BY JACK RYAN
If you have driven through the new bottleneck intersection of West Main and University between noon and 1 p.m. on any Saturday, you’ve undoubtedly noticed people on the Starbucks corner holding signs protesting war. Usually, one sign says “Honk for Peace.” This protest, or vigil, by members of the Peoria Area Peace Network has taken place EVERY Saturday since the Afghanistan/Iraq/Afghanistan war started 14 years ago.
Actually, we started downtown at the Federal Building when the U.S. first invaded Afghanistan. For us, it seemed obvious that somebody would pay, in a lust for vengeance in retaliation for the horror of the 9/11/2001 attack of the World Trade Center. We were later told that the suicide attackers were a bunch of Saudi Arabians trained in Bonn, Germany, Miami, Minneapolis and other places around the world. But the mightiest army in the world chose hapless Afghanistan.
Over 200 of us showed up that first day. If you remember, the war was not expected to last very long. But as it drew on and opened into Iraq, we continued every Saturday but moved to Main and University where there is much more traffic.
Our signs keep wearing out and changing, often reflecting other current issues regarding violence, torture, police misconduct: “Stop Torture,” “Close Guantanamo,” “What Happened To Build. 7,” “Don’t Bomb Syria,” “Israel Out of Gaza” and so on. When Barack Obama first ran for president, our corner became very political in the belief that the wars would soon end. Then others joined us about their own causes, with their own signs. That’s free speech.
We get detractors, people yell things, sometimes not stupid but usually. We were even “mooned” a couple times. But most response is positive and the honking to our “Honk For Peace” sign can be at times, obnoxious. Our biggest triumph in 13 years had to be when a young girl driving a Hummer honked. We once had counter demonstrators across the street. Their sign; “We Tried Peace, Then Came 9/11 – Honk For War.” They were there twice.
My personal response to something negative from a passer-by is to yell “thanks.” Thank you for at least acknowledging we’re here and that you caught our message and it bothered you. What bothers me most is the many that can’t help but see us, sometimes people I recognize, but refuse to let their eyes even look our way lest they even have to think about the issue we present.
It’s a protest against this record-long war waging 13 years with no end seemingly in sight. We call it “Permawar,” or “War Without End, Amen.”
The U.S. spends more on military than the next 14 largest militaries in the world combined. And much of the military budgets of most of those countries come back here to buy our weapons. Weapons have become our leading export as well as our leading manufactured product. Well over half of our discretionary tax dollars goes to the Pentagon, and it’s the world’s largest employer as well as the world‘s largest polluter.
We are protesting the biggest military budget in the world that’s turning so much of the rest of the world against us and that’s sucking our own country dry of the peace and freedom it claims to be protecting.
Jack Ryan is a former FBI Agent, turned artist and peace activist.