Reports on Alabama peace events held Jan. 27, 2007
Below are reports on Alabama events held on Jan. 27, 2007 — in solidarity with the huge peace rally held in Washington, DC.
1) Huntsville, Alabama (North Alabama Peace Network)
2) Mobile, Alabama (Mobile Citizens for Peace)
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North Alabama Peace Network
www.napn.org
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For Immediate Release / Saturday, Jan. 27, 2007
Contacts: Tom Moss, 256-468-5314 cell, NAPN@knology.net
Linda Haynes, 256-429-8639 cell, lahaynes@knology.net
More than 100 Joined Peace Surge in Huntsville Today! “Constellation” Movie Actor Participates Too.
Huntsville, Ala. — More than 100 people participated in the Peace Surge Rally in Huntsville today calling for an immediate end to the Iraq war.
The crowd included David Clennon, an actor from Los Angeles who is in the “Constellation” film premiering in Huntsville tonight. Clennon said, “I’m happy that I could come here from LA and find a peace demonstration in Huntsville — because today is such an important day in the struggle for peace.” Clennon found information about the Huntsville event by doing a search on the Internet. He has been going to the peace rallies in LA since before the Iraq war began. (Dave Clennon is available for interviews. Contact Linda Haynes at 256-429-8639 (cell) to make arrangements.)
Huntsville rally participants included people of all ages, from young children to octogenarians, filling all four corners of the Airport Rd and Whitesburg intersection. People held signs, peace flags, and American flags during the rally which lasted from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.
Tom Moss, coordinator of the North Alabama Peace Network, said, “We had a marvelous outpouring of support from passers-by today. Every week the response gets more positive; it’s a peace surge. I think more and more people realize our government is not exporting democracy but is only serving to make the poor poorer in order to pay for this war.”
Linda Haynes, a NAPN member said, “A woman driving by rolled down her window and said to us, ‘Thank you for being here. My son is in Iraq.’ Those types of responses make the effort so much more poignant.”
Today’s local rally was in solidarity with the huge peace action being held in Washington, DC to demand an end to the Iraq war. The national event is sponsored by United for Peace and Justice, True Majority, RainbowPUSH Coalition, Working Assets, the National Organization for Women and hundreds of other national and local groups. Tens of thousands of people converged on Washington, DC today to demand an end to the war in Iraq, and to bring the troops home now. This includes Alabama residents from Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and other areas of the state. More information about the national event in Washington, DC is at www.unitedforpeace.org/
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Mobile, Alabama — Mobile Citizens for Peace
Report submitted by David Underhill drunderhill@yahoo.com
Cold rain couldn’t keep the faithful away. The largest crowd in a long time turned out Saturday the 27th at a mid-Mobile park that has become the traditional site for such events since shortly before the attack on Iraq almost four years ago. Citizens for Peace, an APJC member, co-sponsored the rally with the Mobile chapter of Veterans for Peace.
We scheduled it to coincide with the big march in DC. The announced hours were noon to 3:00, but some demostrators started gathering by 11:00.
Perhaps a hundred people participated, with about 75 the most present at any time. The park is at an intersection of major streets, and we ringed it with a forest of soggy signs.
We had a quasi-captive audience in thick, snarled traffic headed to the nearby stadium for the Senior Bowl. (That’s not geriatric football but an all-star game for college stars turned NFL prospects.) As routine lately, we received far more honks and waves of support than gestures of opposition.
That reception reflects the polls showing that the public, including Alabamians, have turned against Bush’s calamity in Iraq. But you would never know this from the words and votes of most of our supposed representatives in congress. They remain devoted to war and escalation.
And a new group made its first public appearance during rush hour in west Mobile on Friday the 26th. Resist Mobile, which sprang up in recent weeks in the University of South Alabama vicinity, turned out about 40 poster-wielding peaceniks along a main artery to give commuters something besides billboards to look at. Resist says this is just the first of anti-war demos, plus other activities, to follow.
David Underhill