Posted on 11/20/2001 4:44:03 AM PST by InvisibleChurch
The circumstances of Sept. 11 attacks make gatherings less popular than in past.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A "peace camp" of 13 tents that popped up on the Indiana University campus 44 days ago is possibly the largest and most-enduring peace demonstration in the state since America declared war on terrorism.
But the colorful bivouac of tents that squat beneath rippling American flags and banners is mostly for image.
Only one activist has lived in one of the tents continuously since they were set up Oct. 7, after a rally by Bloomington Peace Action Coalition in protest of American bombing in Afghanistan. About four or five other activists stay overnight occasionally. About six more take shifts during the day.
And almost no one visits.
Peace activists in Bloomington and elsewhere know their message is a tough sell in the current national climate.
Across the country, there have been about 150 rallies, demonstrations and actions on campuses in 36 states, according to the activist group Wage Peace Now.
Probably fewer than 20,000 have turned out for the various peace demonstrations in U.S. cities.
In Indiana, there have been sporadic peace vigils and rallies among traditional religious pacifists in the Quaker and Mennonite communities in Richmond and Manchester. In Indianapolis, the Peace and Justice Center stages a small daily vigil outside the Minton-Capehart Federal Building.
On Hoosier campuses, a few small demonstrations at Ball State, DePauw, Purdue and Notre Dame have been organized.
Likewise, at IU, activists suspected their point of view would be difficult to promote when the country seethed with anger over the Sept. 11 attacks, said Peter Drake, an IU graduate student who helped organize the camp.
But "we felt like we had a responsibility to tell people there is another side -- another way. This camp is a way of challenging people, but not necessarily confronting them in a way that makes them uncomfortable," Drake said.
"It's like no one wants to really look at the violence we are creating in Afghanistan."
IU freshman Benton Huard must look at the camp each day on his way to class. He doesn't like it.
"It's absurd. It's pointless," said Huard, 24, "If they want to camp, let them camp in Afghanistan."
Huard, who just completed a four-year Air Force enlistment in the Persian Gulf, said the activists don't know the "real world."
"Everyone wants peace, but what we are doing is necessary if we are going to have the way of life that we know. I hope they understand that," he said.
A longtime Hoosier peace activist, Bill Breeden, said the horror of the attacks has blunted the traditional messages of nonviolence.
In 1991, Breeden, a Unitarian minister, was instrumental in forming a tent camp on the IU campus to protest the Persian Gulf War.
For 47 days, dozens of protestors lived in the camp and staged anti-war actions that led to 99 arrests by Bloomington police.
Breeden, 52, said the demands of his ministry prevent him from occupying a tent in the current camp. But he has visited.
"I have a lot of respect for them. It is a lot harder for them to be where they are as promoters of peace in this political and cultural environment now," Breeden said.
Peace movements during the Persian Gulf War were helped by the belief by many that the war was about oil.
But national outrage and grief trumps skepticism, Breeden said.
"The image of those burning towers at the World Trade Center is imprinted for life in people's minds," Breeden said. "It will be tough getting a message past that."
Howard Zinn, one of the America's most well-known peace advocates, is trying.
Zinn, 78, was on the front lines of the anti-war movement during Vietnam. He's a historian and college professor who became disgusted by violence as a bombardier during World War II.
Just four days after the World Trade Towers attacks, Zinn warned in an article in The Progressive magazine that America should resist terror with economic clout rather than military might.
"With our bombs, we have had to terrorize hundreds of thousands of Afghans to find bin Laden. How many people really want to respond to such a reality?" Zinn asked.
Back at Peace Camp in Bloomington, Sean Bagley, the only activist continuously on site, would like some response.
"You know, I see flags and signs of patriotism everywhere now where I never saw them before. But if you want to see something truly patriotic, look here at our little camp," he said.
"We are practicing freedom. We could start by talking about that."
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Sean Bagley, who goes by the road name Steps to Freedom, has been at the Dunn Meadow peace "camp" since just after the bombing of Afghanistan began last month. The circumstances of Sept. 11 attacks make these gatherings less popular than in the past. (Staff Photo / Robert Scheer)
Probably fewer than 20,000 have turned out for the various peace demonstrations in U.S. cities.
Good...and those 20,000 must be countered at every appearance
Lol that's actually not a bad idea. The peace people would get to claim they had more advocates, and the homeless would get free food/housing (paid for by the peace people, of course)...
(I am an old member of the quarry swimming team, BTW)
My daughter the art major at Herron in Indianapolis, and the softest touch for every sad story she hears, came over this weekend and told me that she had been thinking, and I shouldn't laugh at her, but those sanctions were stupid because they didn't work, so we need to invade Iraq and get rid of Saddam.
Then she asked me who thought of the sanctions, and when I told her the UN, she said that the UN was as bad as the United Way!!!
In conclusion, the peaceniks are fighting a losing battle, judging from my dauguhter. I am proud of her, because she came to those conclusions all by herself!!
It's actually a good art school, just a lousy part of town. I spent many a wasted afternoons in the Varsity Lounge (16th & Penn.) arguing art theory with my friends. Now, I raise chickens, chase mules, fix fence lines, etc...ah, to be young, again!-)
Oh, on the contrary, my little nudnik - it's the most riveting sight on television. Watching the B-52s send the Taliban our love is pass-the-popcorn material, not hide-your-eyes material. Nobody is flinching from this one - the only people stupid enough to think that bombing a building in a country that can kick the Taliban's butts up through their turbans was a good idea were the Arabs and the peace creeps. And they still don't get it!
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