Charles Nailen/The Hoya Members of the Metropolitan Police Department stand guard over a fountain near the Capitol as anti-war protestors demonstrate Saturday afternoon.
Tens of thousands of people converged in the nation’s capital this weekend to march for non-violent action in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, with at least 20 Georgetown students led by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee.
The marches were part of a series of events, including workshops, panels and teach-ins, planned by several organizations to promote peaceful U.S. action in the wake of international violence.
At a march Sunday organized by the Washington Peace Center, people of all ages and faiths congregated at Malcolm X Park. Before the March for Peace began, activists held hands near the entrance of the park in a silent prayer circle. Speakers from various faith backgrounds addressed the attendees, some of who sat on blankets spread on the cold grass.
Others stood almost shoulder-to-shoulder listening by the stage, holding signs and waving American flags. Representatives from various organizations weaved in and out of the crowd passing out pamphlets to those interested.
“The March for Peace is a call for Americans – especially our legislators and president- to understand that war is not the answer,” GSC President Vanessa Waldref said.
Rabbi Binyamin Biber, a speaker from the Rabbinic Community Services of Washington, encouraged the international community to “break bread together” in order to promote global unity. After Trish Magary, a representative from the Religious Society of Friends, led the audience in a group meditation, the activists began to march through Dupont Circle and Adams organ.
One activist’s sign read, “Peace is not passive, it is active. Peace is not appeasement, it is strength” and a group of marchers held puppets resembling what they saw to be the innocent Afghan community.
“We’re not saying we have the complete answers,” Herb Ettel, a member of the media team at the march, said. “We are just saying that the international community must come together and use international and official processes [to enact justice].”
Ettel suggested that the U.S. government utilize legal methods, similar to those used in the Nuremberg Trials, to bring the perpetrators to justice.
“Many activists offer the alternative of letting the world judge these crimes in a fair, open hearing before an international tribunal,” Waldref said. “We also call on the government to oppose arbitrary detention and expulsion of immigrants and other threats to civil liberties present in the current anti-terrorist agenda.”
Sunday’s demonstration was subdued compared to a similar march organized by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence Saturday, which led participants from Upper Senate Park near Union Station to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue.
According to Campaign Director for GSC Eric Nazar (COL `03), the marchers were animated, cheering and waving colorful signs. “I remember there was a banner that said `Peace Even Now,’ and that really stood out to me,” Nazar said. Groups of activists were dancing to the beat of loud drums and bells, Ilana Blankman, a student from Pamona College said.
Anti-war demonstrators and counter-dem-
