Right to Dissent a Cherished American Freedom

War protesters creatively make their voices heard in Washington
By Lea Terhune

Washington -- Families and school tours visiting the nation’s capital during spring vacation were treated to an example of direct political action as protestors against the Iraq War mingled with throngs of tourists and residents March 19.

Demonstrators young and old dispersed throughout the city to mark the fifth year of the conflict by publicly voicing their concerns. Equestrian police sat placidly on their horses as a group bearing a large orange sign that read “Iraq get out, Iran stay out” crossed McPherson Square. Peaceful groups chanted anti-war slogans and songs near the White House and other federal buildings.

President Bush, speaking at the Pentagon the same day, acknowledged the “understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it.”

But he maintained his support for the Iraq war, saying the troop buildup, or surge, is working. “The battle in Iraq has been longer and harder and more costly than we anticipated -- but it is a fight we must win,” he said, lauding soldiers’ courage and determination and calling the military action noble, necessary and just.

Nearby on the Capitol Mall and on surrounding city streets, Americans from various parts of the country disagreed.
Veterans for Peace intoned responses to the military cadence call “Sound Off” with words tailored to the peace march, rather than the drill field. Member of the group held signs aloft and flashed peace gestures. Some were in wheelchairs. Stopping in front of the White House, a member of the group delivered a speech condemning the war.
“Support our troops -- bring them back” was a sentiment expressed by many.

Mike Ferner, a Navy hospital corpsman, or medical specialist, during the Vietnam War, told reporters, “I’m here because this president apparently is not interested in listening to the will of the majority of people in this country, and we need to get out and demonstrate more … what we really need to do is stop business as usual.” He said delivering that message peacefully was the goal of the demonstrators.

More theatrical were groups of black-swathed protesters wearing white death masks who silently threaded their way through the city. They called their protest a “Death March.”

FREE SPEECH GUARANTEED UNDER THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Although the Washington demonstration was not as large as some in the past, it was earnest. Protesters tried to blockade the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. tax office, to symbolize a call to halt the flow of U.S. taxpayers’ money to fund the Iraq War. Some groups held up traffic. A few dozen were arrested across the city.

“Protesting is not illegal. It is our right. It’s in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution,” Officer Josh Aldiva, spokesman for the Metropolitan Police, told America.gov. But when protesters break laws by blocking traffic, crossing a police barrier or trying to enter a restricted building, they may be arrested.

In those cases, Aldiva explained, people are taken to the local police station and their police records are checked. If they have no recorded offenses, they may be asked to pay a fine, after which they may leave.

Various law enforcement agencies, local and federal, policed the protests, which were calm despite arrests.

According to Federal Protective Service press officer Ernestine Fobbs, “It was peaceful at the IRS, but you are still required to charge people with failure to comply.”

Countering anti-war protesters were a group of people at a military recruiting center with signs stating “We support our brave military and their just mission.”

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE DEEPLY ROOTED IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Civil disobedience is an old weapon in the American arsenal of dissent, dating back to the 1773 Boston Tea Party, when Colonists dumped a British vessel’s tea cargo overboard into Boston Harbor to protest against an unfair British system of taxes and tariffs.

Writer Henry David Thoreau’s famous 1849 essay on civil disobedience still resonates to Americans: “The authority of government … is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed.”

Nonviolent protest was used in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and in the movement against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. Both employed marches and sit-ins, a form of passive resistance.

Organizers such as the group United for Peace and Justice offered training in nonviolent protest and political activism ahead of the peace march. Similar events were staged in cities around the country.

Anti-war protester Diane Rosen explained why she was there: “I want to just take part in letting people know there are people who think like this.”