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St. Cloud State University
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Walkout unites SCSU
By Joe Palmersheim
Published:
Thursday, March 6, 2003
Media Credit: Adam Masloski
Hundreds of SCSU students walk through campus Wednesday in protest of the prospect of war in Iraq. Throughout campus protesters also painted snow red to represent the bloodshed that the war could cause.
Media Credit: Adam Masloski
Graduate student Dana Zwetow stands, while protesting against the possibility of war, with others in the Atwood Memorial Center to watch the line of students file in. Behind them another group of students hold signs that read liberate Iraq and support our troops.
Media Credit: M.L. Gray/ KRT
University of North Texas freshman Chris Brown shows his support for President Bush during an anti-war rally in Denton, Texas.
About 500 SCSU students and faculty members braved single digit temperatures Wednesday while marching to protest the upcoming war with Iraq.
"Books Not Bombs" was a nationwide protest in which several other colleges in Minnesota took part, and St. Cloud was no exception. Students started to arrive in Atwood around 11 a.m. and the numbers continued to grow as the march drew near. People of all ages attended this event, and the spirit of the crowd was one of optimism.
Several people were handing out flowers to marchers, and volunteers from the Anti-war Coalition distributed strips of red cloth to be tied around the left arm as a symbol of solidarity.
People had various reasons for attending the march.
"We've raised our voice on this for the past several months through writing our congressional representatives and the President," said Hal Kimble, an SCSU student and an 11-year Army veteran. "We've protested, we've marched and the Senate remains quiet. Nobody's listening. So it's a nationwide strike today, and we're walking out of our classes to show solidarity with fellow students and we're going to try to put a stop to this war,"
"[I'm here] to protest the war and to protest special registration because it's racial profiling. It targets only a specific number of people from certain countries," said SCSU 5th year student Sarah Hollinger.
"I'm here because it's very important to me to get my point of view out in the open," said Stacy Springer, SCSU sophomore. "I would like to express what I believe in and hopefully, we can educate people so that they understand what points of view are out there, so they can make up their minds better. Something like this is a wonderful opportunity,"
SCSU faculty members were on hand to protest as well.
"I'm very concerned about this one-sided Texan approach to Iraq," said Jorn Commers, who teaches in the Foreign Language Department. "(Bush) backed himself into a corner, and now he doesn't know what to do anymore. It's really too bad that so many civilians are going to suffer. But I'm not really quite convinced yet that we're going to have a war. This time, unlike the Vietnam years, the passions are up right from the beginning, and during the Vietnam War it took time to build up. I think Bush and Blair should make tea instead of war."
Commers is a native of Hamburg, Germany.
Not all of the voices raised on this day were in support of the protest. Andrew Labree, an SCSU senior who is a corporal in the National Guard, stood in stark contrast to the protesters. Labree was wearing his uniform and was at the protest to show his support for the troops.
"I just want to hear what people have to say, and their reasoning behind why they're opposing the war, because I obviously believe that the only way to help the Iraqi people is to make sure that Saddam is no longer left in power," Labree said.
"As long as he's in power, he's preventing us from helping them."
Corporal Labree is part of an air defense unit out of Monticello, which is a support unit attached to the 81st Brigade out of Washington State.
During the march itself students were supposed to remain silent, but many instead cracked jokes and discussed spring break plans. The jovial chatter detracted from the seriousness of the event.
The weather was a major source of discomfort and marchers found additional solidarity in freezing together as a group. Most of those on campus who watched the marchers did so with idle curiosity or admiration, but this was not always the case.
A small, unorganized counter protest of about 10 people proved itself to be merely an annoyance, yelling insults and singing an off-key rendition of "I'm Proud to Be an American."
The counter-protesters were not taken seriously by the marchers, and provided a source of amusement more than anything else.
The "Books Not Bombs" movement swept through the United States colleges, and was successful in Minnesota, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Missouri and other states.
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