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| Fifth Column |
| Minneapolis jugheads: "Hands off Afghanistan!" |
| 2001-10-09 |
As U.S. bombs fell Monday on Afghanistan, about 300 people marched in Minneapolis to protest the action. College students, a Northwest Airlines flight attendant on leave, a 19-year-old from Slovakia, as well as those who have been calling for peace for generations marched along a sidewalk in front of the federal courthouse, chanting and waving placards with anti-war messages. "Hands off Afghanistan; hands off the world!'' yelled Alan Dale, 43, in leading off the rally called by Women Against Military Madness, the Anti-War Committee and Students Against War. The crowd joined the chant. "This is important, people speaking out against policies of their government,'' Dale said. Peace demonstrators yelled "Bush says war; we say no,'' and waved anti-war signs. "War is an act of terrorism'' stated the hand-lettered sign carried by Jan Humaj, a 19-year-old Macalester College freshman from Slovakia and one of dozens of college students bused to the rally. "I'm here to lend support,'' explained bystander Daniel Hegle, a 32-year-old self-described performance artist who wears earrings, reads poetry and drives a cab. Sixty-two year-old John Sherman of Veterans for Peace called for judicial, rather than military, action. Northwest flight attendant Carolyn Gergin, 41, of Minneapolis, took donations in return for strips of red licorice to finance another rally. "I've always thought war was insane,'' she said. Bart Schempp, 47, of Mendota Heights saw the demonstration on his way home from work. "I just hope they're not in the next building that goes down. People have to get behind efforts to fight terrorism,'' he said. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |