Stateside With Rosalea: It's Not Over Yet

For the past week, media pundits have been pondering why so few people turned out to the anti-war marches last weekend. Commentator after commentator trotted out the same old lines about how there is no draft so it doesn't affect college students and they're not interested. Therefore no big marches.

The fact is that the anti-war movement is as strong as it was during the Vietnam war era but instead of using the shock and awe tactics of rowdy demonstrations, it is quietly going about the business of speaking with groups of people and individuals who are directly impacted by the war.

Many of those individuals are drawn into the anti-war movement themselves, as Fernando Suarez Del Solar was. He is the father of one of the first Latinos to die in Iraq. According to the website I link to below, "He was lied to about his son’s death, found the truth in Iraq with the help of a well know recent victim of the war, (co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight) Bob Woodruff. His son Jesus stepped on an illegal US cluster bomb. Since then Fernando is a tireless advocate for peace."

On Monday, March 27, here in the Bay Area we will see the culmination of a 241-mile march by Latinos opposed to the war in Iraq. For background from the organisers go here:
http://www.guerreroazteca.org/marcha/ppp_ingles.htm

If you are reading this and know someone who can attend this march or even just the 5pm rally on Monday, then please pass the information along. It's likely that the anti-war message of this march will be subsumed in the media by the more highly visible issue of immigrant rights, as the march will join with the hunger strike camp outside the Federal Building in San Francisco at noon.

The issues of joblessness, immigration, and military recruitment are tightly entwined. It's important to keep the anti-war message to the forefront because intertwined issues are not the stuff of evening news, and it's dollars to churros that the immigration legislation is what will provide the sound bites.

rosalea.barker@gmail.com

--PEACE--

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