Chapel Hill passes resolution to
NC Atty General on NSR lawsuit
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Asheville’s two Support Our Soldiers rallies:
same theme, opposing views

By Liz Allen

Asheville, North Carolina, Mar. 1 (AGR)— Two war-related rallies were held downtown on Sat., Mar. 1 at coinciding times. The “Support our Soldiers” (SOS) rally, held at City County Plaza, was sponsored by a group of the same name, who said their rally was to support those serving in the military. Organizers said the group and the rally were inspired by the story of two soldiers who allegedly were spit on and called baby killers when leaving the Buncombe County Courthouse. During the rally it was also announced that, “This is not a pro-war rally or an anti-war rally; what we’re saying is that we love our soldiers, we support them and we thank God that they are there.” Approximately 3,000 were in attendance from across Western North Carolina. The second part of the rally was held at the Asheville Civic Center and hosted by country music singer Travis Tritt.

The counter rally, “Support our Soldiers -- Bring them home,” was held close by at Pack Square. Although in close proximity, the two rallies were not easily visible to each other due to the city buses that lined Woodfin Street between the locations. At least 2,000 were present for the event, which was sponsored by Spare Change?, a human rights group organized after the passage of the local anti-panhandling ordinance last November. Although the WNC Peace Coalition did not sponsor the event, member Kathryn Gunn, who spoke during the rally, said that the organization supported it.

During her speech, Gunn said that 60 percent of the army’s gas masks may be defective; that, according to the Veteran’s Administration, 989,000 veterans have filed claims for war related illness; and that the New York Times reported that 20 percent of this nation’s homeless are Vietnam Veterans. “So much for supporting our troops,” said Gunn.

City council member Brain Peterson spoke at the peace rally and council members Carl Mumpower and Terry Bellemy were present at the SOS rally. According to Asheville police chief Will Annarino there were only 50 officers total for both rallies and they were split evenly between the two events.

The City County Plaza rally consisted of singing, praying, and a pie-eating contest. Paratroopers were scheduled to drop out of the sky with 40 ft American flags but were unable to do so due to an electrical storm in Clemson, South Carolina, their scheduled take off location. Attendees waved American flags and carried anti-protest, anti-Saddam Hussien, pro-Bush, and pro-war signs. The stage was adorned with a giant American flag and on the front hung a banner which read “France Forgot, Forget France.” Organizer Chad Nesbit reported that there were supposed to be marines present from Camp Lejeune, but they were told to stay in place.

In an interview Nesbit stated, “Nobody wants war. Who would pray for war? But if we do go to war we want to show that we are here to support [US soldiers] when they are over there and when they come back, because they are defending our nation.”

Money collected from the events is to go to aid packages for soldiers and their families.

Prayers were said throughout the rally for Bush, other government officials and for the soldiers and their families. Gospel songs were also sung.

“We have to have war to get rid of the evil ones,” said Pam Mehaffey at the His Laboring Few Biker Ministry for Jesus Christ booth. “Actually, the Bible does say there is a time for peace and a time for war,” continued Reverend Vince Mehaffey. Many at the rally expressed the belief that war was justified in Christian terms.

One arrest was made during both events. Lynn Johnson was arrested for “Disturbing a Religious Ceremony” when she stood on the courthouse stairs protesting against the SOS prayer for George W. Bush. She was led away by the Asheville Police Department while peacefully repeating “This is an unjust war. Jesus Christ would not fight this war.”

The pie-eating contest consisted of teenage volunteers who were supposed to be getting a taste of what it is like to be in the military. “Y’all remember Fear Factor?” host Nesbit often repeated. The participants were ordered by a drill sergeant to do push ups while eating pie. Participant Hope Mosely, a freshman at Erwin High School, said she had no intentions of joining the military and did not feel threatened by Iraq – a sentiment that was prevalent at both rallies.

Sequoia McDowell, a member of the Asheville High School Men’s Choir, said he felt uncomfortable singing at the Support our Soldiers rally until his choir instructor added “Let There be Peace on Earth” to the program which had previously only included patriotic songs. “I feel really privileged to be singing ‘Let There be Peace on Earth,’ because we’re going to be the only ones saying that. I know it’s a pro-war rally because the Peace Coalition said ‘We have a lot of veterans against the war’ and they said, ‘No, we don’t want your veterans.’ Plus it’s geared toward the traditional, conservative crowd; Travis Tritt is playing there, how are you going to say that’s for everybody?” McDowell explained.

Jack Hensley, who was in the US Air Force for 21 years, wore a hat with pins of the confederate flag and of a crossed out communist hammer and sickle, and carried a sign reading “To Hell with Hollywood, Free the Oppressed,” said “ I think the people protesting this war, they haven’t really looked at what Saddam does, they have no idea what his poison is: chemical warfare.”

