Music freshman Lexie Carlson and Communication senior Brian Crotty chatted Sunday afternoon at the Evanston First United Methodist Church, waiting for the start of the antiwar forum “11/9 on 9/11: Reflecting on the Tragedy and its Aftermath.”
“It always makes me really excited to see people doing something and taking action to get people more knowledgeable,” said Crotty, a member of Northwestern Opposing War and Racism.
The event was sponsored by Northwestern’s Musicians Opposing War and Evanston’s First United Methodist Church.
“Our goal is to begin a dialogue for people to express their views and not feel as if they’re being unpatriotic,” said Music Prof. Scott Lipscomb, one of the event’s organizers.
Lipscomb is a co-founder of Musicians Opposing War and spoke at Sunday’s event, which drew a crowd of about 30 students and community members to First United Methodist Church, 516 Church St.
The forum featured six speakers — professors and authors from England and across the United States — who addressed issues ranging from government conspiracy to civilian casualties.
Audience members took notes and listened attentively as each speaker detailed their views for about 20 minutes, at which point the floor was opened to a question and answer session.
“What do you think are possibilities for correcting the problem that we created in Afghanistan?” Crotty asked Marc Herold, an international-affairs professor from the University of New Hampshire who spoke about the costs and failures of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.
Herold answered by criticizing the concept of creating a strong central Afghan government and explaining the need for decentralized regional power.
The forum broaching events related to Sept. 11, 2001, was the first sponsored by Musicians Opposing War, which initially was founded last winter to protest the war on Iraq. The group of students and faculty members runs a listserv sent to about 850 members, mainly students. Four faculty and staff members plan the group’s events.
On the first day of the U.S. attack on Iraq in March, the Musicians Opposing War held a candlelight vigil at The Arch. A crowd of about 275 people, mostly students, gathered for the group’s most well attended event.
Musicians Opposing War collaborates with other established campus antiwar groups, such as NOWAR, to generate interest in protests and other activities.
Carlson said she found out about the forum from a posting on the NOWAR listserv. She added that she has been involved with movements opposing war for the past three years and joined NOWAR in September at the student activity fair.
At Sunday’s forum Carlson said some of the speakers’ messages hit home, but she emphasized that the enormity of the world’s problems at this point in time were overwhelming.
“It’s hard to know even where to start,” she said.
