Tens of thousands of protesters swarmed the Washington Monument last Saturday to demand the end of the United States’ occupation of Iraq. Several dozen Georgetown students attended the rally, joining a diverse crowd of objectors hailing from all over the nation.
The international peace coalition Act Now to Stop War and End Racism sponsored he rally. ANSWER, which had been planning the rally since July, arranged for delegations from across the nation to meet up in D.C. to protest the Bush administration’s policy on Iraq.
The gathering, which was considerably smaller than pre-war demonstrations, stretched from the Washington monument toward the White House, where Secret Service agents blocked off Pennsylvania Avenue. President George W. Bush spent the weekend at Camp David.
Though out of sight, the president was certainly not out of mind during the rally that lasted from mid-morning through late afternoon. Chants of “Impeach Bush”could be heard throughout the day, and several petitions, including a proposal to indict the President, amassed several thousand signatures.
A series of speakers took the podium, including civil rights leader and Democratic presidential hopeful Reverend Al Sharpton .
“Don’t give Bush $87 billion, don’t give him 87 cents, give our troops a ride home,” Sharpton said to the crowd.
Not all groups present opposed government policies, however. Several small groups of counter-demonstrators lined up along Constitution Avenue waving signs and shouting at the protesters.
The D.C. chapter of Free Republic, a national conservative group, voiced support for the Bush administration. “We gave peace a chance, we got 9/11,” the group chanted.
Student groups from D.C. through the northeast corridor, and as far west as Indiana made the pilgrimage to the monument, but college students were not the only ones in attendance. Veterans for Peace and a group called the “Radical Grannies” represented a contingent of older Americans.
A large showing of Muslim Americans and family members of those in the armed services were also present.
“It just shows that you don’t have to be some bleeding heart liberal, hippie type to go to these rallies,” said Lindsey Shively (CAS ‘05) said. “There were a lot of average people there just following their hearts.”
Georgetown’s Peace Action, the group largely responsible for mobilizing Georgetown students in efforts to rally for peace, is planning to maintain visibility. Another rally is scheduled for today, when Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz speaks at Georgetown.
“We’re going to give Wolfowitz a special welcome,” said Shively.
