Soldier's Rally, 9/29/07 in Syracuse, NY
by Neal Herr
So I took off from work to attend a Soldier's Rally in Syracuse, initiated by active duty soldiers from Fort Drum, to see what it was like and to wave my peace flag.
Two cars from Glens Falls joined others, from Saratoga Springs, Ballston Spa, Schenectady, Latham, Selkirk and a bus from Albany, in a caravan to Syracuse on a blissfully blue day on a trip through the rolling farmlands of central New York.
We reconned in the rest stop parking lot to trade leaflets and meet face to face people who had previously been only names in emails. There was a pickup truck – the only truck in the peace caravan – which had been adapted to run on free waste oil from a pizza shop. They said it smelled like french fries and made you hungry.
We joined a feeder rally sponsored by the Greens in Syracuse (Green is the new Black) which met in a lot in an impoverished neighborhood protesting the proposed placement of a water treatment plant which had been moved there from an upscale neighborhood. Winding under freeway overpasses and through downtown streets, chanting “Show me what democracy looks like/This is what democracy looks like” and “Get out of Iraq/Stay out of Iran,” we joined the main rally at a large plaza with fountains and tables and speakers, an area which had once been Onandaga Aboriginal Territory.
The Raging Grannies sang from their antiwar songbook, there was a working 1970 VW microbus, and, most impressive, a table staffed by active duty military speaking out against the Iraq war. I am antiwar and anti military, but pro-dissent, so I shook the hands of these young men and women and just said thank you, choking up.
As an older veteran explained to me, although it is technically legal for soldiers to protest as citizens as long as they don't wear their uniforms or claim to be speaking for the military, they stand to suffer unofficial reprisals upon their return to the base, from harassment to dangerous deployments.
About four blocks of protesters marched the mile or so to the Syracuse University campus, chanting and stopping traffic, but with no arrests or other disturbances. I saw no counter-protesters. We joined the final rally on the Syracuse campus, estimated to be 2,500 by local media, to witness a die-in staged by college students: a large street corner of “dead” bodies, draped by “bloody” sheets.
About ten people held large canvasses with the names and pictures of US soldiers who had died in the war and dozens of others held large, cardboard signs with supergraphics of statistics. There were artists and authors and animal liberators, petitions and pundits, and picnic blankets and dogs and kids, much like a street fair, but without the commercialism.
A musician from Ithaca handed out free CDs of his band “because of the great feeling here.” People came from all over New York State, from the Pennsylvania border to Buffalo to NYC, to even some pagans I met from Montreal with painted tears on their cheeks and union healthcare workers from Boston. It was very well-organized without being restrictive, mostly thanks to the main organizers Veterans Against the Iraq War and Veterans for Peace, and went without a hitch.
As they stood on the stage later in the day, one soldier said, “No war in history has ever been declared by the people. To the Iraqi people, this is what peace looks like.” A Creole speaker noted, “War is everywhere. This is nothing less than a fight for the soul of our country.”
A Green Party speaker said, “There is an agency for homeless veterans. Those two words should never be in the same sentence.”One protester noted you hardly ever see any Bush/Cheney bumper stickers any more – what happened to them? Sample signs:
War is expensive. Peace is priceless.
Wasting All Resources
Healthcare, not warfare
Fight War, not wars.
Anything war can do, peace can do better
Who would Jesus torture?
Rapture is not an exit strategy
Proud of our son, ashamed of this war
Impeach Cheney first – business before pleasure
Draft Hillary
BU**SH**
College not Combat
After the rally, on the walk back to our cars, I saw a middle-aged woman with a sign that said, simply, “Bring my son home.” Isn't that what it's all about?
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