"Today we are feeling a combination of anger, despair, sadness, grief, and - amazingly - hope," said Mark Anderlik, one of the speakers at the gathering organized by the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center. "That's why we're here. We're in the middle of a revolution. It may take generations, but we're going to replace violence with nonviolence."
Anderlik drew cheers as he reported to the crowd that hundreds of thousands of people were gathering at similar protests around the world, from Athens to Manila. "In San Francisco they're closing down the financial district; in Washington they're surrounding Secretary of Defense (Donald) Rumsfeld's house," Anderlik said. "We're coming from a strength others know nothing of.
Contrary to earlier reports, protesters were not asked to march to the offices of Montana's congressional delegation, but about four of them burned an American flag on the Higgins Avenue Bridge shortly after the rally. The flag lay scorched on the sidewalk after police officers who were passing by made the protesters put out the fire.
One of the protesters carried a sign that read "Shame on us."
"Who does the United States of America think we are?" Danny Kraus of Arlee asked at the rally. "We aided Saddam Hussein, we put him into power. We armed him with all we say he has."
The attack on America on Sept. 11, 2001, is no excuse for invading Iraq, he added. "Iraq didn't do it, and Saddam didn't do it," Kraus said. "We're going to go over there and stomp around like Goliath until the whole world shakes and trembles? That sounds a lot like what we accuse Saddam of doing to his people."
Bryony Schwan of Missoula told of leaving an earlier peace rally and going to a hardware store. She said she was wearing a "Don't bomb Iraq" T-shirt and a customer accosted her at the store.
"He was quite aggressive," Schwan said. "He had sons who fought in the first Gulf War. I told him I'm from Zimbabwe and I lived through civil war. I saw half the people in my class die or be maimed for a war that ended the same as whether we'd had a war or not. Zimbabwe still has a dictator who commits atrocities against his people, but I don't see Mr. Bush sending anyone to Zimbabwe. I guess there's no oil there."
Schwan said that after she talked about her own experiences with war, the man settled down and they had a calm discussion.
"We have to reach out to people," Schwan said. "It's not a black-and-white issue. Most of us feel deeply for our troops and support the brothers and sons and wives and mothers who are over there. We just don't support the war."
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 523-5260 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
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