The Pro-Saddam/Anti-Bush counties in Wyoming are all colored in red.
Posted on 03/09/2003 6:20:10 AM PST by Theodore R.
Group gathers at Capitol to protest war
By Juliette Rule Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE – War protestors could agree Saturday there was one good thing to say about President Bush.
“He brought our attention to the terrible and tyrannical rule of (Iraqi dictator Saddam) Hussein,” the Rev. Clinton Lewis told a crowd in front of the Capitol.
About 50 people gathered there to stand up for a peaceful resolution to the Iraq-U.S. situation as Bush threatens a “shock and awe” strategy. The event was organized by Nancy Angel, a participant in the group Code Pink. The group launched protests across the nation and the world Saturday as part of International Women’s Day.
Here, the festivities included speakers and protest songs from the 1960s and ’70s, including Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World” and some John Lennon.
The group largely was made up of women, but children, men and dogs also were in the crowd.
Alex Duffield was one mother in attendance.
“My mom and I talked about coming,” she said, holding 16-month Ashton Duffield in her arms. “If he was sent to war, it would be devastating to us. He’s important to us. All children are important.”
That was part of the message Angel and others shared with gatherers. Sign carriers also offered viewpoints.
“Support our troops, bring them home – no war,” read one.
The Rev. Makanah Morris of the Unitarian Universalist Church also spoke, sharing her message about the “compassionate human heart.”
“Inside each of us lies potential for wise thought and wise action,” she said. “We acknowledge acts of terror and tyranny committed by Saddam Hussein. Punishment should be meted out by the world community.”
In the course of the hour-long event, Pakistani-American Muslim Arshi Nisley read from the Quran. The traditional Muslim greeting, “Assalaam alaikum,” is directly translated as “Peace be with you,” she said.
Peace clearly is a tenet of the text – the Quran advocates war only in specific circumstances, including self-defense, in the interest of protecting religious freedoms and protection of the weak and oppressed, she added.
“How many of us as Americans don’t believe that?” she asked.
Islam also advocates diplomacy and negotiation, but should those efforts fail, Code Pink has another idea.
Helpers passed out pink pages instructing people to gather across the street from the Capitol at 6 p.m. for a silent protest the day after an attack, assuming the United States bombs Iraq.
“May God bless America where we freely express our beliefs and may God bless Iraq, which isn’t allowed to do that,” Nisley said.
I wonder whom he supported in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections.
Artwork and linkage by FReeper Howie. Stick them inside your car’s rear window with a few bits of 3M Magic Tape, the tape will peel off easily with no glue residue even after months in the sun.
The reality is that the only red counties in Montana and Colorado are either (a)overwheminly populated by minorites who are reluctant to stray from the 'RAT plantation, (b)in the case of Denver inner cities, the same type of social rot found in other large American cities or (c)populated by subsidized college students and their subsidized leftwing professors. Moderate sized cities like Billings are blue-- as you can see above.
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