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Anti-War Marchers Raise Controversy in Chanhassen Parade
CHANHASSEN, Minn. - Under partly cloudy skies and intense sunshine last Wednesday, much of the crowd fell silent, and peripheral activity seemed to stop as a group carrying placards calling for an end to the war in Iraq and the impeachment of President Bush passed in the street. Some people gave the peace sign and even cheered. Other observers of the Fourth of July parade in Chanhassen were silent. The parade walkers included members of Veterans and Peace and Citizens for Peace, two groups that oppose the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq.
One man watching the parade could not contain himself. Shouting insults at the walkers, like 'Deserters' and 'Losers,' he followed them for about one block.
John Varone, a Chaska resident and president of the Minneapolis chapter of Veterans for Peace, was walking in the parade and commented on the incident several days later.
"He was an embarrassment to himself and to those around him," Varone said. "I felt bad for the citizens that had to watch that man. That was terrible."
But not everybody thought so.
"As he walked back to his spot, some applauded him," remarked one parade observer.
Immediately, several letters to the editor came to Herald's sister newspaper the Chanhassen Villager.
John Bosacker, who was not that man, commented that the protest walk was "disturbing and disappointing." In follow-up correspondence, he described himself as a salesman that loves his God, country and family.
"From my perspective, they were not saying 'We support our troops and bring them home safely,'" he commented. "They were saying 'peace not war,' anti-government, anti-war and anti-President Bush including having President Bush's head mounted on a stick and holding it up in the air! I'm sorry, but how can you and those that make decisions regarding who participates in our parade allow such nonsense to take place?"
He copied the letter to State Rep. Joe Hoppe, Chanhassen Mayor Tom Furlong and Chanhassen Rotary organizer Jeff Anderson.
"It's only because of our country's service men and women that have been willing to die for our freedom that these people can have the freedom to march," he noted. "The protestors' (call them for what they were) specific actions not only defaced our government leaders and our veterans, but also the men and women that are serving."
Two other letters were from individuals in the group. Chante Wolf, the educational outreach consultant for Veterans for Peace, Chapter 27, wrote one of them. A veteran of the Persian Gulf War who served in the Air Force from 1980 to 1992, she thanked the Rotary and the city for allowing the group to march. She also had bittersweet words for the crowd.
"I want to thank the many people in the crowd who stood, cheered, saluted, thanked us, and many who wanted to shake our hands," she noted. "And last, I would also like to thank the people in the crowd who booed us, jeered at us, verbally attacked us, stood and turned their backs to us, for showing the children in the audience what a real Ugly American looks like."
The third letter was from Varone, who along his wife, Becky, a member of Citizens for Peace, sat down to discuss war, peace and parades with the newspaper.
They explained that their organization has been in numerous parades around the state protesting the war in Iraq. Citizens for Peace is against the war in Iraq. It started out as Code Pink Women for Peace, Becky explained. They march with the Veterans for Peace because it gives them credibility, she said. The groups walked in Chanhassen's Fourth of July parade each year from 2003 to 2005. Two years ago they carried wooden caskets with the names of the deceased U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan on them. They sat out last year because they "ran out of energy."
This year they were back to press home their point for peace, but without the caskets because, Becky said: "A lot of the Rotary members felt that it was too controversial. They didn't want to approve us marching in the parade if we were going to have the coffins there." Group members felt a casketless walk would be better than no walk at all.
"Yes, the coffins represent death," John said. "They represent the cost of a war. That's what they represent. We don't want to see that in this country. We don't want to be reminded of it. Not everybody is hurt by it."
"Not everybody is sacrificing," Becky added. "Most people aren't giving up anything, except their taxes."
Even without the caskets, the peace walkers remained controversial, but protesting the protesters is nothing new. They're used to it.
"We've had people yell things out, but you just march past them and ignore it," Becky said. She's a veteran protester who was in Chicago in 1968 with thousands of others to protest the Vietnam War during the Democratic National Convention.
She's motivated by a sense of justice.
