News

Takoma Park reacts to War

BY ALICIA UPANO

Recent polls show that roughly three-quarters of the nation supports the military initiative in Iraq. But in a town that holds at least two weekly peace vigils and that has advertised its dissent to war on Iraq on their lawns and in shop windows, Takoma Park residents are left in utter disbelief.

Rev. George Taylor of the Takoma City for Peace Committee said, "I don't know where these polls come from. I have not talked to one citizen who is in favor of this war."

"Who are they calling?" one Takoma Park resident asked rhetorically. "I didn't get a call, did you get a call?"

Takoma Park City Councilmember Marc Elrich is a bit more skeptical regarding the political make-up of Takoma Park. The town, he said, is "heavily anti-war, but not exclusively so," and that the abundance of war dissenters have not silenced opposing citizens. In fact, when the city council passed a resolution opposing military strikes on Iraq last October, the resolution passed with two out of six opposed.

One Takoma Park citizen, speaking on the condition of anonymity, disagrees with Elrich's assessment.

"I'm sure there are plenty of 'pro-war'–or, more accurately, not anti-war–Takoma Parkers, but they are silent."

Further, he upholds that this community, otherwise a model of liberalism and tolerance, "is proving to be quite intolerant of anyone who is not anti-war."

Visible support for the war is harder to come by in Takoma Park than it is on the evening news, but some supporters are speaking up. Takoma Park resident William Bell believes that the Bush Administration is doing its best to reduce the threat of nuclear attack from unstable leaders such as Saddam Hussein.

"It's serious non-proliferation policy," Bell says. "That's the way I see it. What's going to happen if guys like Saddam Hussein have nuclear weapons? People say he would never use them against us, because we would obliterate them. But that's not the scenario the administration is concerned about.

"Someone like Saddam Hussein could have one weapon delivered by intermediaries, to the U.S. and set it off in some small city. Nobody would know who put it there, and nobody would know where they got it," he continues. "The US is trying to send a message that we're not going to allow anyone like Saddam Hussein to get a nuclear weapon."

"Peace is Patriotic"

Anti-war activists contend they've been sold a war by the Bush Administration and mainstream media, while discussions on the finer points of senior and junior Bush continue on the streets of Old Town.

"The main objection to the war is the tremendous human suffering that's going to take place," said Reverend Taylor, a Navy veteran. "I've been in harm's way, and I've seen what it does to people. I'm very opposed to war–and this one in particular."

After the city council passed two resolutions last October opposing both American military action against Iraq and the USA Patriot Act, Taylor joined with other citizens in forming the Takoma Park City for Peace Committee in support of the anti-war resolution. Takoma Park was among the first of over 100 cities that have passed resolutions opposing war since last year.

Several peace organizers maintain that the United Nations inspections and other diplomatic efforts were working. While some felt the war was coming despite U.N. and peace efforts, Takoma Park resident Nadine Bloch admitted, "I thought there was going to be another way out."

Bloch creates puppets for peace protests, some as large as 12 feet tall. Like several fellow activists, Bloch does not believe the U.S. exhausted its diplomatic options.

"If you consider diplomacy threatening someone with a big stick, then there was diplomacy," she said.

"I think diplomacy has failed, or I really think that the administration didn't have any intention of letting diplomacy succeed," said Mike Zmolek of the National Network to End the War Against Iraq, headquartered in Takoma Park.

Some go so far to say that the military action in Iraq is merely "Bush's War," driven by oil interests. According to Taylor, the beneficiaries of what he calls President George W. Bush's "cavalier" and "irresponsible" move to war will be American oil companies, and that the American citizens are "going to pick up the tab."

Zmolek, as outreach coordinator for the National Network to End the War Against Iraq, receives daily a barrage of e-mails from war supporters across the country. While he suspects the e-mails come as part of an organized campaign, he noted that some supporters paint the organization as the porters and dupes of Saddam Hussein's regime.

One man wrote to the organization: "If you love Iraq so much, then move there." Zmolek said one man left him a telephone message that he would pay for his plane ticket if Zmolek wanted to leave the country with no intention of returning. Another man questioned the profitability of the anti-war movement, asking "how much money do you ignorant people hope to gain from this conflict … [for] T-shirts, pins, posters, hats, signs, stickers?" One woman addressed a message to all "you little punks who die your hair pink for piece [sic] and surprisingly have enough intelligence to spell 'war' on your stupid signs!"

To his detractors, Zmolek shrugged and said, "I respond to some which are seeking common ground."

The anonymous Takoma Park citizen appears to be a less hostile detractor. "I certainly don't take the Bush administration on their word that this is a must-do disarmament. But there isn't enough evidence to convince me it isn't, either. I'm hoping time will shed light on this, but maybe I'll never know…. Does all this make me 'pro-war?' No."

Both on the news and in counter protests across the nation, citizens are questioning the patriotism of anti-war protestors. Taylor did not hesitate to define his affection toward the U.S.,"I consider myself a great patriot, and peace is very patriotic."

Misinformation

Bell is not questioning the patriotism of protesters, but he does question their information.

"Regarding whether this war is good or not: it's only bad if the world is better off if Saddam Hussein is left to his own devices. I don't see how all these people in the streets, waving signs around, can possibly be certain that things will work out for the best if Hussein is left alone. I guess you can say 'how does Bush know?', but it's safe to assume that the administration is privy to information that the general public isn't. The people out there demonstrating aren't privy to it. They know what I know," he said.

But some people view the information from mainstream media skeptically. Merrill Leffler, Takoma Park resident and member of Poets Against the War, says that when he watches the television news, W.B. Yeats comes to mind: "How can we know the dancer from the dance?" Zmolek calls the broadcast reporters "cheerleaders," and Leffler likens their coverage of the war to a cowboy western film.

