A buzz filled the chilly air Thursday at the EMU Amphitheater as Survival Center member Monica Vaughan stood on stage and asked the audience, “Who wants a revolution?” Students responded with smiles and cheers, and so began five hours of speeches and song denouncing the Iraq War.
Associate Professor of Sociology Michael Dreiling spoke first.
“Denial must be the first casualty,” he said. “As we acknowledge the wounds inflicted by war, we’re starting to construct a new stage.”
Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Dreiling said, “through violence you can murder the hater, but you can’t murder the hate.”
A myriad of presentations followed Dreiling, including a panel of Iraq veterans, a freestyle jam session, and a speech by the creator of the Iraq Body Count Exhibit, which is on display on campus this week.
Juan Stewart Alvarez, a senior at University of Colorado at Boulder and the exhibit’s architect, said “looking around me, especially on a college campus, and seeing the apathy and complacency…it seemed like no one cared. I can’t just sit here and see how things are going fine here and understand how hundreds of thousands of people are dying so people here can have a good life.”
“I just want to see more action by our generation; for Americans to start being accountable for their government,” Alvarez said. “I believe that we can change things. We do have power.”
Colorado graduate Carol Melia initiated the flag transferal from Boulder to Eugene.
“It’s not about flags, it’s about people,” she said. “At this point I feel like we’re all numb.”
Melia is presently working to set up a Web site as a source for other schools to bring the exhibit to their campuses. She and Alvarez hope to keep the exhibit moving.
Sophomore Winston Friedman, co-director of the Survival Center, said that yesterday’s event aimed to raise student consciousness.
“The whole point of this week is to get a conversation started,” he said. “This is a very important moment in history, especially in the United States.”
“We want to have a voice today rather than a visual representation,” said Friedman. “We’re not trying to shove anything down anyone’s throat. We want people’s views brought to light. If you don’t agree with us we want to hear about it. Basically we want a conversation.”