| by Jill Vernon | 3/15/07 | 470 views |
What Senior Alison Lubar describes as a “pretty usual thing around campus” was what caused quite a stir on Main Street today. With it being the first beautiful day since the snow melted away the burden of winter, students decided to head to the bars once class was dismissed. To their surprise, protestors were lined up outside the U.S. Army Recruitment Office and local restaurant Peace A Pizza.
The protests ranged from anti-warfare, to troop deportment to environment conservation. The group did not belong to any student organization but was formed of people who were taking stands on numerous issues. With March 20th, the four year anniversary of the War in Iraq approaching, this was the perfect time and place. Lindsay Hagerman, a second year Graduate student was among those at the demonstration. Along with objecting the war, Hagerman was also protesting police brutality: “I would like to say to the people of Newark that I speak out against this and I do not want to be a part of it.”
Standing behind the protestors was Sergeant First Class Joe Nye, a member of the Army for fifteen years. When evaluating the fact that the protestors were standing outside the recruitment office, Nye says “It’s fine. The irony is that it’s what the military represents—the ability to…state your views. They have a constitutional right so long as they do it legally and they seem to be fairly peaceful about it. That’s fine. More power to them.”
Nye was not speaking of the protestors stationed outside of Grotto’s Pizza, however. There sat a group of people, including senior Jamie Ahrenn. Holding signs that read “Honk If You Think We’re Drunk,” the assembly grabbed the attention of passing cars. Ahrenn says, “This is the first nice day we’ve had all year and we just came for a few beers and saw the protest going on and thought we needed to contribute.”
Turning heads all down Main Street, people were anxious to see what the commotion was about. With poster boards encouraging drinking while others protested near military, it was difficult to see which protest was doing a better job of raising eyebrows. Sophomore Stacey Richardson argued the meanings of both protests: “‘Drink More Beer’ seems [an easier goal to obtain] whereas the peace signs are more sparking conversation then doing anything else. Just in my opinion.”
Make sure you check out the interview with Lindsay Hagerman and the photos from the protest!
The interview can be found at: http://collegeweb.com/videos/recent_protest_on_main_street
pictures from this article:
     
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