About 250 anti-war activists spent a rainy Saturday afternoon in Concord protesting US plans to attack Iraq. The turnout exceeded rally organizers? expectations. They say Saturday?s rally, in addition to other anti-war activities, illustrates some Granite Staters growing unease with plans for war. NHPR?s Dan Gorenstein has the story.
Concord?s Unitarian Church was full. Many in the crowd looked damp from the rain. But neither poor weather nor a last minute change of venue, from the statehouse lawn, deterred folks from coming out to oppose a war with Iraq.
One organizer expected only 50 people. She was off by a factor of 5.
Not quite up to Washington D.C. and San Francisco rally standards. Where at least 40 thousand people gathered, respectively. But Mary Downs, a board member of New Hampshire Peace Action, says head counting at New Hampshire peace rallies doesn?t necessarily represent people?s attitudes.
2:09 ? A lot of people I know, that I work with, agree with me, in terms of opposing the war, but they aren?t really outspoken about it. So, I think there is a classic NH conservatism, mind your own business, live in peace, that does characterize NH, but in this case, people are asking why are we going in, it doesn?t really make sense. The peace movement in San Francisco, it?s not the same, but there is a definite growing awareness...
Downs was speaking earlier this month at a Manchester anti-war rally.
New Hampshire Peace Action volunteer Lois Booth sees a growing awareness too. New faces at the weekly Concord peace vigil impress the 80-year old activist. And while she?s not counting heads, she is keeping tabs on New Hampshire Peace Action?s bumper sticker totals protesting the war.
3:05 ? the demand in bumper stickers we bought 1000. then we bought another thousand. Then we bought another thousand. And we have ordered another thousand and expect ot get it in any day now. And people are calling in saying please send me 50, please send me 100.
David Lamar Vincent, the director of New Hampshire Council of Churches, says anti-war opposition is becoming more noticeable. But for some reason most protests have been small in New Hampshire.
4:38 ? Usually you see young people in the streets when they are concerned about the IMF, that kind of global economy, but you don?t see any young people in the street. You don?t hear much conversation, which is very troubling on the one hand, and on the other it is a great challenge to try to figure out why it is not on the forefront of people?s minds, b/c we are talking about a large ground war of hundreds of thousands of American military called up?active duty from NH being sent, some coming back in body bags. Thousands of Iraqi casualties. And yet there is no discussion it?s so far away, not even in the forefront of people?s thoughts.
7:02 I am not depressed by a lack of peace activity. I am impressed by how much is going on.
That?s Arnie Alpert with the American Friends Service Committee, a pacifict organization associated with the Quakers.
Alpert points to that Manchester rally where 250 people gathered in a park across from the hotel where President Bush was speaking. Alpert points to peace vigils happening all across the state. Then there was the sit-in at Senator Judd Gregg?s Newington office that resulted in the arrest of five people. And Alpert says small grassroots groups are organizing too.
? And that?s why we have seen these signature ads pop up in the Keene Sentinel and the Concord Monitor. These are sometimes dozens or sometimes hundreds of people willing to be out in public before their neighbors, before their coworkers saying ?no to the government?s plans with Iraq,? and that takes a certain amount of courage when the President says you are either with us, or are with the terrorists.
Peggo Hortsman Hodes is a one of the people Alpert has in mind when he talks about signature ads and courage. One Sunday night in September Hodes invited 18 people over to her home to find a way to voice their concern over the Bush Administration?s war plans.
:48 we invited an expert on Iraq?who had been in Iraq, we had some information?and started talking, what could we do. We have to have numbers, a single letter to your Congressman is not enough. It?s numbers. We came up with drafting an ad and getting as many signatures as we can, and having the signators pay for it.
The ad ran in the Concord Monitor, the Union Leader and the Nashua Telegraph. Some 250 people signed it, and they paid the 35 hundred dollar bill.
Peace activists say ad campaigns have popped up in Keene, Laconia, and Wolfeboro. Other anti-war activity included a rally on the Dartmouth campus last Friday.
Sfx: fade up rally
Approximately 100 students, professors, faculty and Upper Valley residents attended the rally, teach-in, candlelight vigil event. That?s at a school of 45 hundred.
Many long-time peace activists admit, much of the activity doesn?t seem to be happening on college campuses this time around. But they add people who have never been ?political,? or at least haven?t been since the early 70?s are speaking out now. Concord Monitor editor Mike Pride says his paper?s letters to the editor are not only from the regulars.
2:53 ?I would say I have had a lot of letters from people who I would not identify as regular peaceniks. Writing letters to the editor saying hold on a second, let?s really look at the facts here. Are we at a point where war is the solution. And that would range from people who fought in WWII, who know what war is like, to just moderate centrists who look at the situation who say there must be a better way to start down this trail. War is not the first option, and shouldn?t be.
UNH English Professor Michael Ferber teaches an occasional class in war and peace studies.
7:19 These are straws in the wind, signs, nothing too overwhelming?it takes time, but these things build up.
Maybe they?ll build up- maybe they won?t. But one thing that has been built up is the optimism of anti-war organizers. They are convinced a movement is growing in New Hampshire?and that their message will be heard. For NHPR News, I?m DG.
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