Motorists honked as they drove by Marsh Plaza Friday afternoon, as approximately 15 Boston University students held American flags and posters emblazoned with pro-war slogans and chanted ‘USA,’ marking the first pro-war demonstration at BU since the war in Iraq began.
Members of the BU College Republicans and a group of students from the BU School of Law organized the demonstration, which organizer Nick Morinigo called an effort to show that ‘a vast majority of people support our cause.’
‘Really, we’ve seen too many protests of a minority view and the press has shown that more of the homeland is against this than we’d like to believe,’ Morinigo said. ‘We just want to show that a vast majority of America is in support of the troops and the war.’
Students held signs with slogans like ‘College Republicans support Americans’ and ‘Support our Troops.’ At one point, group members unfurled a banner reading ‘Topple Saddam France, which side are you on?’
Numerous cars honked as they drove by, and one even opened their windows to yell ‘we love you.’
College of Arts and Sciences senior Jill Novotny, who was among the more vocal demonstrators, said she was pleased by the response of passers-by, even if they did not join the effort.
‘I think people are happy to see it, even if they don’t want to join,’ she said.
Massachusetts College Republicans president David Carl, a senior in the School of Management, said the group wanted to make sure the public knows not everyone on college campuses is anti-war, after hundreds gathered on the same plaza a little more than a week before to protest the effort in Iraq.
‘I think the leftists feel the need to express their freedom of speech, as well they’re entitled to,’ Carl said. ‘But at the same time, people who support the president and our country and if you support being an American, you should come out and do the same.’
BU College Republicans president Kati Borden, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, was also out Friday to show the troops in Iraq that not everyone is against the war effort. Borden’s father was a soldier in Vietnam, and she said one of the things that hurt their effort the most was the anti-war activism back home.
‘Nobody wants war war is a really awful thing,’ Borden said. ‘But this is a just war and I will support our troops. These are things worth fighting for.’
College of Engineering freshman Matt Powers agreed.
‘A lot of Vietnam veterans have said that one of the things that hurt them the most was the protests,’ he said. ‘Whatever we can do to help, I’m all for.’
Carl said anti-war groups have had a bigger presence around Boston and across the country in the opening days of the war only because they spend so much time organizing during peace time for other similar causes. Just the fact that they have had fewer protests does not mean there are fewer pro-war students or Americans, he said.
‘They spend their every waking moment trying to overthrow the American capitalist regime,’ he said. ‘We actually do our homework and we’re actually hitting the books studying.’
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
