Protesters in New York Stage 'Die-Ins' (washingtonpost.com)
Note how none of the protesters pretended that Saddam Hussein had just run them through a plastic shredder or cut their tongues out. Of course, impersonating ground beef isn't easy.

I've said it a million times: just because there weren't American forces attacking doesn't mean the Iraqi people were living in peace. Only the most obtuse would consider living under Saddam Hussein to be peace.

Sister Claire O'Mara, an 81-year-old Ursuline nun, stooped down onto the sidewalk in front of Tiffany's today, squeezed her eyes shut and assumed the death posture of an Iraqi victim killed in a bombing attack by U.S. forces.

"I just keep sending positive energies to Saddam Hussein and his people and to George Bush," she said as she meditated on the sidewalk to the chants "mothers mourn on both sides." Members of the women's peace movement Code Pink arced around her until police asked O'Mara to stand up or face arrest.

"I do not believe that war is the solution for any problem worldwide," she said.

While thousands of New Yorkers spent the past few months marching and chanting their opposition to the war in Iraq -- including at a rally Saturday that drew nearly 200,000 demonstrators -- protesting took a new turn today. New York police officers spent much of their day untangling traffic jams created by protesters who walked out, "died in" and chanted. By late today, police had arrested 215 protesters.

"This was the first large civil disobedience in New York since the war started," said Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, organizer of last weekend's protest. "That reflects a serious act when people literally put their bodies on the line for an issue."

Led by a group called the M27 Coalition, about 400 activists marched and "died in" on Fifth Avenue near Rockefeller Center during the morning rush hour, snarling traffic for two hours. Later this morning, a dozen Code Pink activists staged "die-ins" in front of Tiffany's and the Plaza Hotel.

All they are doing is salving their warped consciences. This won't stop the war and rightly so. Get back to work you hippies!!

Posted By Robert Prather (The Mind Of Man) at March 28, 2003 03:00 AM | TrackBack