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On Wednesday, Sept. 27, about 50 students and professors turned out for the “Stop the War” rally. The protest, which went on for about 45 minutes, featured guest speakers from Veterans for Peace, the Progressive Student Alliance and various UMaine academic departments.
Many protesters held signs that read, “A better world is possible,” “Bush Lied,” and “Books not Bombs,” along with other anti-war messages, many aimed at President Bush and Congress. Other protesters held pictures taken from a trip to Iraq that showed young Iraqi children with blank expressions on their faces.
One protester, Professor Ann Schonberger of the Women’s Studies Department, has been participating in peace rallies for many years and said that she tries to “attend rallies whenever [she] can.”
Schonberger was not the only faculty member on hand Wednesday. Among the speakers was philosophy professor Doug Allen, who spoke out against Congress and President Bush, saying that he felt the war in Iraq is “illegal, immoral and unjust and is an example of blatant injustice.”
Allen said he felt the majority of Americans and UMaine college students are against the war and stressed the importance of becoming active around campus and working to make a difference.
The last speaker was Ron Warner of the Veterans for Peace organization of Maine, who works with veterans in the Bangor area. Warner recently wrote a Bangor Daily News letter to the Editor in which he wrote about living in a post-Sept. 11 world. Warner stressed that he did not believe the world “was safer after 9-11″. He said that he felt the United States National Guard was being misused by being sent to Iraq instead of “helping to rebuild the coastal area.”
