On Wednesday afternoon, a 21-person group of students marched down to Main Street to hold a silent die-in protest to raise awareness of the war in Iraq. The protest was sponsored by Students for Ending the War in Iraq.
“I think it was a success because a lot of [passersby] were asking about it,” said Erik Rosenberg ’08. “There was a lot of press.”
After meeting at Russian House at 4:15 p.m., the protestors were given a brief talk on safety from Brian Brotman ’08, who has been trained as a protest medic. He warned of the dangers of hypothermia from staying still for long periods of time in the cold weather and urged the participants to alert him if they felt too chilled.
The protestors walked down to Main Street as a group. Wearing white face paint and dark clothing, they drew looks from people on the street. The group chalked the U.S. and Iraqi death tolls on the sidewalks.
The group selected positions along a two-block section of Main Street, starting at the First and Last Tavern and extending to the Typhoon Restaurant. Students reposed in pairs on the sidewalk.
Remaining still for about 45 minutes, they attracted curiosity and received mixed reactions from passersby. Photographers from The Middletown Press took pictures throughout the demonstration.
The students who participated in the die-in said they felt that overall they elicited a positive reaction and successfully reached their goal of raising awareness about the war.
“I heard a child ask her mother why the people were playing dead,” said Devaka Gunawardena ’09. “The mother said, ‘Because there’s a war going on killing a lot of people.’ You don’t need a huge crowd to raise awareness.”
Ashley Fong and Cady Knoll, two Middletown High School juniors, found the protest moving.
“It’s so there,” said Fong. “It’s upsetting.”
“It’s disturbing, but despite that, I think it’ll have a positive impact,” Knoll said.
Vic Lancia, a Portland resident who passed by the students, agreed.
“I’m so glad to see people making us aware of what’s going on,” said Lancia. “I’m tired of this apathy we have. We’re in on this together.”
Not all those who saw the protest had such a response. Some businesses, including Cingular and First and Last Tavern, did not want the students in front of their establishments. According to Hannah Dreier ’08, there were some hecklers who told them to get off the sidewalk.
“They said, ‘That’s war,’” Dreier said.
“A few times I heard, ‘Oh, that’s Wesleyan,’” Gunawardena said.
The owner of First and Last Tavern asked police to make students clean the chalk off the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Two police officers informed the protestors that the owner had complained and told them that the chalking was defacement of public property. In compliance with the owner’s request, students washed the chalk off the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.
The protestors did not block the entire sidewalk and deliberately chose a non-confrontational form of expression. According to John McNeil ’08, the protest was thus meant to engage Middletown, not to strain the University’s relationship with the town.
“We were careful not to antagonize or interfere here,” said McNeil. “We are here in an attempt to be part of Middletown and not restrict the debate to campus.”
Students for Ending the War in Iraq is a group of about six or seven students. Every week this group publishes a newsletter on recent events in Iraq entitled “This Week In Iraq,” and they hold weekly discussions in Russian House.
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