State of the protest
“Die-In” causes controversy
May 20, 2008Ayesha Ghazi
Staff Reporter
On Nov. 17, Peace Action and the Socialist Education Forum co-sponsored what they called a “Die-In” protest on the war in Iraq in Baldwin Hall. The protest was held from 10:45 a.m. to around 1 p.m.
About 10 protesters, dressed in black, had painted their faces a deathly white with fake blood trickling out of “wounds.”
The protesters were met with bewildered stares from passing students. Inside the cafeteria, some tried to glance above the purple sheet the protesters had hung outside the window of Baldwin that read “Stop The War Now” in order to see what was going on.
“We hope to shock the students enough so that they are no longer inactive and silent,” said Laura Jordan, Flint senior and president of Peace Action, before the protest. “Without an opposing view being voiced, how do we expect change?”
Protesters played recordings of songs such as the Beatles’ “Blackbird” in the background while at least seven students lay sprawled in front of the double doors of Baldwin. Meanwhile, other protesters, including political science professor Glenn Perusek, handed out fliers to students emerging from and entering Baldwin about the number of lives lost during the war.
“One of the things that helped end the Vietnam War was the protest in the U.S.,” Perusek said. “Now and then, many people see the war as being morally wrong. I am really surprised how many so-called ‘conservatives’ and Republicans are against the war. These students are doing something about their moral outrage.”
Matthew Milligan, Ortonville sophomore, dressed up in a business suit to represent the corporate interests behind the war and passed out fake money to students with Dick Cheney’s face on it, the back of which advertised Peace Action’s next event.
Cafeteria workers did not seem to have a problem with students blocking their entrance.
“I think it is good that students get involved with issues they feel deeply about,” said Steve Schnorr, director of Dining Services. “It may be a shocker sometimes but it draws people’s attention.”
Some students declined the fliers and walked away annoyed with the protesters’ obstruction to the entrance of Baldwin. Some were “deeply offended” and “insulted” by the protesters’ actions. Within hours of the protest beginning, President Peter Mitchell and Sally Walker, vice president of Student Affairs and dean of students, began receiving complaints from those offended students.
“We have loved ones in Iraq and were very disturbed about the display,” said one student, who wished to remain unidentified, in an e-mail after the protest. “It would have been better if they did their presentation somewhere else on campus where we had a choice to see it or not… It was unnecessary to have people lying on the ground obstructing our path to eat.”
“In general, the entire campus needs to discuss issues of importance, even ones that are divisive and painful,” said Mitchell in response to students’ complaints. “But we also need to be sensitive to individuals and their feelings. At Albion I believe we can strike that balance of intellectual rigor, passionate advocacy and personal sensitivity.”
In response to the negative reactions of some students to the “Die-In” protest, on the morning of Nov. 22, members of Peace Action participated in a leafleting campaign, distributing flyers which included an “open letter” to the Albion community addressing the reason for the “Die-In.” The letter said, “Our loyalty to the troops is the demand to our government to bring them home.” Additionally, Peace Action stated, “We believe that war only serves the elite in our own society and will do nothing for the Iraqi people except further force them into poverty and suffering.”
After giving statistics on the amount of fuel which America receives from Iraq and Kuwait, later in the letter Peace Action stated its reason for believing that collective action on this campus is important: “We are promoting civil war. The Iraqis deserve independence from foreign domination. If we continue to massacre the people of Iraq, our opponents will unite together, as they begin to do now, and raise arms against us.”
In response to the way they carried out the protest, the letter closed with saying, “Our theater in Baldwin sought to dramatize the human toll of this war. We seek an end to this senseless violence. We speak out for a future without war. If we do not act then the future our children will inherit will be plagued by fear, violence, and suffering. We address the campus not for our own sake as much as for the sake of all people.”