Elmoiz Abunura, rally attendee and UNC-Asheville professor, commented, “I personally have grudges against Saddam Hussein, I was a former prisoner of conscience in Iraq and several of my friends were tortured by Saddam Hussein, by the regime. The war will lead to destruction of Iraq, destruction of the infrastructure over there, so the Iraqi civilians are the ones who will suffer. And I would question the whole regime change because I don’t think the Iraqi opposition, the Iraqi National Congress, is a real clear alternative to Saddam, and I don’t think they are born-again democrats. To me, I think the whole scenario is based on a new conservative agenda of the Republican administration, reshaping the political map of the Middle East, forcing the Palestinians into subjugation of Sharon’s expantionalist policy, and controlling the oil sources in the region.”

This viewpoint was echoed by Isa Abuzuaiter, who came with his brother from Greensboro to participate in the peace rally. Abuzuaiter, who is of Palestinian descent, spent 19 years in a refugee camp in Gaza before moving to the US 30 years ago. He held a Palestinian flag and said, “The first people who will suffer, who have already suffered, from this stupid war is the Palestinian people. We believe this war is just for nothing. Bush is trying to get people’s mind off this economy. If the war was for oil, Saddam would give him all the oil he wanted, it’s not about that. It’s about conquering.”

Cecil Bothwell, Mountain Xpress editor, made a public apology during the peace rally because, “In the course of trying to explain the rally, I inadvertently dissed a group of activists, who are younger, who are anarchists, who doing a protest in their own way. I am doing a public apology here to them and I am dressed in black in solidarity with them.” During the protest many anarchists engaged in discussion with attendees of the Support our Soldiers rally.

Immediately after making his apology, Bothwell announced that Turkey had refused to allow the United States to use their territory for military action, drawing wild cheers from the crowd. They then began to chant “The people united can never be divided” and “Support our Soldiers, Bring them Home!”

Shortly after 4pm the peace rally walked in the rain on the sidewalk to and around the federal building and then back to the Vance Monument. A woman placed a “No War for Oil” sign on the gate of the building.

Passerby Leonard Graves, who lives in Asheville but works in Morganton, who was on his one day a week off work, said he supported the protest. “I think the United States has enough to take care on their own, all the war is going to do is cost more money. And what about the families who lost their loved ones, is stupid oil worth that? We have enough problems in the United States that we need to take care of, we need to clean up our own backyard before we go in trying to clean up other people’s backyard. This whole war is bullshit, look at our economy, look at our labor, look at our workers. Our workers are in the United States. We are losing jobs everyday, and if we go to war we are going to lose even more. We don’t need this shit, man. We need work.”

Many at the Support our Soldiers rally said they felt that Hussein had a part in Sept.11. However, Chester Britton, a Vietnam Veteran, said that he felt that Hussein had nothing to do with it.

“He is a Sunnite [sic]Muslim and al-Qaida is Shiites, they haven’t been able to get along together for 1,000 years, they’re like the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland,” said Britton. He said he was protesting because the troops themselves are not allowed to.

Michael Todd, dressed in plastic and duct tape and accompanied by a friend in a stars and stripes majorette costume, held a sign reading “Things Could get Sticky.” Todd said he dressed up because “I think of all things I wanted to bring some good energy out here. We support the troops, we want to bring them home. I think that this war is stupid, that it’s insane, and we want to show the insanity of it and that our government can tell us to go out and get duct tape and plastic, well I did it. The government has dressed me.”

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Chapel Hill passes resolution to
NC Atty General on NSR lawsuit

Feb. 27— In the latest evidence of a statewide groundswell the Town Council of Chapel Hill, NC voted unanimously to pass a resolution urging Attorney General Roy Cooper to file a Petition for Review against a ruling issued by the EPA that revises the New Source Review (NSR) Provision of the Clean Air Act. The vote, on Monday night, was 9-0. In passing the resolution Chapel Hill joined the Town of Sylva and the City of Asheville in sending similar messages to the Attorney General. The decisions were unanimous in each location.
NSR is that provision within the Clean Air Act that mandates the cleanup of grandfathered factories and power plants when they are improved or enlarged in any way other than routine maintenance. The EPA’s Final NSR rule, issued on Dec. 31, would allow these older plants to increase in size and emissions output without upgrading emission control systems. Most observers believe this will result in more emissions of nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and mercury in areas that are already experiencing severe air pollution problems. States on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountain Range could be hit hard.
If North Carolina files suit against the EPA by the Mar. 3 deadline, it will become the twelfth state plus the District of Columbia to file. Washington, DC and the State of Delaware filed on Feb. 26, joining New York, New Jersey, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

Source: Canary Coalition

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