As I was sleepily walking to my biopsychology class, I heard a distant chanting of voices and beating of drums.
There's something primitive about it, the sychronized shouting and banging... it just jolts something inside of you awake. I immediately perked up and cocked my head in the direction of the sound.
The waving flags, large flourescent sheets of posterboard, loud angry voices and rapping of bongos were all in protest of War in Iraq.
I capitilize it because I feel these days, it's become its own entity.
"I am against War in Iraq" "I support War in Iraq" "I hate War in Iraq"
As I continued to class, I stared in wonder at these people who felt so strongly about something that they had gathered in this mob to display it.

I also passed a stagnant group of people holding up hastily scrawled signs on notebook paper saying "Go Bush" and "Hurray for W". What these inert people were half-heartedly trying to take a stand for I have no idea. Were they for war? Because I didn't see any "Go War in Iraq" signs. They were simply cheering for Bush. Were they assuming Bush is synonymous with war? Either way, three things threw me off -
1) the lack of clarity in what the heck they were rooting for 2) their lack of zeal in that stance .. and 3) while the first group had such diversity, these "go dubya" people were one tenth the size of their size and ... way too similar in race and dress to possibly represent the variety of ideas on campus. (Am I biased or what)

Protests and demonstrations have always been a part of American culture, and while I was born here and am pretty opinionated and out-spoken myself, I still embody enough of the Chinese reserve and decorum to keep from chanting and marching and go to class. (because skipping class is very bad, you know)

So we got our test grades back and class was dismissed.

On the way back, the parade of protestors had migrated to the Main Building, right in front of the clock tower. Impulse and curiousity led me to wander over and pull out pen and paper. I jotted down everything I saw and heard.
The signs: "No War" "Who are the Real Terrorists?" "WWJD in Iraq? NOT kill the people" "Drop Bush, not bombs" (a personal favorite)

Everyone took turns at the microphone - the first of whom I saw was a woman who had just gotten back form Iraq. She had worked with the hospitals and stated how scared the Iraqi people were and how "the Iraqi people and Saddam Hussein are noT the same person"
She talked about her brother serving in Vietnam, and how Bush had never seen the horrors of war, or gone over and seen how 50% of Iraq's population is children (48.5% under the age of 18) and seen babies lying in the alley ways. She talked about the bombs wiping out electricity, water (which was already so scarce and hard to obtain) and the people having no where to run. When she left to return to America, they begged her not the leave; they believed the Americans won't bomb them if they had their own citizens there. Unemployment rate was 60%, they had 1 ambulence per 30,000 people and one doctor for each 10,000.

Remember in Forest Gump, the scene with all the hippies protesting in front of the Capitol, with the Washington Monument rising up behind them? While this wasn't nearly as awe inspiring, I realized this was as close as I would ever get to watching a group of fervent 'young people' speak out against war. It's a pretty weird feeling.
Then this guy went up and spoke about UT's upcoming budget cut, and led a chant of "Money for Schools, Not for War."
He then talked about how the war plan, and if enacted, would drop 300-400 cruise missles within the first 24 hours - more than in the 40 days of the Gulf War combined. And that's just the first day. They planned on another 300 missles for the next day. He quoted a general who claimed they wanted a quick attack, much like the "bombing at Hiroshima". You know, because the faster we get rid of these people the better. Makes sense. Who wants to waste time on a long war, right?
He spoke how each of this million dollar missles could go to fund education and how ironic it is we want to rid Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction, when we're using them ourselves (I think any weapon that kills so many = weapons of mass destruction, be it nuclear, chemical or biological) to prove a point.

One woman adressed us as fellow "tree-huggers, bra-burners, peace-lovers, INtellectuals" and was obviously a very blatant democrat because she told the people to hug the person next to them and asked if we thought "this shit goes on at Republican parties"
Then she said that the "Bible that those conservatives are all so damn crazy about" says we should feed and help the hungry and needy instead of killing them. She denounced the "gray faced men hiding behind boardrooms manufaturing her consent" and promoted peace and said how it's a good thing we don't need our "rich alumni uncles to get us into the pearly gates," which I found pretty amusing.

People talked about Bush and his conservative administration taking away our choice of abortion, affirmative action, civil rights, education funds, etc etc.
The last guy I heard started talking about how when he was our age during the Vietnam war... and as I walked away, I noticed the inscription on the main building "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."

Let's hope so.