|
Volume CXXXII, Number 11 |
 |
Students participate in Iraq talk
CONOR WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
 |
| Members of the Coalition to Raise Awarness about the War in Iraq smile for the camera after a job well done. (Hans Law, Bowdoin Orient) |
November 25, Bowdoin students united as the Coalition to Raise Awareness About the War in Iraq staged a demonstration aimed to spark debate concerning the recent rise in American military presence in the Middle East. The event attracted a diverse audience that included strong representation from members of Bowdoin's faculty and student body, as well as Brunswick residents, reflecting the wide range of groups and speakers participating in the presentation.
Various on-campus groups hosted tables ringing the edges of Morrell Lounge. In addition, Bowdoin's own World Music Ensemble opened for a large crowd that swelled over two hundred at points.
After opening remarks from Coalition member Vinay Kashyap '05, Bowdoin Women's Studies Professor Kristen Ghodsee roused the crowd with a passionate antiwar speech. She drew upon personal experience and travels in Iraq previous to the Gulf War and outlined her own reasons to oppose American military action. She cited biased, inflammatory American government and media propaganda as particularly galling.
"It's easy to hibernate in our own little bubbles and ignore what's going on in the rest of the world…what is the ideology of terrorism? Or is this just another ghost…like the ghost of Communism?" She said, "I think we just need a new enemy."
Though impressed with the large turnout, Ghodsee challenged the audience to greater action.
"How can we protest the war and still be patriots?" she asked, "If you want to stop the Bush government, hit them where it hurts: in the economy…If this protest is to be heard, it must be a protest of the pocketbook."
Her attitude at points spawned noisy interruptions from certain members of the audience. "I think it's worthwhile to start a dialogue, throw around ideas, make people feel better," offered Eric Bakkensen, '05.
"It's a pretty good leftist feel here," stated Sam Kapel, '05, "I'm not gonna say it'll be especially effective, but I wish them well."
"How do you justify war? And who's the enemy?" asked Walkens Petit-Frere, '05, "Basically I believe the U.S. is attacking [Iraq's] values; by doing that, the enemy is defined. And that's unfortunate."
Miscellania, Bowdoin's all-female a capella group, followed Professor Ghodsee and performed several antiwar pieces. The first was composed by a Miscellania member in the early nineties and the second was a Vietnam protest song.
The night continued with Arthur Whitman, Treasurer of the Maine Veterans for Peace. A former professor at Robert College, an American school in Istanbul, Turkey, Whitman quoted extensively from mission statements of the organization and explained his own personal opposition to a military solution to the troubles in Iraq.
"This is a worldwide ideological conflict between a tribal God who plays favorites, (a God of vengeance demanding retribution as so many seem to be doing) and a universal God of compassion and love of all mankind," he asserted, "You can decide for yourself which God you are following."
The event continued with Professor of Sociology, Joe Bandi. Painting the proposed military action as a "short-sighted war for oil" and "reassertion of empire" with wide-ranging consequences for the environment, he emphasized the inconsistency of selective American foreign policy positions.
"If we were serious about dealing with nations or states [with the capacity to] use weapons of mass destruction, we might focus on many countries. We might focus on North Korea. We might focus on Saudi Arabia. We might focus on Israel. We might focus on ourselves," he said.
"We look more and more like the terrorists we despise," he said. "We need to dream of what we might want. We need to envision a new world and then shout it from the rooftops. I want you to graduate with a critical mind and begin to apply that to your lives."
Bandi was followed by a well-received performance by Bowdoin Poeting and remarks of Economics Professor Dorothea Herreiner. The Coalition thanked all participants and attendants and encouraged further consideration and contemplation of the issues surrounding the situation in Iraq. As the event ended, lively political discussion broke out in small groups in Morrell Lounge and throughout the Union.
"We must focus beyond the immediate effects," said Bowdoin student Melissa Hudson '05, "We must ask ourselves, as the leading world power, what will our actions dictate to the rest of the world? What do we say to those who watch us about what is reasonable and what is just?"
Kashyap and Lauren Pappone '03, commented on the success of the Coalition and the night's demonstrations. With another one of Bowdoin's a capella groups, BOCA, performing in the background, they noted the large audience and spoke of their group's future plans.
"We wanted to use this event as a starting point to begin circulating ideas in people's heads," said Kashyap, "we do plan to follow up with different events. When it comes to war, real debate seems to be lacking in both parties and in the halls of Washington. It resembles the disaster in Vietnam. We feel times have changed. If our elected politicians aren't going to do their duties as citizens, someone has to. That's what our nation was founded on, right? Public participation. Debate."
The group is planning further action, including a trip to Washington, D.C. at the end of Winter Break.
|
FastCounter by bCentral |