Auraria Walk-Out Against War:  Aurarians go AWOL for peace

By Rebecca R. Buddle Thomas C. Mestnik

UCD Advocate

November 6, 2002

With both the Senate and lower House giving the president the power to go to war in Iraq, President Bush has claimed that "America has spoken with one voice" in its desire to use military force against the "moral threat."

This supposed "one voice" was questioned on the Auraria campus Monday, as more than 300 students and faculty participated in a campus-wide walkout to protest the war, according to campus police.

The event, sponsored by Metro's Feminist Alliance, Honors Club and Student Government Assembly, CU-Denver's International Forum, and several others, was held at the flagpole where protesters rallied with chants, speakers voiced opinions against a war with Iraq, and demonstrators paraded a row of lifelike body bags.

According to Erika Church of the Feminist Alliance, the purpose of the body bags was to bring the war home to students at Auraria.

"War is so sanitized for Americans, they don't see the human costs of war and sanctions," Church said.

"I have noticed the extreme ignorance of students on the Auraria campus," said Erin Durbin, a member of the MSCD Honors Society who helped construct the body bags.

Durbin also said she was very encouraged by the turnout at the rally, at which several CU-Denver professors spoke.

"They want to kill you — the Bush administration wants to send you to die," said Glenn Morris, a UCD professor of political science and a member of the Colorado American Indian Movement. "And more importantly, they want you to kill other innocent people. We should remember Watergate and the Vietnam War and the Iran Contra scandal and all the other lies that have been heaped upon the public. The Bush administration is attacking our civil liberties, and we must stand up against them."

According UCD Political Science professor Bob Gumbrecht, "The lies that Glenn Morris referred to are alive and well in the Bush administration. The White House will go a long way to sell us a war. The classic example is the babies in the incubators story."

Americans were told that during the first Gulf crisis, Iraqi soldiers had removed scores of babies from incubators in Kuwait City, sending the incubators back to Baghdad and leaving the babies to die on the cold floor.

"The problem is," said Gumbrecht, "the story never happened. The entire event was manufactured by the White House through the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton to help sell the war to the American people."

Some rally-goers also protested the sanctions the United States and United Nations have imposed on Iraq since the end of the first Gulf War.

"I do not agree with the sanctions put on Iraq," said Ayah Sasi, a CCD student who attended the rally and who has family and friends living in Iraq. "As a result of the has family and friends living in Iraq. "As a result of thesanctions, thousands of children are dying. All Iraqis are living without adequate medicine, food or water."

According to Gumbrecht, "We should always remember what Secretary of State Madalyn Albright said when she was asked by 60 Minutes about the half million children who have died in Iraq because of the sanctions. Albright's reply was, 'I think this is a very hard choice. But the price, we think the price is worth it.' And of course, since Albright made that infamous statement, another million children have died."

"The U.S. never values the life of an Iraqi child as it does an American child, that's the problem," said Kareen Erbe, staffing coordinator for the Denver Justice and Peace Committee. "This is unacceptable to me, to have this dichotomy. From a moral and ethical viewpoint, all innocent life is equally as valuable. Just as civilians in the 9-11 attacks were made to suffer due to policies in the U.S., so have the Iraqi civilians been made to suffer from the actions of Saddam."

While many students participated in the rally, some simply walked past it, some expressed apathy and others voiced vehement opposition.

MSCD technical communications major Keith White was observing the rally from his circle of friends. When asked his opinion about the protest, he said, "I don't support much of anything. I don't support the protest, but I don't support the war, either. I wouldn't participate, but if they were passing out something cool like candy, I might pretend to be part of the rally."

"Casualties are a normal price to pay for war and we are a free country because we fight these wars," said MSCD student Shawna Braxton, who did not participate in the rally because she supports the policies of the Bush administration. "If we do not go to war, Saddam will continue to kill millions of civilians in Iraq. Saddam is the next Hitler."

While walking past the rally, UCD student Terry Doan was chanting, "Go Bush!"

When questioned, he said, "We should go to war and step on them before they step on us. This rally is bulls—t and Glenn Morris just wants to cause a ruckus."

Though most of the rally and protest were carried out without incident, UCD professor Rob Prince was hit with a snowball while he spoke at the podium flanked by a banner reading "Power to the Peaceful" and surrounded by a brigade of drummers for peace. Auraria police promptly apprehended Gerald E. Blackler, a 22-year old Auraria student who threw the snowball.

While being given a stern warning by an officer, Blackler said, "I think it's stupid. I support my country. People (anti-war protesters) like that abuse our country."

Auraria police told Blackler to leave the area until the rally concluded, saying his snowball throwing was violating the protesters' constitutional right to free speech.

Mark Cohen of New Jewish Agenda, acting as a legal observer, said he was glad the police officers did not make a big deal of the snowball incident. "I tend to want to support leniency on the part of the police," Cohen said.

The focus of Monday's protest was the tri-institutional walkout. Organizers hoped students would make a point by walking out of their classes.

"I got a good reaction from my teacher," said Auraria student and walkout participator Kindeya Debs, "and most of the other students in my class participated."

"I don't agree to let students out of class for one issue and not for another," said Provizer, a political science professor at Metro who believes it's good for students to be exposed to as many different issues as possible. "I would rather see them passionate about an issue than lounging around. It is life supporting, an intellectual life — that is what professors should be supporting."

The event, which according to Church "was the first against the war on the Auraria campus, and one of the largest rallies ever held on campus," closed with supporters chanting, "Ain't no power like the power of the people, 'cause the power of the people don't stop!"

Auraria student Shawn Morris came away from the rally encouraged by the powerful statement made by Glenn Morris.

"We have got to get mad!" Shawn Morris said.

Organizers of the rally say that should the proposed war occur, they will plan a rally on the west steps of the Capitol on the first day of bombing.

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