01/27/07: Racine: Local war protesters see a rise in their numbers
Local war protesters see a rise in their numbers
BY MICHAEL BURKE
Journal Times
RACINE -
As tens of thousands of people marched against the Iraq war in Washington, D.C., Saturday, anti-war activists staged a companion rally here.
An estimated 130 people lined part of Monument Square in an anti-war protest organized by the Racine Coalition for Peace and Justice.
Many participants held laminated cards, each of which listed one of the 68 Wisconsin soldiers killed so far in the Iraq war. The name on Barney Nelles' card was Christopher J. Splinter of Platteville, killed in December 2003.
Speakers also read the names of all 68 Wisconsin soldiers killed, alphabetically by the communities they came from.
"This (kind of rally) is occurring throughout the country," Nelles said. He was involved "to keep the issue on the front page, so to speak, and make sure our legislative people are voting for reducing the troops and reducing the funding."
One speaker at the rally said the Iraq war has cost Wisconsin $221 million so far.
Nelles said it was about his fourth anti-Iraq war protest. Asked about the reactions of passers-by - car horns frequently sounded as people drove by - he said: "Initially, more than a year ago, there wasn't much response.
"Now you can hear the public outcry, and support for our presence in Iraq is decreasing substantially."
Marybeth Zuhlke, a retired Kenosha teacher, was there with two grandsons and a granddaughter; she's been to almost all of the local Iraq war protests.
In the beginning, she said, "You used to see 15 to 20 people. Now it's close to 100." (One coalition member counted about 130 people Saturday for the noon rally.)
Asked if the nation has accomplished anything in Iraq, Zuhlke said: "I wish we had, but I fear we have not."
The Rev. Bruce Clanton was part of the rally along with several of his Casa Chavez youths, including Sergio Casillas of St. Catherine's High School.
Casillas, 15, said about the war, "I think it's bad because we're losing too many people and killing too many, too."
"I want to get my kids exposed to the issues and how to take a stand," Clanton said. "I don't think they get it in school. I think the more they know, the better citizens they'll be."
"Have you guys signed the petition?" called Maria Morales, 62, as she walked down the line. Later, the Texas native and Racine resident explained her participation in the rally.
"I want somebody to tell the truth about what's going on in Iraq," she said. "I think we've been fed a bunch of lies.
"We know with terrorism, it wasn't the reason we are there. I believe we're there because of oil, to protect our interests in oil."
Ken Yorgan, president of the local coalition, said the Iraq war "was declared illegally ... and the management of this war has been terrible."
"It feels a lot different today than it did four years ago, because there's so much more resistance, so much more opposition."