Civil Rights Activist speaks to SB protestors
By SARAH NESTOR
Saint Mary's Editor
Millions around the world marched Saturday to protest a U.S. led war against Iraq, with over 150 rallies coordinated throughout the U.S., citizens of South Bend joined these demonstrators when they took to the streets on the west side to protest war with Iraq.
The South Bend demonstration was organized by the St. Joseph County Center for Peace and Nonviolence and was led by the Rev. CT Vivian, veteran of the civil rights movement and activist that once worked beside the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Protestors gathered at South Bend's Saint Paul Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. Inside the church it was standing room only as citizens of all backgrounds gathered, singing "This Little Light of Mine."
Vivian gave a short but moving speech protesting war while protestors were gathered in St. Paul's. He advocated continued weapons inspections in Iraq, and he claimed that the U.S. had other, more self-interested objectives in mind when it came to invading Iraq.
"This war isn't about Hussein. This war is about oil … it's about power; it's about globalization. … We'll lose anyway because the world will no longer put up with people who sit on top, but have no soul, and all they've got is guns and war," Vivian said.
Vivian likened the efforts of citizens protesting war to those who protested racism during the civil rights movement.
"We were at a place like this when we were in the Civil Rights Movement, when everyone knew racism was wrong," Vivian said. "[Today] we know war is wrong."
Vivian concluded by saying that the world wanted peace and that there were alternatives to invading Iraq.
"We are for more aggressive inspections, not war. We are for bringing peace to the world, not just sitting on top of it," Vivian said.
Vivian went on to criticize President Bush, accusing Bush of playing cowboy and thereby placing himself in an embarrassing position.
"If we don't find anything we look like fools, at least Bush does," Vivian said.
Vivian led the protestors out the church doors and into the street, as demonstrators waved signs that read "Invest in people, not in war" and "Patriot for Peace." Protest organizers said more than 400 people participated in the march against war with Iraq.
A Baptist minister, Vivian is the author of "Black Power" and "The American Myth." Vivian also holds leadership positions with the Southern Organizing Committee Education Fund, the Southern Christian Leadership conference and the Black Action Strategies and Information Center.
All News Stories for Monday, February 17, 2003
