Anti-war chalking on Quad

By Karen Medina

Under the cover of darkness, the Campus Anti-war Network gathered Tuesday evening on the University Quad and drew literally hundreds of chalk outlines of bodies on the sidewalks.

They wrote some of the usual anti-war slogans like “College not combat, troops home now,” “End the war,” “Over 1,000,000 Iraqis dead,” “Occupation is not liberation” and some not-so-common things like “How many dead bodies do you think the average Iraqi child has seen?” and “Bush does not care about the troops. He only cares about Halliburton.”

It did not rain Tuesday night and the bodies were underfoot for Wednesday morning’s classes.

But there must have been loads of classes and exams that evening as well, for there were large numbers of students walking by the chalkers all evening. Even if the chalk had been washed away by morning, the messages were seen by loads of people.

One homeless Operation Desert Storm veteran riding by on a bike stopped to argue with the chalkers, and after a half-hour of conversation he was coming up with slogans for the chalkers to write as well.

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One by one, the Campus Anti-war Network is making a difference.

Karen Medina

Graduate student