SF Bay Area Protests: "Our silence and complacency contribute to Iraq War"

Posted on Sun, Mar. 19, 2006
Rallies in Bay Area attract hundreds to protest Iraq war
By HongDao Nguyen
Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/14136811.htm

Even though Mary Sano's son is only 6, the Palo Alto woman worries about the possibility that her boy, Marcel Colchen, could fight in a war someday. That's one reason the 42-year-old held a bag of folded paper cranes -- symbolizing peace -- to hand out at the Palo Alto City Hall Plaza on Saturday, joining hundreds of anti-war protesters who called for an end to the conflict in Iraq. ``There are little kids like him everywhere who want to do normal little kid things but they can't,'' said Sano, a sixth-grade teacher. Marches, demonstrations and religious services marking the third anniversary of the Iraq war were held around the Bay Area, including San Francisco, where nearly 10,000 gathered, as well as across the nation and world. Demonstrations are expected to continue today in Mountain View and San Jose.

Saturday's events come three days after Army Pfc. Angelo Zawaydeh, 19, of San Bruno was killed, making him one of the more than 2,300 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the start of the war. Saturday morning in Oakland, at least 200 people gathered at the Grand Lake Theatre for a town hall meeting with anti-war Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey, and a panel of activists. Lee received numerous standing ovations and rounds of applause, particularly when she shared news that the House of Representatives had accepted her spending-bill amendment to ban permanent military bases in Iraq. ``We need to say loudly and clearly that we don't want permanent bases,'' said Lee.

In Palo Alto, more than 100 people attended a multi-faith gathering at the All Saints' Episcopal Church featuring Jewish, Islamic and Christian calls to prayer. The crowd of more than 100 people read Josefina Guillen's ``interfaith litany for peace'' aloud, which included the line: ``We have turned to guns and bombs instead of you. Forgive us. Although we're not exactly in the war,'' said Guillen, a 20-year-old Stanford University student, ``our silence and complacency contribute to it.'' Guillen and the others filed out of the church at noon to join the demonstration at City Hall Plaza, where rally-goers were anything but quiet.



A Polish woman holds a placard that reads '100,000 killed. Stop the slaughter in Iraq' during an anti-war demonstration in Warsaw March 19, 2006. Some 500 Poles took part in a protest against the involvement of Polish troops in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. REUTERS/Katarina Stoltz