Rallying for change in U.S. policy -
I have been organizing and participating in the protest against the war “on” Iraq for 26 months straight, every Tuesday in Port Orange. Fifteen to 20 dedicated neighbors from all over join me.
On Nov. 14, for the first time, a parent of a soldier in Iraq approached me. She pulled up to me in her car as I was carrying my megaphone. “Why are you doing this?” she asked.
I told her we felt the war was immoral, illegal and unjust, etc.
She interrupted me and added, “You know, you have a right to do what you are doing, because my son is fighting over there for your right to do that. And you are disrespecting him and all the soldiers by your protest. They are fighting for you, and you are disrespecting them!”
November 2006. The argument full of lies and half truths about weapons of mass destruction is no longer being used. The rationale for bringing freedom and democracy to Iraqis is no longer used. Saddam Hussein is now old hat as well.
So the war supporters are down to two excuses: We fight the terrorists there so they won’t come here, and you do not support the troops by protesting.
Before the lady pulled away, I told her, “I want your son home now, because he should never have been sent there in the first place. I stand on that corner for him and (for) the 2,800 and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who are dead because of liars and criminals.”
She did not hear me. Many still do not hear me as I speak from that corner. Perhaps if, instead of 15 or 20, we had 150 or 200 on that corner each week, she and others who still believe the lies would begin to have second thoughts.
It’s time to park your cars, folks, and stand for something. At least that mom in the car does.
PHILIP A. FARRUGGIO, Port Orange -
This article has been reprinted with the express permission of the Author.
