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War protest: pointed or pointless?

On March 20, the day after the United States began bombing Iraq, an estimated 200 University students left their classes at 2 p.m. and walked to the Lawn. The intent, according to Anti-War Coalition Co-Founder Jessica Forman, who helped organize the event, was to prevent students from being complacent about the conflict.

"We were not going to go about our everyday business and pretend like nothing was happening," Forman said. We wanted to "show that the day we started war was not like every day."

Some students, however, criticized the Anti-War Coalition's walkout, saying skipping class has no relationship to the war in Iraq.

"I felt [the walkout] was pretty inane because, in terms of a non-germane expression of a political belief, I think that pretty much takes the cake," second-year College student Greg Ullom said.

Ullom and his roommate, second-year College student Paul Pugliese chose to demonstrate their disapproval of the walkout by posting a large poster spelling out "War is Awesome" next to a picture of musical artist Jay-Z in the window of their Brown college room.

"Our Jay-Z window poster was really, more than anything, a complete non-sequitor. It doesn't really relate to the war or the protests in any sense," Pugliese said. "We put it up so that people would think 'wow that's stupid' and then maybe think about their own actions and about what they hope to accomplish."

A similar skepticism of the protest's effectiveness kept first-year College student Keith White from participating in the walkout, despite his opposition to the war.

"I felt it was something that would alienate people more from the cause, and I think that was the result, unfortunately," White said.

Several students and faculty took issue with the tactics of a splinter group of demonstrators, who chose to march through Cabell Hall, loudly enjoining their fellow students to take part in the rally. According to those who complained, this action, which Anti-War Coalition organizers later disavowed, led to disruption of lectures and deprived students of their choice to participate in classes instead of the anti-war gathering.

By alienating the mainstream, protests can actually harm protesters' cause, Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato said.

"The point of protesting is to grab the public spotlight -- to make arguments effectively and persuasively," Sabato said. "If you do it in persuasive ways you can have an effect on the public opinion and the actions of the government, but if you offend, you have done something terribly counterproductive to your cause."

But second-year College student Sam Brody, who helped organize the walkout, said critics should focus more on protesters' messages than on their tactics.

"I think that anyone who gets angrier about a protest than about the policy being protested needs to stop and take a look at themselves," Brody said. "It goes to show that some people will get angrier about having their daily routine interrupted than their government going to war."

Brody also disagreed with critics' assertions that student protest is ineffective.

"People who say that protests can have no effect are basically giving up all of their historical agency," Brody said. "That's not how people got civil rights and women got the vote."

He said he believed in the "grassroots effect" of activism.

"What happens is that people build movements in their communities and link up with movements in other communities and eventually it becomes a political force that can't be ignored in Washington," he said.

History Prof. Brian Balogh, who studies student activism, agreed.

"I think most protests begin in a very small way," Balogh said.

Fringe dissident movements gain mainstream acceptance in two ways, he said: either they gain support through the "grassroots effect," or they gain support from sympathizers if authorities violate the rights of protestors, Balogh said.

In either event, he said, small groups of dissidents have demonstrated historically that they can affect change, he said.

Balogh offered the example of student participants in civil rights demonstrations in the "Mississippi Summer" of 1964.

"Students at these elite universities returned to their campuses and began to ask questions about their own civil rights," Balogh said.

These pioneering student activists eventually spread their message to other students and, along with tens of thousands of other Americans, helped to bring about civil rights legislation.

In turn, Balogh said, this involvement in the civil rights movement led many to become active in opposing America's actions in Vietnam.

What "began with a few individuals," Balogh said, soon "spread to the broader middle class."

Activism requires patience, English Prof. Chip Tucker said. Tucker was arrested along with 7 others for participating in a sit-in at Congressman Virgil Goode's downtown Charlottesville office the day after the walkout.

"I had no illusions that, by sitting in Congressman Goode's office, I was going to precipitate a sudden revolution and that he was going to pick up the phone and tell Bush to call off the war," Tucker said. "In the long run, I consider myself to be part of a generations-long peace movement that does not expect results next week."

Balogh said, however, that while American citizens' history of dissent may lead politicians to listen to the concerns of protestors, it may not reduce the likelihood that wars will be fought.

Because of concern for public opinion, politicians now focus on "getting wars over with quickly," Balogh said.

This pattern reduces the effectiveness of activism, because the disputed action is over before the protest movement is able to gain widespread support, he said.

Second-year College student Jeremy Williams said he found anti-war protests to be inherently disrespectful, regardless of their effectiveness.

Williams attended the walkout wearing a Saddam Hussein mask.

He reportedly thanked protestors for "supporting my regime."

Williams, who is treasurer of the conservative Jefferson Leadership Foundation, said he hoped his actions conveyed his belief that anti-war protests show disrespect for those serving in the nation's military.

"Protests send the message that they don't support the troops, in which case they support Saddam," Williams said.

During wartime, Williams said, criticisms of the government's policies demonstrate a lack of loyalty.

"Students have the right to protest, but

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