Published: November 03, 2005 12:15 am            

Protest elicits strong feelings on both sides

By James S. Tyree

Transcript Staff Writer

Ashley Cook, for the life of her, cannot understand why so many people lack the guts to demand an end to U.S. occupation in Iraq and its rising casualty count.

Adrea Clark, for the life of her, cannot understand how people can be so heartless by protesting the military operation carried out by people like her fiance.

The views came to a head Tuesday afternoon during a demonstration against the war in Iraq. The protest happened outside Dale Hall on the University of Oklahoma’s South Oval.

Three protesters portrayed Guantanamo Bay prisoners by kneeling while dressed in khaki prison clothes with sacks over their heads and leashes around their necks. Other protesters held signs that criticized President Bush and demanded an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

“We wanted to stop and speak up against this corruption by organizing to make something happen,” said OU graduate student Dan McRaniels and member of World Can’t Wait.

McRaniels said his group organized protests on campuses and communities across the nation Tuesday because it marked the one-year anniversary of the president’s reelection.

Cook, of Longview, Texas, belongs to the OU student organization Bring Them Home. She is passionate about a U.S. withdrawal, but she wants that groundswell to come from all kinds of people.

“This is a peaceful protest,” Cook said. “We want to keep it moderate with Republicans and Democrats, as many people as we can get. … People are dying … and people are just standing around letting it happen.”

Moderate and peaceful may have been the goal, and there was no physical violence at the protest that started at noon. But there was plenty of passionate shouting that came deep from the gut, both from protesters and some of the many students who stopped and watched.

As sign-holders and “prisoners” decried the military and civilian casualties in Iraq, others said they were disrespecting this country along with military personnel in harm’s way and their families.

Clark, in particular, wiped away tears falling beneath eyes shielded by her OU cap and called the protest “ridiculous. I wanted to punch them, but I didn’t.”

Clark is a sophomore engaged to a Marine stationed in a part of Iraq “where people die every day.” Watching the TV news terrifies her because so many soldiers and Marines in his area have been killed.

“It’s not the way to stop a war and it’s not the way to treat people,” she said of the protest, sobbing but with conviction, after walking away from a brief shouting match. “They have no regard for anyone but themselves and their point of view.”

James S. Tyree

366-3539

jtyree@normantranscript.com

        

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