Echoes of the Vietnam War era, right down to the music that was performed, reverberated Monday at the entrance to Black Hawk College as about 100 people gathered to protest the possibility of war against Iraq.
A 1967 hit by Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth,” and signs reading “Health care, not bombs,” “Money for education, not war” and “Smart bombs kill smart kids” set the scene.
The protest was part of a larger demonstration around the United States, A National Day of Action, which was expected to involve about 100 college campuses.
Representatives of Not in Our Name, which held a celebrity-studded rally Sunday in New York’s Central Park, were on hand in Moline.
An opportunity to join a bus trip headed to Washington, D.C., for a national peace rally Oct. 26 was announced as well.
“Complacency is a terrible thing,” said Milton DeShane of Moline, who attended the Black Hawk event with his wife. “And complacency is running rampant in this country.” DeShane said his biggest concern is the future of young people in the United States.
Jay Robinson, the Green Party candidate for governor of Iowa and a peace activist, was the guest speaker. Robinson said he grew up on an Iowa farm and is proud to be an American.
“I believe we can make a difference in our system when we vote for candidates who make changes,” he said. “This is our country and it is our right to speak out.”
Robinson said the United States will show its true greatness when it leads the world in peace.
Kristine Kunchick, attending with her toddler daughter, said her greatest concern is the failure of the United States to work with the United Nations.
“We work with the U.N. when it’s beneficial to us and ignore the U.N. when it’s not,” she said.
Caitlin Healy, a senior at Augustana College in Rock Island, was busy signing petitions in protest of a possible war. She is involved with Amnesty International and said she is bothered most by human rights abuses.
“A lot of this (war talk) is being manufactured and blown out of proportion,” she said. “He (President Bush) wants to be just like his dad, in the Gulf War.”
David Hawk of Rock Island termed the rally “interesting” and said it was good to see younger people among the protesters. If the U.S. wages war against Iraq, he predicted, the nation will end up dealing with a backlash for decades.
Erskine Carter, an associate professor of English at Black Hawk, recited a protest poem at the rally. Back in the 1960s, he said, there were more young people involved and concerned with the peace movement.
“Now there’s a core group of young people having their eyes opened once again,” he said. Carter added that the education system teaches students the United States always does what is best when it comes to foreign policy.
“If more people read (French philosopher Jean Paul) Sartre, maybe we’d have a more peaceful world,” he added.
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