Specter of war in Middle East rallies Youngstown protesters

One protester said bombing Iraqis would be an act of terrorism by the U.S. government.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Roslyn Sims remembers the day she and about a dozen others marched through downtown in protest of the Vietnam War.
That day, she said, some spat at her as she walked.
But anti-war sentiment "grew and grew," said the 81-year-old Youngstown woman.
"Until one day, toward the end of the war, this entire area, from that corner of the square to the bridge, was filled with people," Sims said, pointing at the corner of Market and Front streets and north up Wick Avenue.
On Tuesday, Sims joined another protest.
Carrying a sign reading "No Iraq War," she gathered with members of Peace Action Youngstown and Youngstown State University students to speak out against a new war.
"I know it might look like there's not too many people here now," she said. "But unless we change the policy of our government, we're going to see more and more people."
The group, numbering about 30 to 40, listened as several rallied them through a megaphone.
Poignant words
Civil rights attorney Staughton Lynd of Warren told the group to remember the words of Thomas Payne and William Lloyd Garrison: "My country is the world. My countrymen are all mankind."
He elicited cheers when he echoed Irwin Shaw's "Bury the Dead," telling the group: "Someday they'll have a war and nobody will come. ... Let's make it this war."
Carrying signs reading: "No war, not in my name," "If you want peace, work for justice," and "Bush's phony war: a weapon of mass distraction," protesters gathered outside the federal building on Market Street.
Students led by Jacob Harver of the Youngstown Student Peace Action Network marched there from outside Kilcawley Center at YSU, chanting: "Drop Bush, not bombs."
United States, Europe
The rally was part of similar protests across the United States and in France and England as part of International Human Rights Day, said Therese Joseph of Peace Action.
Many will also join the Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition in Cleveland on Dec. 21.
Lynd said hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children have died as a result of sanctions against Iraq. And he questioned why the United states isn't more concerned with Israel's weapons of mass destruction.
YSU instructor Thomas Sabatini of Warren shared an anecdote about a congressman who received 200 calls against aggression in Iraq and one call in favor of it. That one call was from President Bush, Sabatini said, and that congressman voted for war.
"We can't wait for our representatives to do the right things," he said. "I think our history has shown that actions in the streets change things."
The result of war with Iraq would be destabilization of the rest of the world, said Ken Griswold of Youngstown, a peace button on his cap.
In his point of view, "it would be an act of terror to drop bombs on the people of Iraq," he said.
Korean War veteran
Ron Dull, 73, of Liberty served in the Korean War. He said he and his brother were drafted, angry to be going to war after World War II had been touted as "the war to end all wars." Ninety percent of those who went through basic training with him "didn't come back but were slaughtered over there."
He carried a sign with the face of a young dark-skinned girl. It read: "Act now to stop war and end racism."
"I'm responsible," he said. "No one else is going to do it for me. I've got to get out here and write letters. ... When enough people do that, we'll see change."