300 in Honolulu join the outcry for peace
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By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Nancy Aleck, a veteran of Vietnam War protests, held a simple sign that said "peace" and became linked to an anti-war chorus that spread around the globe yesterday.
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"Because we want peace doesn't mean that we don't support our troops," said Aleck, 52, who held her sign at the corner of Kapi'olani Boulevard and Atkinson Drive. "We do. We just don't want them to die."
About 300 people gathered yesterday on Ala Moana Boulevard, holding signs against war.
Aleck was one of 300 people around Ala Moana Center who held signs, sang songs and withstood the occasional jeers from drivers. They were part of simultaneous protests against a U.S. invasion of Iraq around the world, from Washington, D.C., to the Middle East to Asia.
"It's wonderful. It's just wonderful," said Carolyn Hadfield, one of the local organizers working on behalf of an international group called Not In Our Name. "It's a worldwide thing that really strengthens the visibility of the anti-war movement."
Hawai'i protesters tonight will hold 20 candlelight vigils from the Wai'anae Post Office to 'Iolani Palace to Kailua Beach Park. The vigils, which will be part of another global protest, begin at 7 p.m.
Nanise Young, a 24-year-old University of Hawai'i graduate student, would have normally spent yesterday studying or going to the beach.
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Instead, she listened to a heckler who said she should support U.S. troops, picked up a marking pen and scrawled a sign that said "Support The Troops. Bring Them Home."
From Hawai'i to Washington and worldwide, protesters spoke out against war yesterday.
"I feel very strongly that this war is unjust," Young said. "It's illegal and nothing good is going to come of it. People mistakenly assume that if we're for peace or against the war that we're against the soldiers over there. That's not true."
Those who came to Ala Moana yesterday included children, professionals, students and veteran protesters.
Agnes Niyekawa, a 78-year-old retired UH professor of East Asian languages, carried a sign in two languages. In English and again in Japanese, she had printed: "No War. Peace."
Tour guide Joseph Coleman said that at a time when al-Qaida leaders are being captured and the Iraqi government is destroying some of its weapons, he questioned the need to invade Iraq.
"Progress is being made," he said. "Why are we pressing for war?"
Across the street, James Yamasaki offered an answer.
"The American people," Yamasaki said, "are so gullible that they won't even question it."
