SENTINEL WATCH April 21, 2003 Issue

Peace is the highest way

By Bill Dawley Senior Managing Editor

One recent Saturday, I decided to go to an antiwar rally on the Boston Common. I'd seen a poster advertising the rally during the previous week, and I thought going to the rally would help me sort out my feelings about the war in Iraq. I'd spent the previous weekend glued to the television, almost hypnotized by the live coverage of the war, and I really wanted to know where I stood.

When I emerged from the Park Street subway station onto the Boston Common, I ran smack into a group of about 100 pro-war protesters. They were chanting loudly, "USA! USA! USA!" And they were carrying placards—some of which read, "Smoke Saddam, not crack," "Give war a chance"—and yelling slogans like "Go support Saddam!"

As I turned the corner and headed down the sidewalk toward the main protest, I ran into the antiwar protesters. They were not directly responding to the taunts of the pro-war demonstrators. But they were holding up homemade signs, too. Signs that said things like, "Make jobs, not war," "No more blood for oil," and "Support our troops, bring them home."

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