"I did not believe that was a just war either," she said of Vietnam. "I felt we were there for oil."
However, what they experienced as a result of the man yelling insults and following them this year was more than either is willing to tolerate next year. They plan to avoid the Chanhassen parade altogether.
"We've never had anything to the extent that we did in this parade," Becky said. "People seemed like they were more polarized than they have ever been."
Without the Veterans for Peace, the Citizens for Peace will not walk, she lamented.
"We feel that somebody needs to be working for peace," she said. "We put how much money into war and defense in this country, but no money into peace and how to live together peacefully, like establishing a Department of Peace."
A combat veteran of the Vietnam War, John explained that he is not a pacifist, just protesting the U.S. involvement in Iraq right now.
"Let's just say that a boatload of terrorists lands on the Minnesota River by Chaska," he hypothesized. "Does anybody think that we would not defend our country? I mean, that's the way we are interpreted - that we would just lay down our arms. Of course not! We're veterans. We're Americans. We've got our medals, our ribbons, presidential citations, you know. We did our duty."
He admitted that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was not a nice place, but he said the United States policy toward countries in the Middle East has been very inconsistent through the years, even helping to create the despots, like Hussein. That's one of the reasons he's protesting the war. His main objective in the parade was to raise awareness of what he thinks are powerful international forces at work in Iraq that American taxpayers are supporting through their funding of the U.S. involvement.
"Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue," he said. "Iraq was called Mesopotamia. In 1921, it was divided up. This has been going on for a long, long time, and it had nothing to do with terrorists at that point in time. It was about money."
He suggested that our country engage terrorists in the Middle East differently, with better cooperation of other countries in that region. He admitted, though, that "nobody has all the answers."
Becky said she engages the terrorists by contributing money to organizations that advocate human rights, like building schools for girls, in Afghanistan. Both of them think it was a mistake to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They look forward to welcoming Minnesota National Guard troops home from Iraq. John explained that in addition to protesting war, the group is also one of the biggest advocates for veterans.
"We are huge advocates for our soldiers," John said. "Every soldier I ever see, I go up to them and say 'Welcome home. If you need anything, let us know.'" He helps veterans understand their rights and the services they can receive from the VA.
The Veterans for Peace movement grew out of the Vietnam Veterans against the War. It has more than 6,000 members in the country, with one of the largest and active chapters in Minneapolis, Chapter 27, John said. The chapter is staffed and located at 2123 Clinton Ave., S., St. Stephen's Church, Minneapolis, and more information can be found at www.twincitiesvfp.org.
Copyright Southwest Newspapers 2007
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16 Comments so far
Show AllWhy should America keep supporting these barbarians that only want to keep killing. They don't care how, when or where, just so the slaughter of muslims continues.
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As a young woman I protested in marches against the war in Viet Nam and now I have protested against Iraq. It seems to me that there is more hostility towards protesters now.
Has anyone else experienced a lot of hostility when they have protested on the streets? I was in a group protesting early on against the Iraq War and people were shouting things like "Muslim lover" and raising their finger and shouting the f word.
I don't remember experiencing that kind of abuse in the early 70's
Are Americans more coarse now? Are Americans more angrily polarized? or was a protesting in NYC in the 70's and the location was more hospitable to protesters?
But I don't want you to think it was all negative, many also honked in support of the protest. One of the most postive experiences I had was when a young man came by and asked to shake my hand. He was greatful that I was protesting. That was very meaningful for me.
Colleen,
I think you are right, there is a lot of polarization. And I can't believe how manipulated some people are, they say "I support the troops, but don't show me a casket cause I get offended", non sense. But again, this is all part of the war of information we are living in.
I think the opposite is true. When student groups first started protesting the Vietnam War in the mid-60s, their marches were broken up by angry union members with clubs and bats (those unions that remain being one of the most vociferously anti-war groups today of course). When Noam Chomsky spoke against the war during those years he had to have police protection for his family. It was only in the later stages of the war, specifically the expansion of the air war to Cambodia, that massive protests representing most of the political spectrum developed, during which it became "safe" for people to protest without fear of personal injury. What we face today is mild in comparison.
