Among honking and shouts from passing cars, local residents gathered on the corner of North Prospect Avenue and Marketview Drive Saturday afternoon holding signs and handing out flyers denouncing the war in Iraq.

The group, sponsored by the Anti-war, Anti-racism Effort (AWARE), has been protesting the war since 2001 at the same corner from 2 to 4 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month.

The local grassroots organization was established in October of 2001 as a way to spread awareness to citizens about the war from the peoples’ perspective.

“We protested the war in Afghanistan and protested the war in Iraq before it happened,” said David Green, a Champaign man who has been involved with the organization for more than four years. “And we’re still protesting it now.”

The anti-war protesters hand out copied literature and articles to cars -with permission from the police – in the hopes of spreading their message.

“I do it as a stress relief for myself and to express opinions I don’t see being expressed elsewhere,” said Meg Miner, a resident of Mansfield, Ill., who served in the military during the first Gulf War. “And thirdly, I guess I do it to try and engage people – although it’s hard to do in thirty seconds at a stoplight.”

Randall Cotton, who records each protest with a video camera for security purposes in case of run-ins with pro-war supporters, said that roughly half of the cars accept their flyers.

“(We get reactions ranging from) either a thumbs up or a smile, versus a finger or a head shake,” said Cotton.

Occasionally, pro-war supporters set up a rally across the street in opposition. Red Lobster, the restaurant on the corner where the protests occur, does not mind the attention drawn to their area.

“They’ve just asked us not to park in their lot, so we abide by that,” said Cotton.

Bob Illyes, a Vietnam War veteran of Champaign, has been going to the protests once a month since last summer.

“We have many different (personal) reasons for being here,” he said. “But what we have in common is the opposition of the occupation of Iraq.”

“We went into this war under false pretenses,” Illyes said. “To date, I do not believe (the war) has done anything but make (the situation in Iraq) worse.” He said he feels that the war has made many people in the Muslim world upset, and that the U.S. government could be spending money on better things.

According to a Bloomberg.com article, a Pentagon office said that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has cost the U.S. approximately $4.8 million per month.

Green also said that according to recent polls, the majority of people now think that it was wrong to invade Iraq in the first place and that the government should not be occupying the country for longer than necessary.

“What most people don’t realize is that now we need to get out (of Iraq) as quickly and as orderly as possible in order for Iraq to move on with its life,” he said. But Green said Americans should still help Iraq rebuild itself.

Other than the protests against the occupation of Iraq, AWARE also gets their message out different ways. The organization has had tables at the local farmer’s market, where they distribute brochures, bumper stickers and buttons to citizens.

Green will speak as a representative of the program at Gregory Hall, Room 100, at 7 p.m. today. Sponsored by the Students for Palestine, the speech will address issues with Israel and Palestine and how they affect the local conflicts.