War protests across county
War protests across countyHundreds in Santa Rosa, Petaluma condemn Bush's troop buildupBy PAUL PAYNEAND JOSE L. SANCHEZ JR.THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Demonstrators hit the streets Thursday in Sonoma County to protest the escalation of the war in Iraq.
Nearly 300 people waved signs or held lighted candles in front of the armed services recruiting center in Santa Rosa, and about 140 people converged on Putnam Plaza in downtown Petaluma, with a handful going to a recruitment office nearby.
In Sonoma, about 50 people gathered in the plaza, a slightly smaller group showed up in Healdsburg and a few went to downtown Cloverdale.
Susan Lamont, board president for the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County, said the demonstrators were taking part in a national protest of President Bush's decision, announced Wednesday, to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq.
"We represent the rest of the country," Lamont said as she passed out candles in Santa Rosa. "And the rest of country is against this escalation."
The demonstrations, which ran from about 5 to 6:30 p.m., were peaceful.
In Santa Rosa, the demonstrators stood in front of the doors to the recruitment office and plastered signs over recruitment posters, calling for an immediate end to the fighting.
Passers-by honked horns and extended peace symbols. A city bus honked its horn to wild applause.
An Army recruiter responded to the crowd by posting his own sign on the inside of a plate glass window. It thanked protesters for coming and said the right to demonstrate is protected by the military.
It was signed, "the defenders of freedom."
"That's exactly what the armed forces are for," said Army Sgt. 1st Class Richard Villeneuve, the station commander. "I protect their freedom to do this."
But protester Rick Hoierman of Santa Rosa wondered who would protect the thousands of people in Iraq who are being killed in the war.
He also worried about how the surge would affect troops like his niece, a member of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, who was in Kuwait awaiting deployment to Iraq.
"I've been opposed to this war from the beginning," Hoierman said. "It's absurd that we're there."
Petaluma protesters voiced similar concerns.
They gathered at about 5 p.m. and began to shout anti-war slogans and bang pots and pans.
Among the protesters were Donna and Ron Norton. Their daughter Tysen Eberle is in the Army Reserve and their son-in-law Bryan Eberle is in the Army medical corps.
"I'm outraged," she said about Bush's move to send more troops.
Her son-in-law could be sent to Iraq any time, she said.
As for her daughter, "If it were for a real purpose, I could accept her being killed but not for this," she said.
"The whole thing was a lie," she said of the stated reasons for the war. "It's for power. It's for empire. It's for oil."
At the Army Recruitment Center at the Petaluma Plaza shopping center, Lillian Adelman of Sebastopol showed up with two other women.
Shivering in a chilly breeze, she held up a sign that said, "Don't die for a lie."
"I'm joining people all over the world that are opposed to what little bully Bush has been doing," she said, crinkling the deep lines in her face into a smile.
The demonstrations are about "people coming together because they care," she said.
"When I was a child in New York in the '30s and people were being thrown out of their apartments the Communists in the neighborhood would get together to put the furniture back in the apartments," she remembered.
Ever since, she said, she has believed in the power of collective action.
Nate Smith, a member of the Petaluma chapter of Youth Against War and Racism, said he was at Putnam Plaza to protest "Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq, which a majority of the American people oppose."
"I care about this issue because I think imperialism is wrong," he said.
Robert Bruckman said "Congress should stop the president. He's lying to Congress and the people and he should be impeached."
But he expressed doubts that Bush can be deterred.
"He's got guts and balls and Congress does not," he said.
The U.S. intervention in Iraq will never succeed because Iraqis "see democracy as a Christian solution to their political problems," Bruckman said.
The ultimate solution is to "make the Middle East irrelevant by developing alternatives to its oil, like Al Gore wants to do," he said.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070112/NEWS/701120305
Demonstrators hit the streets Thursday in Sonoma County to protest the escalation of the war in Iraq.
Nearly 300 people waved signs or held lighted candles in front of the armed services recruiting center in Santa Rosa, and about 140 people converged on Putnam Plaza in downtown Petaluma, with a handful going to a recruitment office nearby.
In Sonoma, about 50 people gathered in the plaza, a slightly smaller group showed up in Healdsburg and a few went to downtown Cloverdale.
Susan Lamont, board president for the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County, said the demonstrators were taking part in a national protest of President Bush's decision, announced Wednesday, to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq.
"We represent the rest of the country," Lamont said as she passed out candles in Santa Rosa. "And the rest of country is against this escalation."
The demonstrations, which ran from about 5 to 6:30 p.m., were peaceful.
In Santa Rosa, the demonstrators stood in front of the doors to the recruitment office and plastered signs over recruitment posters, calling for an immediate end to the fighting.
Passers-by honked horns and extended peace symbols. A city bus honked its horn to wild applause.
An Army recruiter responded to the crowd by posting his own sign on the inside of a plate glass window. It thanked protesters for coming and said the right to demonstrate is protected by the military.
It was signed, "the defenders of freedom."
"That's exactly what the armed forces are for," said Army Sgt. 1st Class Richard Villeneuve, the station commander. "I protect their freedom to do this."
But protester Rick Hoierman of Santa Rosa wondered who would protect the thousands of people in Iraq who are being killed in the war.
He also worried about how the surge would affect troops like his niece, a member of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, who was in Kuwait awaiting deployment to Iraq.
"I've been opposed to this war from the beginning," Hoierman said. "It's absurd that we're there."
Petaluma protesters voiced similar concerns.
They gathered at about 5 p.m. and began to shout anti-war slogans and bang pots and pans.
Among the protesters were Donna and Ron Norton. Their daughter Tysen Eberle is in the Army Reserve and their son-in-law Bryan Eberle is in the Army medical corps.
"I'm outraged," she said about Bush's move to send more troops.
Her son-in-law could be sent to Iraq any time, she said.
As for her daughter, "If it were for a real purpose, I could accept her being killed but not for this," she said.
"The whole thing was a lie," she said of the stated reasons for the war. "It's for power. It's for empire. It's for oil."
At the Army Recruitment Center at the Petaluma Plaza shopping center, Lillian Adelman of Sebastopol showed up with two other women.
Shivering in a chilly breeze, she held up a sign that said, "Don't die for a lie."
"I'm joining people all over the world that are opposed to what little bully Bush has been doing," she said, crinkling the deep lines in her face into a smile.
The demonstrations are about "people coming together because they care," she said.
"When I was a child in New York in the '30s and people were being thrown out of their apartments the Communists in the neighborhood would get together to put the furniture back in the apartments," she remembered.
Ever since, she said, she has believed in the power of collective action.
Nate Smith, a member of the Petaluma chapter of Youth Against War and Racism, said he was at Putnam Plaza to protest "Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq, which a majority of the American people oppose."
"I care about this issue because I think imperialism is wrong," he said.
Robert Bruckman said "Congress should stop the president. He's lying to Congress and the people and he should be impeached."
But he expressed doubts that Bush can be deterred.
"He's got guts and balls and Congress does not," he said.
The U.S. intervention in Iraq will never succeed because Iraqis "see democracy as a Christian solution to their political problems," Bruckman said.
The ultimate solution is to "make the Middle East irrelevant by developing alternatives to its oil, like Al Gore wants to do," he said.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070112/NEWS/701120305
posted by presgore19 at 1:11 PM
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