Nice to see these student journalists" are learning their media bias early. /sarcasm
Keynote speakers at the commons were three of the St. Patrick’s Four.
Posted on 10/03/2005 3:35:05 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
ITHACA NY-A vibrant hue pierced parts of campus last Friday, as students and professors in orange T-shirts rallied together to voice their opposition to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“For 24 hours we skip class, we skip work, we leave our cars at home, we buy nothing, we fast,” the students stated on their website. “For one day we set our lives aside to examine and understand this occupation … .”
Orange Friday, as the event was called, engaged faculty and students in a day-long dialogue in an effort to raise awareness about the repercussions of the war abroad.
Members of Cornell University, Ithaca College and the Ithaca all participated, hosting individual events in their communities during the day before converging later on the commons to meet each other and to hear discussions from anti-war activists, including one who experienced the war firsthand.
Keynote speakers at the commons were three of the St. Patrick’s Four as well as Perry O’Brien ’08, a former medic in Afghanistan who became disillusioned with the war.
The St. Patrick’s Four were arrested in March 2003 for an anti-war protest in which they spilled their own blood at a Tompkins County army recruiting station. They were found not guilty of conspiracy charges but guilty of two lesser charges last Monday.
“The decision I eventually came to in Afghanistan was that we weren’t there to produce long-term change; we were there for political purposes ... to advance an agenda that did not have Afghanistan in mind,” O’Brien told The Sun.
Sentiments similar to O’Brien’s overlaid the dialogue at Cornell’s Orange Friday.
“Clearly, [we’re] no longer a democratic nation. It’s hard to accept,” Prof. Zillah Eisenstein, politics, Ithaca College, told a group of about 25 students outside Olin library last Friday.
In her talk, “Take Back Our Country,” Eisenstein criticized some of the domestic and overseas havoc caused by the Bush administration. She urged students to continue political discourse and activist movements to bring democracy back to America.
Other campus speeches included “From Abu Ghraib to the Superdome: American War Today” by Prof. Anne Maria Smith, government; “Why This Mother is Against the War” by Prof. Jane Maria Law, Asian studies; “Reservation Iraq” by Prof. Eric Cheyfitz, English; and “Sojourner Truth, John Brown, and Pacifism” by Prof. Margaret Washington, history.
The idea for Orange Friday germinated this past summer, according to Lynne Feeley ’06, one of the day’s organizers.
Feeley said she and other Cornell students who were active in the Redbud woods movement “were all spending a lot of time together ... talking about this stuff all the time. [It] grew organically from there.”
Out of these discussions, Feeley, Patrick Young ’06 and Jeff Purcell ’06, a Sun columnist, wrote and posted a national call to action on many independent media sites. They also set up an email account and contacted other universities about spreading the movement beyond Cornell, Feeley said.
On their website, the organizers explained that they latched onto the color orange because “orange is what our peace movement needs to be: bright, bold and impossible to miss.”
With six out of 10 Americans characterizing themselves as against the war, the group wanted an identifying symbol to serve as a point of entry for conversation, Feeley said.
“Even in organizing this event, I’ve met a lot of Ithaca College anti-war activists, [who have] had different experiences at their school,” said Wes Hannah ’06.
Orange Friday’s participants described the day not just as a day of protest but as a day of learning.
“Without awareness, nothing will change,” said Kathy Guis ’06. “Apathy is never going to stop this war.”
Afghan veteran O’Brien added that current circumstances make it “really really easy for most students to ignore the war and and not really think about it, because they don’t have to fight. One of the reasons we’re not seeing as much activity as Vietnam is that people aren’t being drafted — yet”.
He urged the Cornell community to reach out to soldiers returning from the war.
“Just listen to their stories, [and] not politicize it, not try to characterize it in any way,” he said.
When asked what she hopes the outcome of Friday’s events will be, Feeley responded, “It’s dishonest to say ... Orange Friday is going to stop the war — that’s a misconception. There are other things that we’re doing that will hopefully collect [and] add up.”
Feeley said that right now, she and the others are intent upon “raising consciousness, building a community of people who feel strongly about this issue ... being responsible citizens.
“I think that if we’re doing all these things all the time, we can’t help but stop the war,” she said.
Along with individual organizers, Cornell for Peace and Justice helped to plan Orange Friday.
Nice to see these student journalists" are learning their media bias early. /sarcasm
Keynote speakers at the commons were three of the St. Patrick’s Four.
Prison Stripes look nice this time of year.....
Putting a little perspective on the situation. Can't let the media and the anti-American types be the only voices speaking up.
Awww! How nice! Little cathy wrote a whole article all by herself! I'm sure she got an A.
“For one day we set our lives aside to examine and understand this occupation … .”
I knew they didn't take enough time to figure this one out.
Just wow.
I don't know how to respond to the sheer insanity of these people.
I'd also like to point out that what they called "torture" at Abu Ghraib is called a "lap dance" in New Orleans. Those poor people in the Superdome didn't even have electricity for the widescreen TVs they "found" on the way to the shelter, I doubt they had lap dancers.
Sheesh... ;-P
No wonder these damn fools never get anything accomplished.
They spend all their time sitting around contemplating their navels, hoping a stupendous revelation will arise from it.
Idiots, all.
Everyone of them as stupid or more so than the nitwitted daisy-lovers from the '60's and '70's.
It never changes.
WE NEVER WERE A DEMOCRATIC NATION.
We were created as a constitutional republic. Apparently, these people didn't learn their history.
GE in Albany hires a lot of Cornell students . GE is a major military complex employer. Does that make the rest of the campus an oxymoron ?
In other news, the sun rose in the east today...
That's not nearly long enough time to contemplate ... I suggest 30-days at a minimum!
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