5-29-07 Parade, Anti-war Rally Mark Holiday
Parade, Anti-war Rally Mark Holiday
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL :: B1
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
By MATTHEW DeFOUR
A red-haired boy eating blue cotton candy turned to his mother and asked why there were soldiers marching in the 52nd annual Monona Memorial Day Parade.
The parade, his mother explained, is meant to honor fallen war heroes. Nodding, the child looked for another opportunity to catch the candy being thrown into the flag-waving crowd.
Hours later, at an anti-war rally at James Madison Park, Elliott Adams, national president of Veterans for Peace, described a similar "Norman Rockwell" scene from a previous Memorial Day parade and suggested the culture that allowed the Iraq war to happen is instilled in Americans at a young age.
Like the crowd of more than 300, many of them carrying signs with messages like "Bring the troops home now," Adams commemorated Memorial Day with a message of peace.
"It's a great day to end war," Adams said.
"It's a great day to honor the dead," Jim Hanson muttered audibly during the speech, adjusting his video camera.
Brief conflict
Hanson writes for a right-wing military blog and planned to post the video of the rally online with commentary about how Memorial Day is not about war protests. His presence, however, - and side comments - began to attract the attention of members of the audience, some of whom intentionally stood in front of Hanson's camera and accused him of being a National Security Agency operative.
Joshua Gaines, an Iraq veteran, finally confronted Hanson. They exchanged heated words; both sides implied the other was trampling the Bill of Rights; then, as quickly as it started, the conflict cooled down as both sides backed off.
"He can be here," Gaines said later. "But don't interrupt an honorable speaker like this."
Gaines became involved with the anti-war movement after returning from Iraq, where he says his unit was supplied with "insufficient armor" to fight in an "unjust war." The meaning of Memorial Day didn't become evident for him until his head cleared two years after his return.
"It's important that we have veterans here to show that we do care about the troops, but we don't care for an unjust war," Gaines said.