Spring Break
Beating The Anti-War Drum
500 Protest President Bush In New London
Kala Kachmar
Issue date: 6/11/07 Section: News
NEW LONDON - Approximately 500 people of all ages - including many college students - protested the Iraq war outside of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy while President Bush delivered the school's commencement speech on May 23.
Connecticut peace organizations, all under the umbrella organization Connecticut Opposes the War (COW), as well as several out-of-state anti-war groups, lined the streets to the Academy with signs, posters, flyers and even a group of people dressed as President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ex-Secretary of Defense Ronald Rumsfeld in jail uniforms and shackles.
A group of about 50 people who supported the war stood on the opposite side of the street and protested the anti-war protesters, each shouting back and forth through megaphones. The group was mostly veterans and members of pro-war groups like Rolling Thunder, Gathering of the Eagles and the American Legion.
There were, however, five students from Stonington High School who supported the war.
"People don't understand that there are some young people out there that support the war," said Jon Conradi, a senior at Stonington High School. "What's popular isn't necessarily what's right."
"The [anti-war] protest is wrong and disrespectful to the president, regardless of what he's doing," he said. "This just shows that the country is duped by liberal media and that the 'I hate George Bush' culture is a popular fad."
The UConn Billionaires Society and the UConn Free Press were represented on the anti-war side at the protest.
"The troops really need to come home," said Jason Ortiz, a 2nd-semester political science and communication sciences double major, who is a member of the groups Act Now and Stop War to End Racism (ANSWER), Idealist United and the UConn Free Press. "The president should b held for criminal charges."
Shawn Logue, who graduated from UConn in 2006, attended the protest to send a message to President Bush.
Connecticut peace organizations, all under the umbrella organization Connecticut Opposes the War (COW), as well as several out-of-state anti-war groups, lined the streets to the Academy with signs, posters, flyers and even a group of people dressed as President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ex-Secretary of Defense Ronald Rumsfeld in jail uniforms and shackles.
A group of about 50 people who supported the war stood on the opposite side of the street and protested the anti-war protesters, each shouting back and forth through megaphones. The group was mostly veterans and members of pro-war groups like Rolling Thunder, Gathering of the Eagles and the American Legion.
There were, however, five students from Stonington High School who supported the war.
"People don't understand that there are some young people out there that support the war," said Jon Conradi, a senior at Stonington High School. "What's popular isn't necessarily what's right."
"The [anti-war] protest is wrong and disrespectful to the president, regardless of what he's doing," he said. "This just shows that the country is duped by liberal media and that the 'I hate George Bush' culture is a popular fad."
The UConn Billionaires Society and the UConn Free Press were represented on the anti-war side at the protest.
"The troops really need to come home," said Jason Ortiz, a 2nd-semester political science and communication sciences double major, who is a member of the groups Act Now and Stop War to End Racism (ANSWER), Idealist United and the UConn Free Press. "The president should b held for criminal charges."
Shawn Logue, who graduated from UConn in 2006, attended the protest to send a message to President Bush.
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