photo above, plus VIDEO by Bill Carpenter
Activists March Across the Golden Gate Bridge
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (9/11)- Several hundred activists marched across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge today in a protest against the war in Afghanistan, continued U.S. presence in Iraq, and NATO's attacks on Libya. While there were no recorded U.S. deaths in Iraq in August, 66 soldiers died that month in Afghanistan, the highest for a single month since the war began in 2001. An additional nine troops have died in Afghanistan this month.
After gathering this morning at both the north and south ends of the Golden Gate Bridge, peace advocates simultaneously marched on the bridge tomeet in the middle of the span to honor those who died on 9/11 and the soldiers and civilians who have since died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Manymarchers carried homemade signs or banners proclaiming, "Love Not War," "Bring the Troops Home," and "No More Wars." Activists from the World Can't Wait made an impressive statement dressed as prisoners in orange jumpsuits and carrying signs that read "9/11 was not a license for war or torture."
"We've been told to think about American lives lost since 9/11, but not to care about the loss of any other life in the ten years that the government used 9/11 as an excuse to go to war against the rest of the world," Stephanie Tang of World Can't Wait told the crowd at the after-march rally at Vista Point on the Marin side of the bridge. "The horrible loss of 3,000 lives on 9/11 is now being used to push America's war agenda. Today we remember every person killed by our government in the last ten years...American lives are not more important than other people on this planet."
Patty Bennett of Military Mothers Speak Out tearfully spoke about her son who is currently stationed in Afghanistan. "Every single day of my life is spent in fear as I wait for the outcome of his deployment," she told the sympathetic crowd. "I support my son 110 percent and I support the men and women who stand shoulder to shoulder with him, but I do not support these wars. I want my son back alive."
West Marin author and media critic Norman Solomon, who is campaigning to win the sixth district congressional seat to be vacated next year by longtime Democratic congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, was greeted enthusiastically when he took the microphone at the rally. "Over the last ten years, people have lost their lives when it was totally unnecessary," Solomon, author of Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters With America's Warfare State, said. "I've been to Iraq and Afghanistan and I've seen the children of Kabul, Baghdad and New York City and they are all precious. A license for war is unacceptable. Perpetual war is unacceptable. Warfare, not healthcare is unacceptable...
Other speakers at the rally included Afghan peace advocate Fatima Mojaddidy and Rabbi Alissa Wise.
CodePink coordinated today's event, which was co-sponsored by a coalition of 25 peace and justice organizations.
- Elaine Pasquini with additional photos by Phil Pasquini