Most astounding of the misinformation, they say, is poll results that show one in two Americans believe there is a connection between the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Iraq.

Shortly after Sept. 11, Zmolek said it was difficult to get people to care about Iraq at all.

"It shows how there's been a propaganda campaign to convince people that there is [a connection], and it's been successful."

Critics of Zmolek's organization, however, seem to disagree. One woman wrote in an e-mail, "The U.S. had no problem with Saddam until it was proven that weapons and training for terrorism to Al-Qaeda came from Iraq. We were attacked, now this is our war."

Nancy Abbott Young, daughter of former Takoma Park Mayor Sam Abbott, was in New York City on September 11.

"I lost people I knew. I accompanied a man from Times Square to the Upper East Side as he learned that his son died on the 110th floor. Now that they're using this to justify this war is beyond me."

Abbott spoke as she peered onto rush hour traffic on the corner of Maple and Philadelphia Avenue, holding a sign that read "Shock and Awe is Barbaric" four days after the U.S. began strikes on Iraq. She paused, "I'm sorry, I'm so furious I can hardly talk."

Drop in the Bucket

"We're a small little drop in the bucket here, but each drop counts," said Taylor, of the various peace-oriented events around Takoma Park.

Along with the work of Bloch, the Rhythm Workers Union, Poets Against the War, the Takoma Park City for Peace Committee, and the National Network to End the War Against Iraq, several student groups have popped up over town, including Teens for Peace, Students for Global Responsibility, and–possibly Takoma Park's youngest contingent of peace activists–the Takoma Park Kids for Peace.

Takoma Park Kids for Peace was founded by 10-year-old Gabriela Smith, with the assistance of her mother, Liana. The group began a Friday night vigil at the Municipal Building on Valentine's Day and has grown in attendees to over 30. Per their permit, they now must cross the street onto the corner of Maple and Philadelphia Avenues.

"I think we had talked a lot about our concerns," Liana explained about the duo's history of activism. "We had attended a number of the demonstrations–"

"Since I was, what, two months old?" Gabriela jokingly interjected.

"My daughter is half-Palestinian … I have a very strong interest in the Middle East region, but I also have got a great deal of interest in democracy and the freedoms we have here," Liana said.

As a single mother employed full-time, Liana said she did not have the time to protest in Washington, and thought there was something that could be manifested in Takoma Park.

Gabriela, a fifth-grader at Piney Branch Elementary School, walks around the Friday evening crowd with instructions to ensure that the children are safely out of the road, as a passionate group of children and their parents wave homemade signs at cars passing by.

The initiative, Gabriela said, is not confined to this street corner. "At our school we have these major discussions; at recess we have all these protests at the fields. All the kids jumped out, wanted a black armband, too," she said proudly displaying a black band tied to her forearm, which she said represents mourning and peace.

Zmolek also attended, with a black armband around his upper arm. "It's a tie," he admitted.

"If anything, the work's just begun," Liana said. "I do feel the children of Bush and Cheney are not out there fighting, and if they were, then it'd be very different."

Other local groups are looking to the arts to express their sentiment toward the war. Bloch said that the use of art in her peace and justice work is very effective, that her puppets are meant to reach, empower, and entertain people "so they pay attention to what's going on."

The Rhythm Workers Union use music, particularly drumming, inspired by the use of music in the Civil Rights Movement.

"We're trying to bring an air of celebration, [to] create a different aspect of culture, instead of shouting rhetoric back and forth at each other," Sims said.

Leffler said the February 12 poetry reading at the Takoma Park library was a gathering of over 90 citizens.

"I think many of the people who were there [felt] a sense of communalism, and I think that's what was happening around the country," Leffler said of the reading and the national Poets Against the War initiative.

"I don't have any illusions about what poetry does," said Leffler. "Poems are like throwing paper airplanes at tanks...poetry can't stand up against the rhetoric of war. [But] each poem represents some small piece of truth that you bring, and they fill up the room."

Keep on truckin'

"We failed to prevent the war. That was our goal, and we didn't achieve that," said Sims. "So now, for me, the work just goes sort of long-term."

Sims said the Rhythm Workers Union continues to perform at protests and supports those who are trying to stop the war as soon as possible. Regarding the long-term, Sims said, "I think its time to really ask questions about how we really go about creating peace, because peace is not just the absence of war. There are other aspects to consider, like equality and justice and fairness."

To Elrich, however, the continual peace work is important to create visible dissonance, if nothing else.

"It's important to create a climate that [shows] not all of us agree; our president doesn't speak for us; he doesn't represent all Americans," Elrich said.

While Takoma Park peace activists continue to push for their voices to be heard, including their desire for the war to end quickly and for American troops to return home safely, Bloch hopes the situation turns out voters for 2004, especially women and people of color, and they elect a "viable alternative party."

"Everything's changed, and the crisis has broken. Now everything that happens has tremendous implications for the future," Zmolek said.

His hopes, however, are not deflated, because of "the scale and scope that have responded to this. Every different sector of society is somehow involved. The participation of faith groups...really brings in to question the moral legitimacy of war," he said. "It's provided a platform for consensus across a really broad spectrum, [but] can we make it a political force and spiritual force?"

As for Taylor, he said the peace work is more important than ever. Upcoming events include an April 4 teach-in, a cultural arts peace festival, and an inter-religious gathering on April 19.

"I'm very interested in the life of our city," said Taylor, who ran for city council last year. "[I'm] very interested in where our country is going, and I think it's going in exactly the wrong direction."