Organizers called the anti-war rally in Fayetteville last year the city’s biggest since the Vietnam War. This year, they are counting on Fayetteville’s largest anti-war protest ever.
The Old North State chapter of the Free Republic is planning a counterdemonstration. Lynn Huber, a chapter chairwoman, said she also expects more people this year. She said at least 200 people have made firm commitments.
The two rallies Saturday will make for a repeat of last year, when the groups faced off at Rowan Park. Some people anticipated violence, but the rallies passed peacefully with dozens of police officers keeping a careful watch. Officers inspected bags and coolers and set up metal detectors.
Capt. Bill Simons of the Fayetteville Police Department said officers plan the same thing this year. He would not say how many officers would be at the park, but he did say other agencies would be helping the Fayetteville department.
Police have made two major changes from last year. Officers asked anti-war activists to change the route of their march. Last year, marchers walked from the downtown train station and up Hay Street to Rowan Park. This year, protestors will meet at the Cumberland County Health Department near Highsmith-Rainey Memorial Hospital. Around noon, they plan to march west on McGilvary Street, turn north onto Bradford Avenue, cross Hay Street and continue north on Woodside Avenue to the park.
Counterdemonstrators, as they did last year, will gather across from Rowan Park about 11 a.m. Police are not allowing the motorcycles that the Rolling Thunder, a Fayetteville POW/MIA veterans organization, brought last year.
The Free Republic calls its protest spot the ‘‘American Zone.’’ Huber said she expects veterans, military family members and active-duty troops to attend. She said there is not a formal list of speakers, but people are welcome to use one of two podiums at any time. The group also plans to read the names of people who died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
‘‘It’s fading and disappearing from people’s minds,’’ Huber said about the terrorist attacks. ‘‘We thought we were safe; we all lived in our tiny worlds.’’
She says the anti-war rally is sponsored by socialists and hurts soldiers.
‘‘I firmly believe that we can protect soldiers much better by not holding these protests,’’ she said. ‘‘Holding them gives fodder to the enemy.’’
Both sides say they are holding the rallies on the second anniversary of the war to support troops. Chuck Fager is director of the Quaker House, one of the sponsors of the peace rally.
‘‘There are so many families that have paid such heavy dues,’’ he said. ‘‘Their voices are becoming more vocal and more insistent. There is something really seriously wrong and it’s got to be made right. My hope is that the peace march and rally could give those voices a chance to be heard.’’
Fager said he expects about 25 speakers at Saturday’s rally. They include U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, a California Democrat; David Potorti of Sept. 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrow; members of Iraq Veterans Against the War; the director of Veterans for Peace; Cara Hollingsworth, the wife of a soldier serving with the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq; the brother of a Spanish reporter killed in Iraq; and Stephen Funk, a Marine who served a year in a military prison after refusing to fight in Iraq.
Saturday will be the busiest day for anti-war activists, but their activities actually begin Friday. Speakers, including Lila Lipscomb, will talk to reporters Friday afternoon at the Quaker House. Lipscomb is the military mother featured in the film ‘‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’’ A hip-hop concert is scheduled for Friday night at Seabrook Recreation Center near Fayetteville State University. Doors open at 8 with the concert starting around 9.
On March 20, the day after the rally, three anti-war groups will hold their national conferences here. Military Families Speak Out is scheduled to meet at the Clarion Hotel on Cedar Creek Road. Iraq Veterans Against the War and Gold Star Families plan to meet at the Clarion Prince Charles Hotel on Hay Street.
Fager said those meetings are of as much significance, if not more, than Saturday’s rally.
‘‘There’s dissatisfaction from military families,’’ Fager said, ‘‘that this war is not good for America, not good for our military, not good for Iraq and not good for our world.’’
As the war continued another year, Huber says, anti-war activists have more history to draw on. But she said, ‘‘From our point of view, we’ve just stayed safer.’’
Activists expect bigger rallies
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