March commemorates Iraq deaths, war's fifth year
By:
Lindsay Carroll
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: News
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About 100 to 200 students assembled outside the William Pitt Union and marched down Fifth Avenue, shouting protest chants and holding signs.
The students joined community members at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, which protesters claim has received funding for military projects, to form a group of about 400 to 500 marchers at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Craig Street.
Students from five colleges - Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Chatham, Point Park and the Community College of Allegheny County - along with local high school students, attended the pre-march student rally at the Union. Student organizers, including leaders from various clubs, fired up the crowd in preparation for the march.
Marc Mancini, a Pitt sociology student, stood on the concrete benches and talked about how protesting is an important part of patriotism.
"If we didn't question authority, we'd still be English!" Mancini said to a large applause from the crowd.
John Clendaniel, another organizer, compared the anti-war effort at Pitt to the efforts during the Vietnam War.
Clendaniel said that in 1970, students at 500 campuses took over their universities. He said that student protest against Iraq "needs to get to that point."
A committee of students from different campus organizations such as the Black Action Society, the Rainbow Alliance, Buddhism for World Peace and the Pitt chapter of the International Socialist Organization planned the student contingent. It was the first student rally to take place, even though students have participated in demonstrations since the war began.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Joshua Mateyk
posted 3/31/08 @ 5:12 PM EST
I feel the war protest was a failure. First of all my roommate and I were going to go downtown. However as a result Forbes and Fifth were closed and no buses were running, this just made us unhappy at the protesters. (Continued…)
Christopher Taylor
posted 3/31/08 @ 10:24 PM EST
The protest may not have been an overwhelming success go change public attitudes, but it was by no means a failure. People of many races, religions, and backgrounds attended and spoke at the event, drawing on a broad organizational coalition. (Continued…)
Edward Rorrum
posted 3/31/08 @ 11:42 PM EST
I find this quite interesting:
"Lets review some numbers: WWI deaths were 116,000; WWII deaths were 416,000; Korean War deaths were 36,000; and the Vietnam war deaths were 58,000. (Continued…)
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