1,000 Strong: My Experience at a Peace Rally

Funny story: I went out to a party last where I was forced to stay until around 4:30p because my friends abandoned me at the threat of the cops being called. Not a problem really, I did make it home safe, but it also meant I slept in late enough to miss late brunch in the cafeteria. Lucky for me another friend who had a similar problem at a different party thought to call me for a late lunch at our favorite little cafe downtown.

When we were walking to my car after eating we heard drumming a block over through the alleyway. Curious, we walked to the nearby corner and watched as a peace march was beginning. The rally had begun at noon, but being uninformed about the event we only managed to catch the events at the mile movement through the streets of downtown to Peace Park on the local university campus.

At first we simply watched the march and read the signs and cheered them on, then we saw what we were waiting for: fellow classmates from our college participating in the march. Quickly we joined ranks and began our first experience in a peaceful protest.

This particular peace rally happens to fall on the 5 year anniversary of the Iraqi invasion. There were chants and poetry and speakers and everyone joining in with slogans like "1,000 strong say war is wrong" and "bring them home, bring them home". The air was alive with singing and energy of over a thousand individuals ranging in age from toddlers (with signs reading "We Need a Grown Up in the White House") to the elder hippies spreading the message they lived for 40 years ago.

My friend and I (amongst the other Steve's Chicks who were at the protest) cheered and sang (a shared talent at our school) and held up banners stating the cause and listened with open ears and minds to the wonderful words that were spoken today. It reminded me of all pictures and video clips I saw on the television program called 1968 with Tom Brokaw. That was the year of the peaceful protest. Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights, Gloria and Women's Liberation, and college campuses across the U.S. with Vietnam Protesting.

Now, in the year 2008, exactly 40 years later, we are starting again. We, the children and children's children of the original Voices are taking our opportunity to stand up for the ideals and beliefs the previous generation spoke out for. It is our turn to let them know that just because they managed to get away with it for now does not mean they will succeed to waste our time and money and rights if we decide the time has come to end the terror.

As the message was today: "War is Over, If You Want It, War is Over Now" Merry Chirstmas (War is Over) John Lennon