Korean War veteran Bill Williams decided in the years that followed his service in the Marine Corps that it was wrong for the United States to get involved in the fight against North Korea. For him, it's about lives lost.
Williams, 71, along with about a thousand others — young and old — demonstrated Saturday on Salt Lake City's streets with signs that read, "War 4 Oil Is Murder 4 Profit," "Another Nurse For Peace" and simply "No War." Undaunted by what fellow veterans might say, Williams carried a sign that read, "Korean War Vet For Peace."
"It's my privilege to say what I think. That's what this demonstration is about. We want to stop the war. We do not believe we should endanger more lives." Williams and others like him want President Bush to allow U.N. arms inspectors to do their job of searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq without the threat of war.
Peace rallies drew tens of thousands out across the country and overseas, coinciding with the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A sense of urgency among anti-war protesters grows as the Jan. 27 deadline looms for a formal report from the U.N. inspectors.
With liberal use of King quotes throughout the day, Salt Lake City's own spirited gathering began with a chiding from Weber State University political science professor Nancy Haanstad.
"American students are appallingly ill-informed about foreign policy." She spoke about why she believes American ideals of freedom and democracy have not been reflected in foreign policy. A change, she said, needs to take place from the bottom up, with grass-roots efforts like Saturday's protest.
From the Jubilee Center at 100 S. 315 East, hundreds of marchers enjoyed a crisp, clear day for a police escort and blocked roads on their way to the Salt Lake City-County Building on State Street. Asked one girl playing a snare drum, "Are we holding up traffic?" Another man also slowly drumming smiled and nodded knowingly.
The crowd's arrival at the City-County Building brought tears to the eyes of Salt Lake Community College political science professor Josh Gold. "This is the largest crowd I've ever seen at a rally in Utah."
Representing himself as a Jewish-American, Gold took the podium to call for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and an end to U.S. financial aid toward Israel's political agenda.
The list of Saturday's presenters was long and included poets, musicians, the "Radical Cheerleaders" and representatives of groups like People for Peace and Justice of Utah, Catholic Diocese Peace and Justice Commission and the National Conference for Community and Justice.
World Federalist Association of Utah member Ed Firmage said the weapons to fear are right here in Utah, referring to the chemical weapons stockpile being stored and destroyed south of Tooele. Using weapons and more violence, he said, is not the way to establish peace in the Middle East. Wes Sudbury would have to agree.
Sudbury, 25, joined the Army in hopes of getting money for college. He served more than two years. During that time, he says, he educated himself on American foreign policy and what companies President Bush's family invests in and how those companies might benefit from war.
Sudbury formed his own opinion of what American military power is about and decided he didn't want to take part in a game of "global dominance." He was discharged as a conscientious objector. His speech drew almost as much applause as that of Mayor Rocky Anderson, easily the loudest speaker of the afternoon.
"You are the patriots," he yelled over a welcoming applause. Anderson deplored what he termed as an America turning a "blind eye" toward atrocities around the world.
"Without restraint, without international unity and without compassion, we will never have justice and we will never have peace."
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com