A group of students opposed to Pat Buchanan’s views gathered outside Norris University Center before Buchanan’s speech Tuesday night for a silent protest.
“We’re not so much protesting his presence on campus,” Weinberg senior Lexi Smith said. “We’re more showing our disagreement with the things he said. We think this gives a better representation of how we feel, rather that carrying signs and shouting things.”
Shortly after 7 p.m., students began arriving in front of Norris to demonstrate their opposition to Buchanan. About 50 Northwestern students attended during the course of the evening. The students held candles donated by University Chaplain Timothy Stevens and passed out fliers with quotes from Buchanan’s speeches and writings showing his support of Adolf Hitler and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. The flier also highlighted Buchanan’s controversial views on gays and women.
“We are using his own language and his own beliefs to do the talking,” said Laura Millendorf, Women’s Coalition director and a Weinberg junior. “I don’t think many people going in there tonight know the extreme nature of his comments.”
Laura Blacksher, co-president of the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alliance, related Buchanan’s views to the terrorism problems in the United States. Buchanan’s speech focused on current events since Sept. 11.
“His views are very isolationist and very anti-immigration,” said Blacksher, a Speech sophomore. “We believe this kind of hatred that he is fomenting is very much a part of why these things happen.”
BGALA and Women’s Co organized the vigil, but students said they were there as individuals to show their opposition to Buchanan.
“We are here to say this is who we are and we do not agree,” said Darien Shulman, BGALA social chair and a Music junior. “It is not about shutting Pat Buchanan up or shutting College Republicans up, but it is about taking a stand as human beings.”
The vigil concluded with the group singing “We Shall Overcome.” Speech sophomore Jake Reitan said most civil rights meetings concluded with this song, and that the students chose it because they were gathering together with the same ideals as past civil rights protesters.
“‘We Shall Overcome’ was the anthem of the civil rights movement,” Reitan said.
Students said they wanted a peaceful gathering that would state their views without blocking Buchanan’s right to speak or other people’s right to hear him. Four University Police officers attended the vigil, but two left at about 7:40 p.m. to patrol the doors to the Louis Room in Norris.
University of Chicago sophomore John Holland said he expected a louder protest but found the students’ vigil an effective way of expressing their opposition to Buchanan.
“I was impressed that they went with the silent protest,” said Holland, who is a member of UofC’s College Republicans. “It was almost a little bit eerie to walk up the steps. They did it in a pretty classy way in general.”
