War protesters fly the flag locally, in DC

Residents rally in Liberty and Washington, students observe

By FRITZ MAYER

LIBERTY, NY — Members of the anti-war group Sullivan Peace and Justice did what they have been doing once a month since 2002: gathered at a street corner in Liberty to wave signs and provide visible evidence that there is local opposition to the war in Iraq.

Normally, the group gathers on the first Saturday of the month, but on Saturday, January 27, members congregated to show solidarity with the tens of thousands of protesters gathering at the same time in Washington, DC.

Mary Ann Burke of Smallwood said the group actually began the protests in Monticello, but Liberty, where the streets are narrower, proved a better location to interact with people driving by. On this day, the interactions mostly showed support. Many drivers honked their horns or gave thumbs up gestures as they drove past the signs that read, “The people must be the deciders,” “Honk for peace” and simply “Impeach.”

With the temperature hovering in the 20s, and the skies overcast, there was very little foot traffic on the street, but one young man stopped to make a negative comment about the President.

“This isn’t against Bush,” Burke replied. “This is against the war.”

Eventually, a total of 10 protesters turned out to brave the elements and carry the group’s message. Asked if she thought the protests made any difference, Virginia Tovar, a part-time resident of Hurleyville, said, “You bet it makes a difference.” She said people have told her that the group’s presence on the street got them to start thinking seriously about the war, and ultimately brought them to an anti-war position.

The Washington connection

As the demonstrators in Liberty were expressing opposition to the war, a group of like-minded local residents were doing the same thing in Washington, DC. A bus left from Monticello at 5:00 a.m. and stopped in Narrowsburg and Beach Lake, PA before heading to the capital. Forty people from the area were on the bus, including eight students from Liberty High School.

Kathy Lambert, an art teacher at the school, said the idea for students to make the trip, which was not a school-sponsored activity, came through a discussion in her photography class about capturing emotion on film.

She said there was never a discussion about whether the students supported or opposed President Bush or the war in Iraq, but that the trip provided a chance for students to have new experiences. Most of them had never been to the nation’s capital before, nor did any have experience with mass gatherings.

Estimates of the size of the crowd in Washington vary from tens of thousands to 400,000, nearly all of them very much opposed to the U.S. presence in Iraq.

Joe Davis, one of Lambert’s students, said he decided to take the trip, “because I wanted to hear what people were actually saying; why they didn’t like Bush and why they were against the war.”

Davis, 16, said he was surprised at how many people and different groups showed up at the event, and about the strength of their feelings against the war.

In response to a question about his own opinion of the war, Davis said, “I kind of tried to stay out of that.”

The students witnessed speakers such as Jane Fonda, Sean Penn and Jesse Jackson, who were not shy about expressing their opinions of the war.

When Davis was asked if he thought the trip had been valuable he said, “Yeah… and I thought it was fun.”