On a related note: something like three quarters of the US population is opposed to the Iraq War today. Even at the height of the Vietnam War public opposition never really passed 50%. Pro-war voices are perhaps more vociferous today than they once were, but anti-war forces are actually stronger than ever (if much quieter than they used to be). We have made progress. We just have to keep up the pressure until our demands are heard. Don't forget, Vietnam was fought to scare the rest of the world into obeying US orders. Iraq is about maintaining the empire itself. Far, far more is at stake for US elite interests today; it will consequently be much harder to end this war, even with far more people on our side than ever before.
Perhaps the saddest (and, simultaneously the most laughable) part of this article was Bosacker's statement that the marchers would not be able to march if not for the soldiers "willing to die for our freedom that these people can have the freedom to march." I wish I could find it hard to believe that anyone could be so ignorant but alas, I can't. Does this man not realize that Iraq and Saddam Hussein never endangered his freedoms? Sure, Hussein was a thuggish tyrant but he still didn't pose a direct threat to American freedoms. I find the people that still slavishly support the war to be deeply pathetic and sad figures. They are apparently in deep denial about the reasons why American servicemen and women are dying that have nothing to do with freedom and everything to do with establishing a massive American base of operations and gaining access to oil. No wonder there's not more massive protest when there are these sorts of misguided people out there.
Those who would like to applaud the efforts of peace marchers and anti-Bush protesters are held at bay by the underlining fear that has been very cleverly imposed by this administration. From those early days after 9/11 where American flag decals suddenly appaered almost overnight in grocery store checkouts and big box stores to the yellow ribbons on gas guzzling vehicles everywhere and Bush's statement to ALL Americans that you are either with us or against us, were all clever devices to plant the seed of witch-hunting for terrorist sympathizers in the US. If you marched against the war or spoke out in public against Bush's administration or wrote letters to the editor supporting efforts to bring peace, you were and still are a marked man(woman) in our scared-out-of-their-minds society. Sure, millions of Americans are against the war and wish Bush and his merry band of neo's would just leave, but when fear has taken over courage throughout our country what chance does the anti-war movement have? We've been cleverly divided and pushed away from the mainstream and didn't even see it coming.
Educating the masses who still buy into the God and country, guns over butter routine is what's needed. It's HOW that can be accomplished that's the key. Until then, you'll have the quiet wide-eyed street crowds standing along the parade routes silently cheering on the protesters while cringing from the vocal right-wing minority.
Dear NewAgeArtist and selected others who post here:
While I regularly applaud the intelligence of what you have to say, I must respond to the latest post by saying that we were ALL shocked and dismayed about the events of 9/11, and we found a most unusual level of mutual support in voicing our love of our own country during those first horrifying days; there were not reds or blues then, and we were all united, along with most of the rest of the world, in seeking redress against and/or understanding about those who mounted the attack.
Flags were flown or honored by everyone who had always known or experienced a deep epiphany in the aftermath of that attack that the Right does not own "patriotism," even though they have made it an empty and nearly a dirty word. It was, unfortunately, a cataclysmic meeting of the man and his moment that put Bush in the position to respond to this attack, and it was he and his self-serving coterie who took us down the simplistic path that we see unraveling before us now. And he was doing no more than mouthing the words of the past and the ideas of the status quo. Sometimes I think he is only the symbol of what we have allowed our country to become.
Unfortunately, as well, we are being forced to go all the way to the bitter end of this absurd skein of events so that more and more of us can begin to rally behind the idea that positive and definite change--in our thinking, in our perspective, in our institutions, in our relations with each other and the world--is the only way to insure a continuation and an improvement of this country.
