Peace Witness -- George W. Bush in Fayetteville, March 15, 2002
Dear Friends,
Today (Friday, the 15th, the Ides of March, 2002) I was one of four
protesters who held up peace signs across the road from where George W. Bush spoke to
several thousand troops and civilians in Fayetteville NC this morning. My sign read,
"Blessed Are the Peacemakers -- War Breeds Terrorism."
We were videotaped extensively by news and military folks from across
the road, and interviewed by a couple of print reporters. One of my fellow protesters,
Patrick O'Neill of Garner, NC was interviewed by WRAL-TV. The police were friendly and
affirming of our right to be there. Patrck, by the way, lives in an active Catholic Worker
house, and often brings his children along on protests.
We stayed there for about an hour after the rally, displaying our signs
to the many attenders in the resulting traffic jam. Some engaged us in brief discussions
and occasional catcalls, but we also had several flash a "thumbs up," and one
woman called "God Bless You!" as she drove past.
Another woman who walked past said we should have a "Thank
you" sign for the troops in Afghanistan, among whom was her husband. Patrick and I
both replied that we hoped her husband was safe, and would be home soon, and I trust she
sensed our sincerity.
We were also quite visible from the VIP motorcade that took Bush to Ft.
Bragg. We can hope that he actually saw that there was a visible, if tiny, crack in the
orchestrated unanimity of this effort to pressure Congress into voting more war money (his
speech made clear that this was the visit's purpose).
Given all the media attention, you might be interested in watching some
of the news reports of the visit. Perhaps we will show up in them for a second, though the
bulk of the video will doubtless focus on the speech, the war games demonstration on the
post, and Bush's visit with the two recent war widows here.
I'm grateful to Patrick O'Neill for coming from Garner to bear this
witness; I don't think I could have done it alone. But it seems worth doing, in this time
of such broad public support for war, to speak a word of peace, even if it feels like
crying out in the wilderness.
Peace,
Chuck Fager
Quaker House
PS. News coverage of the event was very instructive. The local daily, The Fayetteville Observer, ran six full pages of reporting on the visit. Our tiny vigil earned about 8 inches at the bottom of one of the last pages; but the story was fair and accurate. The national TV news reports, on CNN and FOX, were shameful -- they followed the white House propaganda script for the event slavishly, acting more as ad agencies than news organizations. (Needless to say, our potest was not mentioned.) By contrast, the Washington Post and New York Times gave the visit only the token coverage which as an extended political commercial, it properly deserved.