The Metropolitan Online - November 2005 - Where are the war protestors? Meet one Minnesotan making a difference

News polls have reported that numbers opposing the war in Iraq are growing, but at the same time I see people going about their lives with no direct involvement or stance taken. So, where are the war protestors?

Soon after as I started asking questions, I found there were, indeed, protestors.

I saw it at the national level: Sept. 24, an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 people marched on Washington, D.C. to demonstrate opposition to the war in Iraq.

And, I saw it locally: Sept. 29–Oct. 1, the Eyes Wide Open (EWO) exhibit was displayed on the front lawn at College of St. Catherine in St. Paul. The cemetery-like display commemorated American soldiers by lining up 1,933 pairs of combat boots for those killed in Iraq to-date (http://www.afsc.org/eyes/).

I talked to St. Paul resident Linda Winsor about her involvement in the peace movement and her thoughts about war. “I don’t think war is the answer to any conflict of today,” she said. Winsor was wearing her Eyes Wide Open T-shirt. The front of the shirt showed a picture of combat boots lined up in grave fashion. Above the boots, it said: “War is costly.” The back of the shirt read: “Peace is priceless.”

“This is empire-building for oil,” she went on. “They [the United States government] want to control an important oil source and a piece of the Middle East and victimize a whole country based on our greed.”

“When trying to interfere with a country’s government and their sovereignty, you can’t win.” What we end up with, she said, is “lots of dead people, arrogant occupation and puppet governments.”

I asked Winsor how the peace movement today differs from that of the Vietnam era. One of the main things missing today, Winsor said, is student involvement. She thinks this is because the difference during the Vietnam War is that the war was killing students’ peers. Now, “many fighters can’t afford to go to college. So they are not peers of students in college.” But, the college students, she said, are the very people whose voices need to be heard. They have proven in the past to be most effective in bringing about change.

There are two main reasons why the Iraq War has gotten as far as it has: The first, she said is that “people are removed from its effects.” Second, there is apathy and a feeling of powerlessness. “Part of that is people aren’t as community-based as they used to be. The way you start a movement is in your community.” But the problem, she said, with many communities and neighborhoods today is that they are physically set up so that people can drive home and into their garages and come and go without even talking to their neighbors. This creates disconnect many people feel with their neighbors and in the neighborhoods where they live, she said.

Winsor also said the U.S. administration has steered the media away from showing the toll of this war. They have shielded the public by not showing photos and footage of body bags and caskets returning home. Instead, the photos depict soldiers alive and dressed in uniforms, looking proud to serve. Often now, she said, these death announcements are buried in the paper, instead of showing up on the front page. Because of this, even “the media has buried the deaths.” She recalled that during the Vietnam conflict—Winsor was in high school at the time—the news showed combat footage, body bags and Nepalm being dropped, making the war more real for people back home. But now, “it’s so sanitized.”

She noted a couple of ways the Iraq War differs from the Vietnam War: the Iraq War does not have a draft yet and members of Congress don’t have as many family members and friends touched by war directly, as they did during the Vietnam War.

Winsor recalled two demonstrations of the Vietnam War, in particular. One famous demonstration she mentioned was at Kent State University in 1970. The National Guard fired into a crowd, killing four students and wounding nine. But, not all demonstrations became that violent, she said. A demonstration she attended was at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. There were masses of people. Eugene McCarthy, a presidential hopeful, spoke. Washington Avenue was shut down. And the National Guard was there in full riot gear, but no one was killed. She said shutting down the road was critical because it made people stop and see what was going on.

Earlier in the Vietnam War, when Winsor was in sixth grade, she and her brother showed opposition to the war by wearing black armbands to school. She recalled her teacher saying, “‘Anyone wearing a black armband should be given a one-way ticket to China.’ [The war] was very divisive,” she said.

One constructive way to handle a demonstration, Winsor said, is to hold teach-ins to educate people about the issues in the war and the realities of costs and casualties.

Another parallel between the wars is aftershocks of illness. In Vietnam, there was Agent Orange. Now, there is Depleted Uranium or “DU” aka Gulf War Syndrome (http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/du.htm). Evidence points to DU as the cause for mysterious illnesses in over half of the veterans from the Gulf War, as well as effects on their offspring. Now, incidents are being reported in soldiers who’ve served in the Iraq War, as well.

The government in both wars manipulated the numbers about successes, she said. “It took a long time for people to believe the truth because they were afraid.” Winsor went on to quote from the book Nuremberg Diary where Hermann Goering, head of the Nazi army’s Luffwaffe, was quoted saying, “Voice or no voice the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

With Vietnam there was a fear of communism, with Iraq there is a fear of terrorism. “But, people weren’t threatening us. Their government wasn’t threatening us,” Winsor added.

I asked her what kind of difference one person can make. “Whatever you do has an impact,” she said. “Talk to someone at the bus stop. Put a sign in your yard. Say something. Do an action. Even just having a discussion and referring to a current event.” Winsor has been involved in many grassroots efforts. She writes letters to politicians, or more recently, she said she emails them. She goes to their offices. She attends peace vigils. “If you think you’re powerless, you’re wrong,” she said. “There’s a ripple out [effect].”

Winsor said one of the main reasons she is so involved in the peace movement is because her parents were strong voices in their community. “They didn’t take on leadership positions,” she said, “but they were not afraid to speak up. What you believe is worth standing up for. You can tell your children all sorts of things, but if you’re not doing it yourself, it does no good.”

In May 2003, Crocus Hill/West 7th Neighbors for Peace was started in response to Bush declaring that the war in Iraq was over. This is one of the main organizations Winsor works with. It is also nonpartisan. They are against the war and they hold monthly potlucks with topics ranging from the war, to domestic violence, to poverty, to media reform. “It’s justice at the very basic level of economic justice.” She is also a member of WAMM—Women Against Military Madness (http://www.worldwidewamm.org/), EWO, MoveOn.org, Leave My Child Alone—a campaign to stop the military from recruiting students in schools (http://www.leavemychildalone.org/) and Friends for a Non-Violent World. She noted that more recently there has been a proposal for a Department of Peace to counteract the Department of Defense and work for peaceful solutions to conflicts. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, winner of the 2003 Gandhi Peace Award, is actively involved in that effort (http://www.kucinich.us/).

Winsor is a frequent organizer of grassroots events, such as recruiting volunteers to work at the EWO exhibit. She knows people are busy and she is busy too. But, she said it’s easier now for people to make a difference. Many activities are already organized. Often all they need people to do is just show up.

Paul Wellstone has been a role model for Winsor. She called him the champion of grassroots and empowering people from the ground up. “He stayed in touch with them, which is rare,” she said. “So many [who] get up into upper echelons [get] drunk with power.” She suggested people study what Paul and Sheila Wellstone did and recommended the book Politics the Wellstone Way available at http://www.wellstone.org/index.aspx or attend a Wellstone training camp to learn how to run for office or work for a cause at the grassroots level.

I asked Winsor how we can end this war. “The politicians will not end the war,” she said. “It’s the people. There’s no way [the politicians] are going to end it until masses of people make their voices heard.”

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