not make us safer or bring peace, democracy, or liberation to the Iraqi people. This war is a failure; this war will only breed more unrest, poverty, suffering and desperation.
So we must continue organizing and acting against injustice. We can do this each day in many ways. I see my action at Boeing as one step in this long journey. In closing, let us remember these words, “My government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. For the sake of humanity I cannot be silent.” - Martin Luther King
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Re: Report From Protest At Boeing Missile Plant, Sunday March 23rd, St. Charles Missouri |
by Jack Ryan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
26 Mar 2003
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Meridith,
I would just like to say to the good folks at Boeing. Your missiles kick ass. Thank God, there are people smart enough to hit a target by satelite, or by laser so that the innocent people of Iraq do not have to die needlessly.
People like Meridith do not understand, that the easy way would be to make Iraq another Dresden. Your work will allow us to achieve the same objective: VICTORY, without killing innocent civilians.
Meridith, while you are marching, pick up a book, any book and read it. It will make you smarter.
Your Friend,
Jack |
