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Peace Marchers Take to Streets
CHICAGO, Oct 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Even as all major opinion polls indicate overwhelming U.S. public support for the military action against Afghanistan, hundreds of committed peace activists in Chicago took to the streets Sunday protesting the action.
Around 1,000 people demonstrated in downtown Chicago Sunday calling for peace. The march included members of the Green Party, socialists, peace activists and Arab-American and pro-Palestinian groups. The march, which was hastily convened, was organized by the Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism.
About 200 people who had earlier held a peace rally at Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park also joined in the protest march in the downtown area.
Protestors carried candles; some wore American flags while others tapped drums and tambourines, arguing that a war on bin Laden would not lead to any positive results and would only cause the death of more innocent people, saying that only a radical change in U.S. foreign policy could bring peace.
They chanted slogans: "We want peace," "There's no justice in these bombs," "Feed the poor, not the war."
Rev. Ronald Schupp carried a sign that said, "Afghanistan is America's next Vietnam."
"This is going to be more like an attempt at retribution rather than a way to just correct the problem of terrorism," he said. "It's going to go too far beyond it."
"I was agreeably surprised that we didn't resort to bombing before this," said Sally Schreiner, a pastor at a Mennonite church in the city, "but I'm afraid this will only renew the terrorists' determination to strike back at us."
"Our leaders should try diplomacy. They should try the International Court of Justice in the Hague," she said.
Some onlookers jeered and yelled at the protestors, but police reported no arrests or incidents related to the rally.
Organizers are planning to hold another peace march Monday night.
The Coalition is an ad-hoc alliance of more than 35 local peace, social action, and religious groups, as well as hundreds of individuals, united in opposition to the nation's march to war in the wake of September 11th. The group formed on September 18th at a community anti-war forum attended by 400 people.
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