'Don't be silent now.' Folk singer Pete Seeger performs during Saturday’s rally in Kingston. Freeman/BILL MADDEN

KINGSTON - An estimated 1,500 peace activists from around the Hudson Valley filled Academy Green Park on Saturday to protest a potential U.S. attack on Iraq.

The demonstration was organized by the Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign as part of an international day of protest. Jack Smith, a rally coordinator, said some 275 Hudson Valley residents filled five buses that left Saturday morning for a similar rally in Washington, D.C.

"We oppose Congress' decision to give war powers to President Bush," Smith said. "We want to stop this war before it starts, and we demand no attack on Iraq."

Added Sue Rosenberg of the Saugerties Committee for Peace and Social Justice: "We are patriots. We care a lot about our country. We don't think the Bush administration speaks on behalf of the American people."

Demonstrators, whose numbers were estimated by rally organizers, were entertained by folk singer and lifelong activist Pete Seeger. The Dutchess County resident performed a piece written after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks along with several other songs, including Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land."

"Draw on the most wonderful tradition that we have in America: speaking your mind in public - even if some people disagree with you," said Seeger, 83. "I'm telling everybody, 'Don't be silent now.'"

Signs were prevalent during the peace rally on Saturday at Academy Green Park in Kingston. Freeman/BILL MADDEN

Musicians Bob Lusk and Stephanie Fix, the musical group Princes of Serendip and poet David Kime also provided entertainment.

Speakers at the 1 p.m. rally represented a broad spectrum of Hudson Valley politicians and organizations. Ulster County Legislator Gary Bischoff, D-Saugerties, who introduced an anti-war resolution defeated recently by the county Legislature, urged everyone who cared about peace to vote. Peace organizations from the area's colleges, political candidates running in next week's elections, women's anti-war groups and organized labor also were represented among the speakers.

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, the only Hudson Valley member of the House to vote against the resolution to authorize the use of U.S. military force in Iraq, sent a message that was read at the rally. "The Bush administration has failed to demonstrate that Iraq represents a clear and imminent threat to the United States," it read.

Citing the current U.S. economic decline, significant job losses, corporate crime and the lack of health care and resources for struggling schools, Hinchey, D-Hurley, wrote: "We must not allow the Bush administration to use this war to distract from issues here at home."

Bard College professor Joel Kovel said his experiences from the 1960s tell him those in power pay attention when people take to the streets. "This rally and similar ones all across the country are meant to send an unmistakable signal to the administration that its war-making policy is opposed by a majority of the American people," he said.

Among the demonstrators was Middletown resident Mary Reader, who carried a sign that read, "Educators and Grandparents for Peaceful Resolutions."

"I am a grandparent, and I am an educator," Reader said. "My husband is also. We've taken that sign with us to (Washington,) D.C., and to other demonstrations. We need it again."

Not everybody at the rally opposed the Bush administration's Iraq policy. Highland resident Kevin Post carried a sign reading: "Attack Iraq."

"I don't think we should have a despot going around with nukes," he said. "If I'm wrong, we've got a dead dictator and a free country. If they're wrong, we've got a crazed madman with a nuclear weapon."

Faith-based organizations also supported the demonstration. Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater, of Congregation Ahavath Israel in Kingston, told the audience: "We cannot remain silent. We cannot be complicit with the warmongers."

Said Methodist layperson Beth Capen: "People of faith have been screaming out in opposition to this administration's plan for a pre-emptive, unilateral attack against Iraq."

U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who died in a plane crash Friday, was remembered warmly for his vote against the Iraq resolution, while New York's two U.S. senators, Democrats Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, were criticized for their votes to authorize war.

The rally and a march that followed were peaceful, but one participant suffered a minor injury. Kingston police said a man walking with a group of other demonstrators had his foot run over by a car about 4 p.m. on Pearl Street. The man, who was not identified, was taken to Benedictine Hospital for treatment, police said.

Police said they are investigating the incident because the driver did not stop and because witnesses said the driver appeared to be growing impatient with traffic and wanted to get through the crowd.

©Daily Freeman 2002

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