Protesters gathering for march against war

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Lori Shontz
January 24, 2003

She has lived through the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War, but Irene Lietz had never before taken an interest in the politics of war.

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University of Pittsburgh professor Ken Boas, right center, leads a discussion about a potential war with Iraq last night at William Pitt Union on campus. Joining him were fellow English professor Jeff Aziz, left center, and Ruth Mouly, right, of Oakland. Some of the participants were members of a group called Professors for Peace and Justice. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette)

She never protested. Never marched. Never felt like she needed to question her country's leaders.

But yesterday evening, she was wandering through the ballroom at the William Pitt Union, picking up flyers and soaking up information at a teach-in about the consequences of a possible war in Iraq, the first event of the three-day Regional Convergence Against the War.

Lietz, an English professor at Carlow College, doesn't have an easy explanation for why she attended, or why she will march tomorrow for the first time in a protest, a rally and march against the war in Oakland. Her daughter, Patti, is an activist, but it's more than that.

"I'm very concerned about how we are seeing so very few options being presented," she said. "I have many questions about whether there aren't alternatives to the war."

She said that any country considering getting involved in a war has many questions and consequences to ponder. "And we have a greater responsibility as the most powerful country in the world," Lietz said.

Like the scores of people who filtered through the event, sponsored by Professors for Peace and Justice, Lietz stopped at several tables -- one devoted to the effect of war on women, another to possible environmental consequences, others that addressed how countries like Israel or Egypt would be affected.

Dan Silianoff, a recent Penn State graduate from Irwin, picked up a copy of every pamphlet he could find. "I think the media and the government for the most part only show one side of the story, and I wanted to see different sides," he said.

He hadn't been able to attend a teach-in at Penn State last semester, so he made a special effort to get to this one. "I decided although I don't like Pitt athletics very much," he said, laughing, "I could still come to this."

The crowd ranged from senior citizens who have been involved in the peace and justice movements, in one way or another, for decades, to college students -- and the occasional college professor -- getting involved for the first time.

"I'd always been against war, but I didn't really have direct reasons why," said Lisa Warwick, a freshman at Pitt from Frederick, Md. "It just doesn't seem like a good idea to me."

Warwick has been reading Noam Chomsky's writings in a politics and photography class, and now she feels more strongly about her ideas. "I've found there are reasonable people who agree with me," she said.

Lietz expected the event to be a little more structured, with more lectures, but thought she still benefiting from the experience.

And the loosely organized format was typical of what to expect for the weekend's activities, sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center and the Pittsburgh Organizing Group.

For today's Parade for Peace, for example, which will march down East Carson Street from Station Square to the Birmingham Bridge between 3 and 5 p.m., Merton Center executive director Tim Vining isn't sure how many people to expect, although he thinks 500 to 1,000 participants is a good guess.

"It's exciting all of the time because it's a surprise to all of us," he said. "We just tell people to organize into their affinity groups and come on over."

Organizers had planned to stage their other large event, a rally against the war, on the porch at the William Pitt Union at 1 p.m. tomorrow, but they were told by University of Pittsburgh officials that they would be unable to use the porch and student union lawn because their group was too large and not entirely composed of students.

Vining said he "didn't want to make a big deal out of it," and that the protesters would assemble instead on Bigelow Boulevard, which police have told the organizers they will block off.

Organizers are looking for a portable stage to use, and the march, which will end at the Software Engineering Institute, will continue as planned.