So, I must agree that education about the truth of what is going on and a perspective on the history of what has brought us to this place is, indeed, what is most sorely needed. That, and a commitment to change our way of thinking from the bedrock up--starting with our schools--so that we raise a society that does not need an anti-war "movement" but rather begins to understand and embrace the destructive futility of war in a world that is, indeed, increasingly global in its interactions. Thoughtful schooling, personalized and individualistic schooling? Hmmm, worlds apart from what is going on now. The internet itself is proof that we are and want to be connected to each other; now, how about demanding that we teach our kids how to think intelligently and how to both absorb and respond to the plethora of information that inundates them daily? The change is coming and school is one important place where it will begin. Everyone here is doing a part by voicing opinions and providing information. Let's also do our part by taking the discussion beyond the confines of this protected space and begin talking about institutional change in ways that more and more of us can support. www.changetheschools.com
principessaflamenco & Graem
Thank you for helping me get some perspective on this. I have also gone door to door for Moveon and was sent by them to houses with people registered as democratics. Many of them supported Bush and Cheney, although our area did go for Kerry.
And I was at the polls for Move on giving out information in support of Kerry where I encountered some more people who were rude and emotional in their dislike for Kerry. And through all this its expected that peace people are supposed to be polite (!)
The news media has not been covering the split in the US, so its difficult when experiencing it to know exactly how wide spred it is and to figure out what people are thinking.
I wonder if anyone else here also received a christmas card from George Bush just after he was elected the second time? It was sent out by the RNC with a postmark from Bush's ranch in Texas. No one in my family is a Republican and I was very active in opposing Bush and the war, but new to political action.
bush and his band of thugs are all war criminals who should reside in the hague behind bars....liars that they are..............
Out here on the Left Coast, home of "Progressive Thinking", we weekly street protestors find that the majority support impeachment and the end to the "hegemaniacal" madness...Unfortunately, it is also supremely obvious that 99%plus of these smug haters of what our benighted country has become WILL NOT LIFT A FINGER TO ORGANIZE!! and after three years of begging friends and neighbors to get off their butts, I'm running out of ideas, folks. Its starting to look like the entire country is on sedatives.......
When Jesus comes back he will need his power as God, because the fundamentalist right wing nuts will go crazy when he starts saying anti American stuff like 'Blessed are the Peacemakers.'
To shakker: quite well-put. The self-righteous, self-chosen ones are very much the core of the problem.
To pkokinos: Patti, you're quite right about our pathetic educational system. I've been teaching at college level since 1971 and have watched the quality of students go right down the toilet. They are neither inspired nor taught how to think, just how to memorize "stuff" to pass a damned test someone thinks is somehow vital.
Last week, I asked my Psychology class how many of them (about 30) knew that the US and UK had bombed Iraq almost weekly for 12 years before we actually invaded them full-force (sort of). One girl raised her hand, which actually surprised me, since I expected no response at all.
As long as Americans are obsessed with this ignorant "us/them; good/evil" type of black and white thinking, there is no hope for intelligent discourse. Then, of course, is the even more daunting challenge of getting them away from their ipods, American Idol, Paris et al.I'm not sure there IS much hope at this point, come to think of it. Perhaps, like alcoholics, we'll have to collectively "bounce off the bottom" before we realize we have to change directions.
estebandido:
My point exactly!
The majority of Americans are very supportive of what the Left is demonstrating about but won't physically or visibly join the ranks. It has become a society of "let the other guy do it, I'm too busy." A busy lifestyle plus an underlying fear factor keeps many people away from organized protest. It's the same mentality that allowed Fascism to creep into Germany.
I remeber a course I was doing and was seated next to a very intelligent idividual or so I thought, this was back in 2003 just as the Bush syndicate was launching it's reasons for war in Iraq. I was having a conversation with another class mate about how America originaly helped install Sadam when my American colleuge from across the room started shouting at us of how we couldn't say things like that in public! So much for free speech ehh.
Fundamentaly though politics is subject to corruption wherever you look not just in the States, here in Europe too we have corporate lapdogs being elected. Sometimes individuals stand out and have a progressive message but all too soon many get lost in the winding and bloody labyrinth that is politics.
Public attention span is oh so short and the last members of the generation who remember WWII are slowly dissappearing, do we need another big war on our doorstep to remind us? We certainly care less unless the violence is right infront of our door who really cares if it's in far away places like Afganistan and Iraq when we have our consumerism to distract us?
