I was there and forgot his name, they pulled the plug on him when he spoke since he started talking about Bush and that he was wrong. The prof. is a Capt. in the US Army Reserve.
Dr. Zilbergeld
Montclair State students rally to support Bush and U.S. Troops
Thursday, March 27, 2003
BY PHILIP READ
Star-Ledger Staff
John Cascarano was in his macro-economics class when the call came.
It was confirmation from his boyhood friend, Steven Rogers II, that the Marine he had seen off at Picatinny Arsenal for the trip to Camp LeJeune, N.C., just two weeks earlier would be heading toward war in Iraq. Any analysis of inflation or theory on how to stimulate the economy seemed unimportant.
"He normally doesn't call me during the day, so I knew something was wrong," said Cascarano, head of the College Republicans at Montclair State University.
With that Tuesday cell phone call in mind, Cascarano -- wearing a "Support President Bush and Our Troops" button -- and others yesterday led a rally under the noonday sun outside the university's Student Center.
He passed out little American flags. He pumped up the crowd with such comments as "Our cause is just." He introduced a stream of speakers who spoke -- often to applause -- of the need to "quell dictators" but who acknowledged that "no one wants innocent people to die."
There were people in the crowd -- estimated by organizers at 300 -- who could relate to Cascarano's experience.
When asked for a show of hands of those who had friends or family in the military, many arms went up. Kristin Russo knew the connection firsthand.
The college sophomore from Highlands was there with her husband Phil, who was in the 101th Army Airborne Division from 1998 to 2002 and had been in Kosovo and Afghanistan. "We were getting really upset with all the peace rallies. We were like a silent majority," she said.
Neither she nor her husband, dressed in his Army camouflage fatigues, were silent yesterday, having helped organize the rally. "It was a very scary experience," she said of those days, insisting that the president today wouldn't risk the lives of so many soldiers without a valid reason.
In the largely student crowd yesterday was Berta Ozvomano, a business major and international student from Turkey.
"They're already there, so it would be a shame not to support our people there," she said.
Mike McLean of Mahwah had his own perspective, handing out leaflets headed "Support the Troops. Bring Them Home." McLean -- wearing a yellow T-shirt saying "Innocent people are dying" on one side and "Money for schools, not for war" on the other -- said he was getting a good response from those in the crowd.
"The worst response is people not wanting to read what we have to say," said McLean, noting that he supported the day's rally. "I'm actually glad they're here, expressing their opinion. It's unfortunate that they don't back it up with logic."
Soon about a dozen members of his campus group, Rise Up and Resist, appeared in the crowd, holding up anti-war posters reading among other things "No War for Empire."
The night before, McLean called 911 when confronted by an advocate of the war who he said accosted him outside the university's Dickson Hall. Police responded, but no charges were filed.
"We've been saying violence is an irrational way to solve our problems," he said of the incident. "War isn't the way to solve our problems."
The presence of the anti-war group did not go unnoticed when Gianni Pirelli, a junior psychology major from Totowa, took the mike.
"I have a reason for war, 3,000 of them in the ground," Pirelli, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the American flag, said in reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "You have the luxury to sit in your home, you bask with the freedom given to you, then you pass out those pamphlets?"
James Boydston of Haledon, a former fine arts major, was even more direct.
"Each of you with a no-war sign, you're supporting evil people and you don't know what you're doing."
Both statements appeared to bring the loudest cheers.
In the view of Cascarano -- who lives in Nutley and is executive director of Americop, whose Web site says anti-war protests "serve only to strengthen the will of the enemy" -- the day's events were successful.
"I'm very pleased with the turnout. I'm very pleased with the reception."
Philip Read covers West Essex. He can be reached at
pread@starled ger.com or (973) 392-1851.
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