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This Issue 02/01/2007

Also in this issue

• Rooters
• Dental library
• Youtube clip of the week
• 1ST ANNUAL PENN KING OF WINGS COMPETITION
• Word on the Street
• Brewmaster's Corner

For 40 years, Penn students have traveled by bus to Washington, D.C. to use their voices and their bodies to try to change the world. Last Saturday, some 140 Penn students, faculty, and West Philadelphians went to do it again.

Penn Against War, a campus peace group, organized a full-day trip to protest the Iraq War in the nation's capital. Rose Levine, a young activist, tells the crowd on one of three buses: "We're setting a model, that's what we came to DC to do."

Why we march (and why we don't)

by Alex Jacobs and Vince Levy

The activists arrive at National Mall around noon. In the back of the buses are about 20 painted cardboard houses - symbols of the march's overarching goal: to "Bring the Troops Home." Over a megaphone, Rose calls out for volunteers to wear the houses and carry signs. But then she turns serious: "Normally at protests people chant, 'What do we want? Blank. When do we want it? Blank.' We don't want to pressure anybody to say anything."

She leads a practice call and response, but no clear answer can be heard.

It's a strange omen for the rally that follows. On the main stage on 3rd Street, a succession of politicians, celebrities, veterans, and activists make their case against the war. Of all the range speakers' chants - "Keep hope alive!" "What do women say? Pull out now!" - the most successful seems the most far-fetched: "Impeach Bush!"

The crowd, spread out between the stage and the looming figure of the Washington Monument, engages in the main rally sparingly- only the first third call back to the podium. Small groups attract more attention. One cluster of young men holding signs that read "9/11 Truth Now!" shout conspiracy theories from a megaphone. To the side, a man with a "Make hip-hop, not war" shirt freestyles to general acclaim: "Fight the power, kill the beast." And maybe 50 yards from the stage, young hippie types dance lazily, chanting "Give Peace a Chance!"

One popular sign reads "Another ______ Against Escalation," with responses as far-reaching as "Lord of the Rings Fan."

Besides general dissatisfaction, speakers, signs, and chants have little in common. Is this a rally for immediate troop withdrawal? Is this about Veterans' Rights? Is it all about Bush? Or is this a collection of wholly different agendas, all competing for the attention of the assembled masses?

More surprising than the variety of messages is the diversity of faces. Vietnam-era demonstrators and families visibly outnumber students.

The turnout prompts one aging protestor to reflect on the trips she made here in the early '70s from Albertus Magnus in Connecticut: "Probably at least half the campus came. It was all you talked about. It was the biggest, most important thing in your life."

One thing this is certain of Saturday's demonstration: this was not your parents' protest.