ABOVE: A Cornell student at the Resisting Empire lecture last Monday preaches to the converted about the purpose of emphasizing the war in Iraq when the current political agenda has become distracted with the election and fiscal crisis.
“Sometimes you watch the nightly news and there’s no mention of the war in Iraq,” Laila Al-Arian said, an anti-war activist and freelance journalist. “People just feel like it doesn’t affect them.”
Al-Arian addressed Tompkins County in a “Resisting Empire” lecture last Monday evening along with Iraq war veteran Camilo Mejía to discuss the horrors of the current and overlooked war.
“[People] don’t realize soldiers are instructed to do horrible things like torture civilians without any reason,” Mejía said during the lecture on Cornell’s campus, who was imprisoned by the U.S. government for one year for desertion.
Al-Arian and Mejía are some of the few national icons making a statement about the war during a time of distraction with an exciting election and current fiscal crisis. Ithaca resident and Peace Now, Ithaca member Lena Posner believes local organization like hers can help citizens prioritize.
Peace Now is a local anti-war organization responsible for presenting the idea of a community sanctuary for war veterans in the Ithaca city. On Oct. 1, the bill was passed unanimously by Common Council.
Posner said there are some proposals out in San Francisco and Berkley in California who are looking to model their anti-war efforts similarly to Ithaca’s and she will be working with them.
“As far as I’m concerned, the local and national are pretty inseparable. We’re making all these efforts locally and it’s bringing people together,” she said. “It’s also an ability for our community to connect with others.”
Posner brought forth the Ithaca resolution to Mejía on Monday evening also to discuss branching out. She said a woman in the Washington D.C. area was asking around for help creating a sanctuary in her community and Peace Now wanted to help.
The resolution has helped other local efforts, especially by those of the Vietnam and Iraq Veterans Against the War (VVAW and IVAW).
“These organizations help you realize what’s really going on,” Louis DeBenedette said, a Vietnam Era veteran and member of VVAW.
The Campus Anti-War Network (CAN) at Ithaca College and Cornell has recently been pushing anti activism in the county as well, through school organizations lectures like the Resisting Empire tour.
Al-Arian said grassroots efforts like these national organizations operating on the local level would make the notion of anti war a reality.
“It’s very important what anti–war groups are doing because…it will take a grassroots organization to move from town to town, city to city, for people to come together and say enough is enough,” she said.
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