SAN FRANCISCO — Sara Worl was on the bus because she
wanted to educate herself and to exercise the most fundamental American freedom.
“I’ve been trying to raise my own awareness of what’s going on in the name of our flag,” she said. “As an American, I feel it’s my duty to exercise (the First Amendment) — to speak out.”
Beau Eastlund was on the bus because he wanted to see a big protest.
“I wanted to be part of some manner of protest, and I figured the one going on in San Francisco would garner more media attention than some of the local protests,” he said.
With different reasons and varying beliefs, almost 50 students and community members — a number of them freshmen who had never been to a major rally — got on a bus Friday bound for the San Francisco anti-war rally.
And after the rally, the energized bus riders going to Berkeley for the night were most amazed with the diversity of the people involved with the march, including young, old, liberal and conservative.
“It was just amazing to see how we all had different focuses and different beliefs, but we all came there for one common goal,” Lane Community College student Charly Robinson said. “For me, all of these people were strangers yesterday, but I’m leaving with a whole lot of new friends.”
Caitlin Gamble and Hana Binder, two University freshmen, agreed.
“I thought we had a great turnout, and it was really good to see all the different types of people that were there,” Gamble said.
Binder, who saw President Bush supporters on the street opposing the war, said the diversity
was amazing.
“I just thought it was cool how everyone was open to each other,” she said. “We were all brought together to protest one thing.”
But if it wasn’t the diversity of the crowd that struck the local participants, it was its size — about 200,000 according to rally organizers and 55,000 according to police officials — and the impact they thought it had on America.
“The crowd was endless,” University junior Hereyezen Perry said. “I think it was loud. There is no way we couldn’t be heard.”
Travis Dominguez, a recent University graduate, said it was nice to see so many people with a common mindset.
“If it didn’t make an impact on everyone else, it made an impact on the people here,” he said.
Although most of the bus riders had different perspectives about the strongest points of the march, one message was clear among all of them: No war.
“There are better ways to resolve our problems,” University freshman Risa Nabielski said. “There should be a better way.”