A wave of shouts sliced through the gentle drumming of rain Thursday morning as almost 400 protesters gathered on the Chapel Quadrangle, raising their voices against the war in Iraq and the reverberations of the bombs in Baghdad.
While the war officially unfolded half a world away, the antiwar response at Duke slowly materialized around noon in a stream of students, staff and faculty who walked out of class, work and daily life to congregate at the Chapel under a sea of umbrellas. Braving the unseasonable cold and rain, many came to express their own moral conscience, and others to speak out vehemently against what they saw as an unjust war.
"It's important for people in the U.S. and around the world to show that they don't support military action," said Jonathan Remuscal, a graduate student of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. "If there are enough people here then something good will come out of it."
Numerous members of the faculty were also present in the crowd, looking on at the current face of protest at Duke.
Bruce Lawrence, military veteran and professor of religion, came with reservations regarding the military campaign and the new strategy of preemption.
"What is our exit strategy? At what point have we won the war?" he questioned. "Once preemption is a precedent, at what point do you stop?"
The rally began with some distractions. Someone pulled fire alarms in Perkins Library, the West Union Building and the Grey Building around noon, and on the edge of the quad near the Flowers Building a small group of students gathered to show their support of the U.S. military action.
"The humanitarian issues [in Iraq] are so great that something needs to be done, and I think it's noble that the U.S. is willing to step to the forefront," said freshman Karen Nelson. "No one's for war. I'm just not for Saddam Hussein."
But as the rally kicked off, the crowd focused and circled in to hear the speakers talking from under a small tent near the Chapel entrance. A lineup of speakers, including students and faculty, each took to the microphone, engaging the energized crowd.
"We have a unilateral war, a war that is illegal in any sense," said Robert Keohane, James B. Duke professor of political science. "I'm worried about the future. The justification for war that President George W. Bush gave is almost as frightening as war itself.... The Bush doctrine implies a new form of imperialism. It also implies future wars. [It] is a regime of chaos. The world that it would create is not a world we want to live in."
Keohane was followed by Professor of Literature professor Ken Surin.
"A war of preemption can only be fought when there is a serious and imminent threat to the U.S," he said, also noting the perceived hypocrisy of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's selling of chemical weapons to Iraq in the 1980s.
An activist for many causes, Surin ended with remarks harking back to the antiwar movements of the past. "This war is not being fought for us," he said. "Despite Vietnam, Nicaragua and Grenada, we are still here to struggle for peace."
Compared to the student speakers, however, the professors spoke in reserved tones. Junior C.K. Swett brought whistles and screams out of the crowd with his speech.
"All of us must realize and gather our strength and together oppose the monster in the White House," he said. "To accept defeat is to forget the victories before us." Swett continued emotionally yelling into the crowd to stand against this war.
"I urge you to summon your guts and strength and resist this war with courage and determination," he shouted.
The rally also included speeches from Associate Professor of African and African American Studies Wahneema Lubiano, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Diane Nelson and Durham resident Dan Goss, who served in the military for 24 years.
Richard McCray, a senior, closed the rally with strong words of defiance.
"We have got to speak out - "it's the only thing we can do," he said.
The crowd responded to the rally with enthusiasm and hope. Many were invigorated by the community reaction to the war and found new light in the antiwar movement.
"This is a time when it's certainly very important to speak out and make links between everyday life and what's going on in the world," said Netta Van Vilet, a first-year anthropology graduate student.
Event organizers also had generally positive impressions of Thursday's walkout and rally.
"Especially considering the cold and the rain it was heartening to see so many people come out," said Shlomi Sheri, a student of the Fuqua School of Business, who moderated today's rally. "I think we and people like us all over the community are letting our leaders know this war is not in our name."
An hour and a half after it started, the rally ended as the protesters marched down to Brightleaf Square fueled with a new energy undaunted by the weather, singing songs of protest and carrying signs of defiance (see story on Brightleaf Protest). There they joined local Durham residents filling the street, starting chants, and raising their voices together with the residents of Durham against the war in Iraq.
"You could really feel that Duke was acting in solidarity with the community," said event organizer Jessica Rutter, a junior. "It felt really great to be standing in Durham with community members, protesting the war together."
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