You may have seen them outside the Urbana Post Office or the Free Library or the Champaign County courthouse during the lunch hour. Perhaps you’ve seen them at the junction of North Prospect Street and I-74 in Champaign. More recently, you might have caught sight of them on University Avenue, across from Carle Hospital.
At first they were a small group composed exclusively of women, but now on a given day there may be as many as 25 to 30 people of both genders. They range in age from pre-teen to senior citizen, and in vocation from student to teacher, factory worker tocomputer programmer to college professor. They are your fellow citizens, and they have been braving the elements and a seemingly hostile political climate every weekday since September 20 to talk to you, their neighbors.
They are attempting to engage you in dialogue about a subject that is very important both to them and to you, in one of the few ways that are open to them. They are standing outdoors along busy streets using signs and banners and pamphlets to communicate their point of view, and now they are communicating it in these pages.
They are the Ladies and Laddies Against War, and they’d like to make your acquaintance.

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Susan Parenti, an artist and teacher at the School for Designing a Society, conceived the original idea for the Ladies Against War in the aftermath of September 11. A longtime student of language and its relationship to politics, Parenti observed with trepidation the mediaresponse to the events of that day. She saw clearly that the US media’s extensive use of emotion-laden language - what she calls the “pirating of grief” - in framing the issue as an “Attack on America” would contribute to a rapid militarization.
In those first days Parenti visualized “the slow movement of a bully who has just been tapped on the shoulder”. When she and some of her friends made small “No War” banners which they pinned to their clothing, Parenti’s “inner American” was frightened as she observed the glares of her fellow citizens in response.
Within a week, Parenti had organized a small group of women who resolved to make themselves available publicly as a “Red Cross station for those who were suffering from propaganda”. Initially the Ladies Against War stood quietly outside the Urbana Post Office during the lunch hour each day, dressed nicely and displaying anti-war signs and banners. While they encountered a great deal of hostility and verbal abuse, and even some scattered incidents of physical violence, Parenti and her colleagues discovered that a lot of their fellow citizens actually wanted to unburden themselves. After screaming for a bit, some of them would calm down and engage the Ladies in dialogue about the events of September 11.
Another purpose of the Ladies’ demonstration, Parenti relates, was to test the extent to which non-violent protest was still protected by law in America following the events of September 11. She cites one of her mentors, Herbert Brun, who stated that he emigrated from Germany in 1935 not so much because Germans were breaking Jews’ windows, but because the German police stood by and did nothing.
In contrast, Parenti was assured by the Urbana police that what she and her colleagues were doing was perfectly legal, and the Ladies received ample police protection from the very beginning. Parenti has nothing but praise for the response of the Urbana Police Department.
Another positive discovery, Parenti recounts, was that contrary to the media’s portrayal of reality, not all Americans were in favor of the administration’s policies in the aftermath of September 11. A number of cars bearing American flags, she says, gave the Ladies the peace sign as they drove past. While the responses they received from African Americans were about 99% positive, the Ladies observed that contrary to stereotype, women were no more likely to express pacifist sentiments than were men.
Sometime in October, the Ladies decided to move their noon demonstration one day a week to the intersection of North Prospect and I-74, and it was at that point that they encouraged men to join them. Thus they became the Ladies and Laddies Against War.
Parenti goes on to explain in greater detail the philosophy underlying her decision to organize a public display of dissent. She observes that the mainstream media has been co-opted to such an extent that it has lost its original focus as a watchdog on the excesses of government. Instead, the press has become “Hollywood”, she feels, so that rather than seeing the real news, we see a “movie” about events. This movie is orchestrated in part by the government in its propaganda efforts, and in part by the corporations that own the media, in a complex and incestuous web of deceit.
In this media climate, Parenti sees the Ladies and Laddies Against War as a form of alternative newspaper. She perceives dissent as a means of creating a “public space” in which to “do democracy”, and emphasizes that with democracy and dissent as with so many other things, one must “use it or lose it”. She even encourages non-violent disagreement, because disagreement leads to dialogue which can lead in turn to greater mutual understanding between people, and perhaps solutions to shared problems.

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If you ask them why they are there, you will receive a number of different replies from the Ladies and Laddies. There are recurring themes, but these are themes not often or well articulated in the mainstream media.
Many of the Ladies and Laddies, of course, want to communicate their opinions to others. The signs and banners express opposition to the bombing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, and concern for the impending starvation of potentially millions more.The Ladies and Laddies feel that the atrocity of September 11, while eminently tragic, does not necessitate or justify further and greater atrocities against civilians in countries overseas.
Scott Smith, age 30, is concerned about what he calls the “ongoing cycle of violence.” He doesn’t have a magic solution to all of the world’s complex issues, but he understands that peace and justice have their origin in the hearts and minds of individuals, and that the solution to terrorism lies not in escalating violence but in more spiritual approaches and perspectives.
David Green, a middle-aged husband and father with a PhD in Education, is also concerned about the likelihood of a war of uncertain duration against an ill-defined enemy. He is afraid that the current war will not end in Afghanistan or with the capture of Osama bin Laden, but may well spread to Iraq, perhaps to Somalia and other countries, as our nation’s leaders are emboldened by their ‘success’ and attempt to extend American control over the entire oil-producing region in the guise of “fighting terrorism”. Green feels that until the American public tires of war, he and others expressing dissent both in Champaign-Urbana and throughout the world cannot afford to grow complacent about war and starvation and human suffering.
Green has not always been an activist. He was not vehemently opposed to the war in Viet Nam, but he says that his views on foreignpolicy have evolved over the past ten years or so ashe learned more about the American government’s clandestine activities in Central America and in the Middle East. About five years ago, Green says, a “light came on” in his head and he said to himself with something of a jolt, “We’re a fearsome nation!” He feels that while ordinary citizens may be sincere in their beliefs, the leaders at the very top of the pyramid know that the real issue is control of global resources, and don’t for a moment believe their own rhetoric about “terrorists hating our freedoms".

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