Some Americans believe it's their patriotic duty to say no to war
By
REKHA BASU People at the senior-citizen complex where Libby Yapp lives laugh when she tells them about the meetings she's been going to. But she finds nothing funny about war. The prospect of another one now so sickens her that she's joined with other Des Moines-area grandmothers to spread the word about peace. Naming their effort Grandmothers' Call to End Wars, they've been meeting weekly for about three months, and are building up to a Sept. 29 rally at the Iowa Capitol. "We watched our fathers go off to war, then it was our brothers and lovers, then our husbands and children," Yapp said in a written message distributed by her group. "Now the machinery of war wants our grandchildren, and we say enough." There may be a natural connection between spawning generations and wanting to preserve life. As member Dorothy Campbell said, "I really worry about the children in the war-torn countries." But as these women are learning, being for peace can brand you a subversive. Some people would prefer that grandmothers stick to knitting instead of getting politically active. "There's a sense of risk," Cheryl Sypal told the rest of the dozen grandmothers and others gathered around the table at the Friends Meeting House on Monday. "A sense that the patriotic flag-waving is the thing to do. We need to be aware not everyone is in agreement, even our good friends." But several members said it was their patriotic duty to voice their dissent. The president has said the war on terrorism would be a different kind of war. And so will be the sources of opposition. Unlike Vietnam, there's no threat of being drafted to galvanize opposition. The magnitude of the terrorist attacks a year ago, and the deep toll they took on the nation's psyche, left many ready to support the government in whatever it did - even if it wasn't necessarily likely to stop terrorism. War has always been a potent tool to unite people behind an administration's agenda. And the complexity of Middle East issues have made some people afraid to weigh in without a specific solution to propose. But now, a year later, even some middle-of-the-road Americans are starting to question the wisdom of the war approach - even as, like the grandmothers, they acknowledge they don't have all the answers. The Iowa United Methodist Conference this summer passed a resolution calling on the U.S. leadership not to engage in war, but to work with the international community to resolve differences peacefully. From college campuses to artists' circles to grandmothers' groups, there are stirrings of discontent with the president's recent call for military action against Iraq, because of the potential to further punish Iraqi citizens rather than leader Saddam Hussein. People are pointing out the lack of evidence linking Iraq and Hussein to the attacks of Sept. 11. They're questioning the money spent on war and how it could be better spent on other needs, says Kathleen McQuillen of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that has brought some of these efforts together. They're seeing war not as a long-term solution, but as a provocation to more violence. "A small group of horrifying criminals did one of the most horrifying things, and we all watched it live," said Gary Tartakov, a professor of history, art and design at Iowa State University. Tartakov is active with the Alliance for Global Justice, a group of faculty and students who hold weekly teach-ins and organize rallies, marches and letter-writing campaigns. "The response to it by the government was, 'We've got to get these guys back.' I believe in defense. I'm not a pacifist. I believe there was every reason to go to Afghanistan and get the people who did it. The fact that (we) probably killed more Afghan civilians than were killed in the Trade Center is what I have problems with." He's not the only one grappling with his conscience. In Des Moines, ensconced in the world of senior activities, Yapp worried about the Bush Administration's next move and asked, "What can we do to make them stand back?" In Ames, enmeshed in academia, Tartakov seemed to be answering her. "Every little person pushes the next person. He's (Bush) not going to be able to do it if enough people stand up to it."
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