February 16, 2007 @ 11:09 am

Campuses Countrywide Protest Iraq War

Sabrina Ford

Students commemorated the largest anti-war demonstration in history yesterday.

"What the hell is Congress for?" an anti-war protestor at Columbia University yelled into a megaphone. "Stop the funding. Stop the war," responded the crowd of a few hundred protestors. On the other side of the country, at San Francisco State University, protestors, joined by students from neighboring Lowell High School, called for an end to the ongoing war in Iraq. Thursday, February 15, marked the fourth anniversary of the largest anti-war demonstration in history. In 2003, millions of people around the world protested Operation Iraqi Freedom. To commemorate those events and to voice continued opposition to the Iraq war, students at several colleges, universities and high schools across the country participated in a variety of walk-outs, strikes, teach-ins and protests. The events were the combined efforts of various organizations, student groups and individual students and faculty members. One organization represented on several campuses was the World Can't Wait, a group seeking to remove President Bush from office. The organization, which was established in 2005, helped get the word out and organize students at campuses after anti-war activists at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Columbia University began protest plans for the historic day. Alex Mejia, one of the founding members of the World Can't Wait student chapter at San Francisco State, felt that Thursday’s protests were a success. "Students felt empowered. It's like we actually have a voice," said Mejia. Heather Hurwitz, a graduate student at Columbia, is one of the students forming a World Can't Wait chapter on that campus. Hurwitz says she was motivated to participate because she is unhappy with the current administration. "The whole Bush program is going somewhere very dangerous and trying to radically change the world," said Hurwitz. On campuses country wide, faculty members supported the students' efforts and in some cases participated in the protests. Many students on Columbia's campus were told they could be excused from class if they wanted to take part. Bruce Lincoln, a professor in the University of Chicago's Divinity School, supported the protests. "I am in support of students doing their part in speaking out. I canceled my classes and told my students to do whatever their conscience dictated," he said. Debra Sweet, the national coordinator of World Can't Wait, hopes that this is just the first step in her organization realizing its goal – impeaching Bush. "Today we saw the beginning of a movement erupting at schools across the country. This could open the door to reversing this terrible course Bush is taking the world," said Sweet. On February 17 the World Can't Wait organization will host a summit in New York City to discuss the impeachment of President Bush. The Hip Hop Caucus is one of the event's co-sponsors, and workshops include Make Hip Hop Not War. For more information, click here.

Article tags: Campuses, Countrywide, Protest, Iraq, War 

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