Massive Anti-war March and Rally Closes Streets

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Massive Anti-war March and Rally Closes Streets
 
By Elaine Russell, Rochester Indymedia
 

 
(March 20, 2003) Rochester city streets were closed today as over 2000 protesters rallied at the Liberty Pole at 4:00 and then marched down the middle of Main St. and State St. to the Federal Building for another rally. Police threatened to arrest student leader Jeff Ray for disorderly conduct, but were thwarted when he was surrounded by activists and escorted safely to the Downtown United Presbyterian Church.
 

 
This protest was organized by the Rochester Campus Action Network (RCAN) representing students from the eight area colleges and many high schools. Many of their members spoke at the rally.
 

 
Among the student speakers were Dexter Sanders and Mika Edmondson from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Mr. Edmondson read from scripture to the responsive crowd. Mr. Sanders delivered a powerful prayer to end the rally. In an interview they commented, “George W. Bush was absolutely not commanded by God to invade Iraq. God does not work that way. Bush has made himself into a god. Only God’s power can be described as “shock and awe;” no human has that authority. God commanded us to love or enemy as our self. Bush is using God’s name to gain support for an unjust war. He is giving Christians a bad name. George W. Bush and I do not serve the same God.”
 

 
Earlier in the day students at the University of Rochester walked out of class at 11:00am and led a rally attended by at least 100 students. Last night they held a vigil for peace.
 

 
At 7:00 this evening the Society of Friends hosted a meeting for worship open to the public. Speaking at the Friends Meeting House Ken Maher said that the meeting is more formless in a liturgical sense. “A member of any religious group would feel just as free to speak. The Society of Friends has been opposed to war for 350 years, since we were founded during the English Civil War, and have consistently refused to fight. Our meeting is more involved in peace work now than it has since the Vietnam war.” The meeting house will be open to the public for worship every day from 12:15 and 12:45 every day until the war is over. The Quakers and Menonites will co-sponsor a series of Saturday evening potluck dinners beginning on April 5. The dinners will provide an opportunity for peace workers to gather socially and bring their children, to visit informally without an agenda.
 

 
Students at the Eastman School of Music set up an information and outreach table today to promote a “Fund the Arts, Not the War” agenda. They will contunue tabling tomorrow and hold a rally with musical performances in the park on Gibbs and Main Sts. from 11:00am to 1:00pm.