Chanting “peace now” and using a rolled-up piece of posterboard as a megaphone, members of the student group Northwestern Opposing War and Racism held a rally Wednesday afternoon, speaking out against U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. Demonstrators also decried civil-liberties infringements and anti-Muslim discrimination.
“Far from being a war on terrorism, it’s wreaking havoc on one of the poorest nations in the world,” said Nell Crawford, a member of NOWAR and program assistant in the art history department. “The statement that you are either with us or with the terrorists is false. If you’re not with the terrorists, you can still stand up and question the actions of the government ,and we have every right to do that.”
About 60 students, a few NU faculty members and students from New Trier High School gathered at the University Library plaza to protest the war before marching around campus and into Evanston.
“We are not just some burnt-out kids trying to revive the hippie movement,” said Blaine Bookey, an Education junior. “Our country has succumbed to terrorism by embracing an assault on our rights and embracing the dehumanization of others abroad.
“People want us to give up our rights, but this is a war that is supposed to protect our right.”
Groups like NOWAR, which formed after Sept. 11, are trying to protect those rights, Bookey said.
“It’s always important to have checks and balances and opposition to our government so they know they’re not speaking for all the people,” she said.
Even if being against war was not a popular opinion after Sept. 11, it is an opinion that needs to be heard, some students at the rally said.
“This war is part of the process of the brutality we felt so acutely on September 11,” said Naureen Shah, a Medill sophomore. “If people who are well-informed don’t get involved, then the only voices who will be heard are the ones of ignorance, and that’s very dangerous.”
Some said a college campus should be a place where debate can take place.
“The university setting is the place for all kinds of voices to be heard, and I’m surprised there aren’t more people speaking out against the continued bombing of Afghanistan,” said Jillana Enteen, a visiting assistant professor of English and comparative literature. “In a lot of other countries, it’s common to react against voices that speak out against government policy. In the U.S., it’s been a hard-earned freedom.
“Now for the first time in my life, I see a pressure to conform to government policy rather than the encouragement of dialogue and discussion.”
One student from New Trier carried a U.S. flag.
“The whole reason we’re here is that we’re defending the flag and the civil liberties it stands for,” said Sam Joel, a high school senior from Wilmette. “I came today just to know that there is a voice of dissension and that people will speak out if something is wrong.”
