| WHO CARES ABOUT U.S. FOREIGN POLICY IN IRAQ? | |
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On February 15, 2003, Sacramento joined 300 cities in over 60 countries around the world in protesting U.S. President Bush's plans for war with Iraq. We on the West Coast completed this day of world-wide protest that started in New Zealand and spread with the sun to Asia, Africa, Europe, and finally North and South America. The largest demonstrations were in London and Rome (1 million persons) and the smallest was five people at the US Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole in Antartica. "...Antartica is the only continent in the world where no war has ever happened and where all countries recognize that the only way to survive is collaboration." --Paolo G. Calisse, Amundsen-Scott Station, S.Pole, Antartica. |
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The National Council of Churches (which includes Presbyterian Church USA, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the National Baptist Convention, and more than 30 other Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican communions) is co-sponsoring ads against war with Iraq, saying it violates God's law. "...War is not only-- or even primarily-- a military matter," the Nat. Council of Church's letter to Pres. Bush states. "It is a moral and ethical matter of the highest order, one that we have made a priority for many months as the possibility of war has loomed on our national horizon." The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops isn't convinced that war with Iraq would meet the "just war" test, endorsing a statement that they "find it difficult to justify the resort to war against Iraq, lacking clear and adequate evidence of an imminent attack of a grave nature." Pope John Paul II has urged a peaceful solution, telling ambassadors to the Vatican that war is "always a defeat for humanity." The Pope met recently with Iraq's Saddam Hussain in an effort to avoid war. |
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| Physicians For Social Responsibility marching toward the State Capitol from a gathering site at Southside Park. The goal of PSR is "..working to create a world free of nuclear weapons, global environmental pollution, and gun violence." PSR urges members to join them in a letter to Pres. Bush re: the need to let U.N. weapons inspectors return to Iraq and disarm Saddam's weapons of mass destruction program. Information distributed at the PSR information table warned of a grave humanitarian disaster in Iraq should a U.S. attack occur. "Casualties among children will be in the thousands, probably ten thousands, and possibly in the hundreds of thousands" (due to starvation, disease, and being "collateral damage"). |
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| Approximately 8,000 war protesters gathered at the Capitol from several area gathering sites. People from Davis and West Sac met at the Great Golden Pyramid (formerly the Money Store) on the West Sac side of the river and marched across the Great Golden Tower Bridge and up Capitol Avenue to the State Capitol. Other groups gathered at Southside Park or the Senior Citizen Center on I Street and marched on the Capitol from those locations. |