I certainly agree that education is the first place to start, wether kids are reciting a pledge, a prayer or nothing at all every morning should recite their constitutional rights no matter what country they live in. I think in any subject where you have any personal rights involved(consumer laws in econmics, tenant rights in civics etc.) students should be taught there fundamental rights. Might be a bit harder to pull the wool over an entire generation fully aware of their rights in all aspects of society.
Kids (adults too!) of all ages have to be incouraged to ask questions not just regurgitate knowledge from a book or from the television. Perhaps i hope for too much here...
nomorebomds: kinda difficult to do that when America is not signed on for the International Criminal Court. The quite neutral little country I live in also happens to be the worlds 3rd largest exporter of computer chips for mainly advanced weaponry but hey the blood ain't on my hands right?
We'll all one day wake up and realize we have created our own nightmare
the snakes, slither and hiss, slither and hiss, will soon be at the door. let them slither and hiss. our bed has been made for us.
I remember all the cheering people who were begging the US to go to war in the Balkans, led by a dog wagging its tail and over half of the US population did not even know where the Balkan s were.
Right off let me say that the peoples within the old Yugo Republic and all the Balkan area are as much responsible for thier own downfall as is the US Brits and German Austrian bankers and he energy peoples.
Their own bigotry religous bull crap and outright stupidity helped the outside world takeover until today not one country has a governemtn or a national bank that is not under an umbrella organization, a Vice Royship in reality.
The Balkans was a planned destabilization by US and Brits.
They hired bin Ladins services originaly to gather and help[ arm Islamic radicals to start a civil war front. Arms came from NGO money, US NGO that is a state department and CIA run in horn of Africa, buying guns and mortars from Korean and Iranian sources, hayuled overland through Pakistan, given to tow major groups one of which is Black Eagles and whole operation was Greater Albanian Project to secure Trans Balkan oil lines from Sea.
Our social rebuilders working hand in hand with the military industrials led the charge inot country, divided it inot ungovernable areas, the pipeline is now only AlBanian ports and not one country in Balkans owns any part of it.
It is by the ignorance of true american foeign policy and even yet deeper ignroance of foeign countries that lead us to war.
As such today the old social hand wring democrats give the military all the ammunnition that allows them to stay in Iraq, Saddam was a bad man and hurting his peple.
Many social engineers in the Democratic mold were ready and willing to go into Iraq and set up a UTOPIAN SOCIETY but the greed of those who had planned PRIVATIZING a whole country ran right over them and now all the social experimenters have going is milk lines and chartity bazars in the grren zones.
that the members of the terrorist cell had more conectio to the Albanians than to Sauids is known, they left through there to come to US origianlly and ther is strong evidence that bin Ladin was in Albania during most of he tiem of Balkan wars.
It was a genral who ran for Democatic Party Presidential spot who damned near got us into a shooting war in Balkans with the Russians.
Americans are good at telling others how to live and they themselves are the dumbest and most manipulated people of any civilized country on earth.
We are not civilized no matter how much we lie to ourselves and just because someone tels us it is the civilized thing to do we follow like shep and peole all around he world pay for it.
How many people know that even 3 years after deposing Haittis elected president we and Un along with our installed thugs in governemtn kill some 30 Haitians a month, rape on the average 5 women a month in celbration of our giving them democracy. Democracy and a Caolinian garmet maker pays them slave wages so you can have a nice sirt on yor back.
This is the country you live in and it is not education we need to defeat our leaders, they are educated and our educated get in line for the money jobs and no amount of education will make those of a military mind or love of war and being warriors from enjoying the killing fields our super powerfull military and nice americans who support them from joining up .
You cannot support the military men of today they are not for america because they have no amnerica to defend, it is not america that was attacked it was our leaders who were attacked, the corpr5oate elite and the political along with the military symbols of our corruption a that were.
We have teachers today waving the gflags more so than their students, teachers just as ignorant of the true politic of this nation.