Code Pink Student Walkout and Peace Protest

On Wednesday, March 19th, 2008, I participated in my first peace protest. It was an eye-opening and thought-provoking experience. The peace protest was sponsored by Code Pink, a women’s peace organization with a branch here at St. Cloud State University that is against the war in Iraq. I stopped by the Code Pink booth one time in Atwood and talked with the young women there. Unfortunately, the meetings times for the group conflict with my schedule, but I gave them my e-mail which is how I found out about the student walkout and peace rally. I e-mailed the president of Code Pink back and asked her for a flyer I could print out and distribute to the students in my Women in Literature class, a class entirely consisting of women learning about literature written by women about women. I wanted to let the class know about the student walkout and peace rally because I wanted to do my part for Code Pink and spread the word, but especially because I thought that a group of young women such as my classmates and me would want to stand up for peace and say no to the war in Iraq. I let my Women in Literature class know when the Code Pink student walkout and peace rally was going to be and made sure to attend the peace rally myself.

We walked through the buildings on campus, including the library, inviting chanting different pleas for peace, holding our banners, and inviting students to join us. We got support from some fellow students and some professors, even. Other professors came out and told us to take it outside, to which the president of Code Pink replied that it was a walkout and we were inviting students to join us. One student who we walked by said that she was a veteran and she had been in Iraq and this offended her, to which the president of Code Pink replied that her sister was a veteran but she was for peace.

That made me think how we always have to preface our hopes of peace with, “I support the troops, but I want peace.” Why is so hard for people to realize that we can be in support of the troops but also that we can also be in support of peace? I fully support the troops. I have a cousin who served in Iraq with the navy, which he joined to help pay for medical school. But he served his time, and then got out as soon as he was able. I admire him very much for serving his country, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want peace. I think even he wants peace after having been over in Iraq and seen what’s going on over there and how badly we have made a mess of their country.

All the same, as I said before in the blog comment I made on “The Unforgotten Swing Voter”, a blog by scsy0501, I fully support peace, but I feel a phased withdrawal like the one Hilary Clinton is planning, is really the only way we can make any sort of a good thing come of what we have done to Iraq. Yes, I support the troops, and yes I support peace above all, but I support Hilary Clinton’s phased withdrawal as the only option for getting out of the Iraq war and not leaving chaos in our wake.