Suburban Chicago News

September 25, 2005

Local activists join Washington protest

By Ron Pazola

STAFF WRITER ELMHURST

They sang peace songs, held banners, made speeches and flashed the peace
sign at each other.

The event was part of a send-off rally a group of area residents held
Friday afternoon at Wilder Park in Elmhurst. About 50 people from the
western suburbs took a chartered bus to Washington, D.C., that evening
to participate in a national protest against the Iraq War.

About 100,000 were expected to gather Saturday on the grounds of the
Washington Monument, the centerpiece of a three-day weekend of events
that will include interfaith services, civil disobedience and
congressional lobbying. Washington Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey told
The Associated Press Saturday, "I think they probably hit that."

Area organizers said Friday they hoped the peace rally would be the
largest since the U.S. invasion of Iraq more than two years ago.

Naperville resident John Bagley — of Pax Christi DuPage, a peace and
justice organization — was one of the people who boarded the bus from
Wilder Park.

"A majority of Americans believe the war in Iraq should never have
happened, but our elected officials in Washington continue to rubber
stamp the Bush administration's disastrous Iraq policies," Bagley said.
"It's time to hold accountable the politicians who have supported a war
that's unjust, illegal, unwinnable and unwise."

Katy Scott — a mother whose son, Jason, is an Army lieutenant stationed
outside of Baghdad — held up a string of beads around her neck before
boarding the bus to Washington.

"I wore these beads to protest the Vietnam War, and now 30 years later
I'm wearing these same beads to protest the war in Iraq," she said.
"It's time for our church leaders to speak out against the war. Pro-life
issues in our society don't end with the birth of a child."

In Washington Saturday, opponents of the war marched in a clamorous day
of protest. Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who drew thousands of
demonstrators to her 26-day vigil outside Bush's Texas ranch last month,
won a roar of approval when she took the stage before the Washington
march. Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year.

The surging crowd, shouting "Bush out now" and "Peace now," marched in
front of the White House and then to the Washington Monument in an
11-hour marathon of dissent.

President Bush himself was out of town, monitoring hurricane recovery
efforts from Colorado and Texas. The protesters shouted for his
impeachment.

Tim Yeager of Chicago Labor for Peace, Prosperity and Justice told the
group most labor unions in the U.S. were against the Iraq War from the
beginning. "International law has been broken with this preemptive war,
and our young men and women in the military are paying the price now."

The Rev. Sam Smith, assistant pastor at Fourth Street United Methodist
Church in Aurora, also criticized the war.

"The war in Iraq is wrong," he said. "Our government never found
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Instead, President Bush has fed us
lies of mass deception. Jesus was a peacemaker, not a war maker. We
should withdraw our troops from Iraq immediately."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 9/25/05

From http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/search/default.asp