Volume 96, Issue 53
Tuesday, December 3, 2002
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EDITORIAL
Awareness never hurts, war does
With Uniter Nations officials currently searching Iraq for biological agents and weapons of mass destruction, and American President George W. Bush's trigger finger itching to end his "War on Terrorism" once and for all, it seems justified that an anti-war protest was held this past weekend in London.
Last Saturday, over 150 students and citizens from around London gathered in Victoria Park to participate in a protest agains the notion held within our society that war is the solution to all problems. Protesters were educated on the ramifications of war, with an emphasis on the civilian casualities that often accompany modern armed conflict. Following several speeches, protesters marched downtown along Richmond Street to make their presence known to London pedestrians and drivers.
A protest like this sparks several questions: Do protests work? Are the voices of the protesters heard?
Upon immediate reflection, the answer seems to be "NO," but one must look beyond the surface to understand the value of protests. In the long term, protests (even small scale ones such as the London rally) have great potential to incur change - after all, every movement has to start somewhere.
The protesters who listened to Saturday's speeches now have the information they need to discuss these issues with their friends and family. The people downtown who saw nothing but a mass of people holding up traffic now have the chance to ask why they were there in the first place. Pure and simple, protests raise awareness in the community.
It was the protests of the '60s that changed an entire nation's perspective on the Vietnam War. Today, the consequences of war are far greater. No longer are men fighting face to face in trenches with rifles and bayonets. Modern wars are fought from remote battleships that fire missiles into the empty sky, often "mistakenly" missing their targets and taking the lives of innocent people.
Currently the United States is waiting for any excuse to attack Iraq and eliminate Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. However, taking out an Iraqi leader with thousands of devout followers may simply add fuel to the fire of the anti-American sentiment in the Middle East region. A war in Iraq has the potential to create a domino effect, with violent consequences and instability for the entire region and the world as a whole.
Last Saturday, protesters braved frigid temperatures and the first big snowfall of the winter, simply to let the public know they do not believe in perpetuating the killing machine that is war. Whether right or wrong, if they caused even one person in London to question their own belief system, their mission was accomplished.
For that, they should be applauded.
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