On Saturday a group of protestors gathered in the name of a common cause: Ending the war in Iraq. These protestors marched from downtown Johnson City, along State of Franklin to the campus of ETSU.
At Borchuck Plaza the crowd held an anti-war rally complete with live music, speakers and a large puppet of President Bush.
Sandra Garrett and an off-campus group called Concerned Tennessee Citizens began planning for the war march and rally in August. Concerned Tennessee Citizens worked with campus groups such as College Democrats and the Initiative for Clean Energy. Garrett estimated more than 200 people attended the event.
Protestors marched with homemade signs. One local artist, Brad Smith, created a puppet of President Bush for the event.
“The crowd was applauding it,” said Elliott Cennamo, vice president of the ETSU College Democrats. “It was awesome.”
“There was some opposition at the beginning,” Cennamo said. A veterans’ motorcycle group called Rolling Thunder also made an appearance.
“They made a pretty pathetic attempt to disrupt the rally,” Garrett said. “I’m glad they showed up, frankly, because it kind of motivated the crowd. It really energized them.
Cennamo said, “We were exercising our right to free speech and so were they.”
Attempts to reach a representative of Rolling Thunder for this article were unsuccessful.
At the rally, “The Feral Throes,” a local band, performed. “We had a few covers and a few originals that go along with the theme of anti-war,” said Aislinn O’Conner, the lead vocals and song writer for the group. O’Conner described the Feral Throes as “very progressive, very much into ending the war.”
Speakers at the rally included Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis, local political scientist, the Rev. John Shuck, a Presbyterian minister, and Jason Hurd, an Iraq war veteran.
Fitsanakis is also the founder of Democracy Now! Tri-Cities.
“My main aim in speaking to them was to make sure the left was energized,” said Fitsanakis. “My point was . if you really want change then this has to become a way of life.”
Garrett said that Shuck did not speak on behalf of his church or his congregation.
“He spoke as a man of God,” she said.
“(Hurd) spoke on the lack of coherence between the administration and the statistics they give saying the war is going well compared to the reality he saw in Iraq, and the reality of what he knows,” Garrett said.
Garrett said her main hope was that students at the rally would walk away a sense of action.
“In order for democracy to work they need to speak out to the people who need to hear it,” she said.

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