“During the Vietnam War, Nixon always claimed that the people
on the streets didn’t matter,” says Kelly Campbell, Portland peace
director with the American Friends Service Committee. Last weekend,
Campbell organized the PDX Peace Coalition’s bus caravan to Seattle, to
join one of 11 coordinated regional protests around the
country—and try to prove naysayers wrong.
“Later, we found out [Nixon] was considering dropping a nuclear bomb
on Cambodia, and didn’t because of the demonstrations,” Campbell
explains. “Even though the Bush administration looks like they’re not
paying attention, they are.”
Of the 269 Portlanders on the PDX Peace buses, about two-thirds
appeared to be middle-aged protesters who teethed on the Vietnam War.
The other third were very young college students eager to express their
newfound voices and opinions—they were still in middle school
when the war began.
“Most young people want to do something, be part of something,” said
Katrielle Lauren, a punked-out freshman at Portland Community College
who was thrilled to be at the protest.
Though the old and the young showed up, very few people in their
mid-20s or 30s came out to protest—and several of those who did
acknowledged that their cynicism and hopelessness was cemented by the
failure of the huge, ultimately futile demonstrations that happened
before the war, including large demonstrations in Portland.
“This administration doesn’t care what the world thinks,” said Ryan
Talbott, who works for a conservation group in Portland. “The failure
of those protests deflated any sense that we can make a change.”
But his friend Allison Miller, a graduate student at Portland State
University, hopes that protests can still grab the attention of fellow
citizens.
“I think a regional demonstration might get noticed by the
mainstream audience,” she said. “Also, there is a sense of wanting to
be connected, longing for a sense of solidarity.”
Dr. Goudarz Eghtedari of the Portland-based American Iranian
Friendship Council spoke to the crowd of 5,s000, and expressed his
belief that America was heading toward war with Iran.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any way out of it,” said
Eghtedari, in a speech that was more doom and gloom than rabblerousing.
“The Democrats can’t do anything. I have no illusions that the
situation will be different if Bush goes out and someone from another
group gets in.”