Students rally for ‘peace and justice’
Six campus organizations joined together Thursday in a “rally for peace and justice” intended to criticize the Bush administration for the war, the economy, education and more.
The rally on the Taggart Student Center Patio attracted a crowd of students, with almost no disruption by dissenters.
The Utah State University College Democrats, Amnesty International, the Black Student Union, the Pride! Alliance, the Socialist Student Union and the Environmentalist Coalition of Students joined to form the Progressive Coalition. The rally began with a moment of silence and a rendition of the national anthem. Organizers then alternated speeches with music, comedy and poetry readings.
“In my rather long life, I’ve never seen this country worse off than it is right now,” said keynote speaker Paul Van Dam, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate.
Van Dam said the United States is $7 trillion in debt and a third of tax intake pays for the interest on that debt. He said America is the only first-world country that does not provide universal health care, and has the most secretive administration yet in power.
“Something is very wrong in America,” Van Dam said.
Sohrab Ahmari, president of the USU Socialist Student Union, said 10 million people in five continents gathered on Feb. 15, 2003, to protest war for oil and profit.
“We were called anti-American and idealistic,” Ahmari said. “A year later, there are no weapons of mass destruction, there is no link with al Qaeda and [the United States is] causing more terrorism.”
Medlir Mema, president of the USU College Democrats, said politics can be changed in Washington, D.C. and in Utah.
“Do we want to give Bush another chance? Hell no!” Mema said.
Gabe Carter, president of the Black Student Union, told the audience he was next year’s Associated Students of USU diversity vice president.
“I wanted to bring that up because a lot of people would maybe shy away from coming out here and being politically involved,” Carter said. “But for me, that’s not where I come from. I’m not going to sit in my office and let this pass.”
Carter said Bush spent $40 million in Iraq and renovated 2,300 Iraqi schools, “yet we’ve cut $8 million from reading programs at the Department of Education for American youth. These are after-school programs, these are programs which help all the low-income, low-opportunity students,” Carter said.
The Pride! Alliance expressed frustration at the reluctance of conservatives to accept homosexuals. Cy Martz, public relations officer for the Pride! Alliance, performed a comedy routine satirizing conservative thought.
“I don’t mind the Republicans as long as they don’t flaunt their lifestyle in my face,” he said.
Martz said the religious right thought it was the end of the world when gay marriages were performed in San Francisco.
“I went out and bought canned food and bottled water,” Martz said. “But nothing happened, people, there was no fire, no brimstone, it was OK.”
Martz made reference to College Republican brothers Mike and Tom Robins, who have said that if gays are allowed to marry, then they should be, too.
“Number one, weird family. Number two, send me that wedding video,” Martz said. “Number three, he might not be able to marry his brother, but he will be able to visit his brother in the hospital because he’s family. He will be able to enjoy rights with his brother that I will never be able to enjoy with my partner until we have gay marriage in this country and that is wrong, people.”
USU sophomore Brett Hodson said he completed an LDS mission about a year ago and is homosexual. Hodson said growing up he heard people disparaging homosexuals and always cringed at it.
“I thought I was evil and dirty and horrible,” he said. “We face this every day. For some reason other people want to tell me how to live.”
Sarah Benanti, co-president of the Pride! Alliance, said she does not feel comfortable holding hands with her girlfriend in public.
“I have been discriminated against by the state, by my nation and by my president,” Benanti said.
Scott Astin, vice president of public relations for Pride! Alliance, said 1,049 marriage-related rights have been denied to gays, such as visiting partners in the hospital and inheritance rights. He said 6,003 gay marriages have been performed in the United States as compared to 21,904 in the rest of the world, and that 39 states define marriage as between a man and a woman, to which a woman in the audience shouted, “Keep marriage sacred!”
Bush was also criticized for his environmental policy and the PATRIOT Act.
Vanessa Welsh, president of the Environmental Coalition of Students, said the Bush administration rolled back protections of air and water and is the worst administration the environmental community has seen.
“I am a citizen of the United States. I am entitled to clean air and water and so are you, regardless of what the Bush administration says,” Welsh said. “We need to hold Bush and his cronies at bay until someone else is rightfully voted into office.”
Sara Weber, president of USU’s Amnesty International Club, said the PATRIOT Act made it legal for the government to break into private homes and was an excuse for racial profiling.
“Do you feel safe? You have been given a false sense of security with the PATRIOT Act,” Weber said. “You should be alarmed at the quickness and discreteness with which it was passed.”
Mema said he thought the rally was a success.
“[It was] excellent, everything we wanted it to be,” Mema said. “Our purpose was not to be angry. We wanted to educate people and tell people what we felt, and I think we succeeded.”
Students who watched the rally had mixed feelings.
Deserae Mangus, a junior majoring in political science, said she supported traditional marriage, but said the atmosphere at Thursday’s rally was more friendly and peaceful than the traditional marriage rally last month.
“I think that says a lot,” she said. “We can’t have a good cause and be rude, it defeats the purpose. I believe people are bound to listen to this [rally] because they’re not being mean.”
Eric Turnidge, a junior in biology, said, “I can disagree without getting emotionally upset, but a lot of people can’t. I disagree with going to war, but it’s kind of a moot point now because we’re there.”
Zane Jones, a freshman majoring in secondary education, said he supports the war.
“Everybody has forgotten why we went to war – it was war against terrorism,” Jones said.
Jones said everyone agreed Sept. 11 was tragic, “but a month later we’re [called] war-mongers.”
Jared Sorensen, a junior in cellular molecular biology, said he thought the rally wouldn’t change opinions that people already had set, but it was exposing other viewpoints.
“I think Bush had alternate reasons [for going to war],” Sorensen said. “There may have been some cause, but he blew it out of proportion for his own agenda – a little revenge for his dad, control of oil, more power for him.”
Ted Kyriopoulos, a pre-dental freshman, said the ralliers were “kicking a dead horse.”
“The majority here are pro-traditional marriage,” he said. “The people speaking out are the minority. I don’t see anyone joining their side.”
-heidithue@cc.usu.edu
Gabe Carter, next year´s ASUSU diversity vice president, shared his criticism of President Bush´s educational policy at Thursday´s Progressive Coalition rally. (Photo by John Zsiray)