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Points of View October 30, 2005 Updated with more photos November 9, 2005 Guest Column and photos © 2005 Scott Rutherford. Additional photos © 2005 Loret Gnvecki Steinberg, Associate Professor, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology. Published with Permission.

Letter: Washington, D.C., anti-war demonstration and mass civil disobedience in front of the White House

By Scott Rutherford

After traveling to Camp Casey to meet Cindy Sheehan in August, it seemed only fitting to join her in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2005, for the demonstration calling for an end to the war in Iraq and on Monday, Sept. 26, to risk arrest in front of the White House.* Here is an account of the two events.

The Demonstration

Holding a banner with other participants during the Sept. 24, 2005, anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C., are Jesse Jackson, second from left holding banner, and, to his left, Cindy Sheehan and the Rev. Al Sharpton. (Photo © 2005 Scott Rutherford. Reprinted with permission.)

Once underway, the march wound its way up 15th street to Pennsylvania Avenue, where we turned to walk past the White House. It was the first time in 10 years that a demonstration had been permitted in front of the White House. It was a colorful and high-spirited procession as you will see from the following photographs.

"Anarchist Hackers" march with their peace banner during the Sept. 24, 2005, anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C. (Photo © 2005 Scott Rutherford. Reprinted with permission.)

The President was away, but it made no difference to the demonstrators. As the marchers reached the White House, they would stop and with great passion call out to President Bush to "stop the killing and stop the war" and to "bring home the troops NOW." 

Marchers demonstrate with large effigy of President Bush as Pinocchio on Sept. 24, 2005, in Washington, D.C. (Photo © 2005 Scott Rutherford. Reprinted with permission.)

Linking the war in Iraq to the Administration's disastrous management of Hurricane Katrina was a sign that read: "Make Levees, Not War."  

"Billionaires for Bush" participate in the Sept. 24 anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C. (Photo © 2005 Scott Rutherford. Reprinted with permission.)

The White House Action

"When leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders." Veterans' Fast for Life, 1986.

On Sunday, following the demonstration, I returned to the Mall to receive nonviolence training and to find an affinity group to join for the "Remember and Resist" White House mass civil resistance action, organized by United for Peace and Justice. This action would take place Monday, Sept. 26. 

Members of veterans' affinity group prepare for White House action. An affinity group is a mutual support group made up of the people who are risking arrest and their supporters, one of whose jobs is to keep track of the ones arrested as they are processed through the system. (Photo © 2005 Loret Gnvecki Steinberg, Associate Professor, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology.)

I felt called to join the action because it was clear that our political process has failed us. By all rights the illegal and immoral war in Iraq should have long ago been brought to a conclusion -- or, better, not begun at all. (It is significant, I think, that not one member of Congress joined the Saturday march.) So I felt compelled, as matter of conscience, to escalate my resistance and end my complicity in what is clearly becoming one of history's great atrocities. 

I joined an affinity group made up principally of veterans, many of them members of Veterans For Peace, as I am. One had served in Iraq; and two, one a woman, had served in the first Gulf War. 

On Monday morning over 500 people gathered at the Foundry United Methodist Church on Northwest 16th Street to prepare for the action. There were brief speeches; some poems were read; and we sang and prayed. At eleven o'clock we left the church. All of us were wearing a sign bearing the name of an American service person or an Iraqi citizen who had been killed in the war. On my sign was the name of an Iraqi child, Aleaa Saad Abd Alrzak. He was ten years old when he was killed in a tank attack. 

With a D.C. police escort we walked to the Ellipse. There, we were divided into two files. We then walked up opposites sides of the White House to Lafayette Park, our staging area. 

The park was full of protesters who had come to support us. They were chanting anti-war slogans and singing protest songs. There was hardly room for us to get in position to approach the White House. The tension was palpable. 

At one o'clock, following some more brief speeches and prayers led by an affinity group made up of religious leaders, we veterans were among the group of 370 who proceeded in a rush across Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House main gate. One of the religious leaders served as our spokesperson. She told the guard that we had come to see the President to ask him to end the war. Would he meet with us? When we were told, "No," we moved en masse, surrounded by media, down the sidewalk to the "postcard area, directly in front of the White House." It is an area that by city ordinance is kept clear of people so that tourists might have an undisrupted view of the White House. By congregating in it, we were risking arrest. 

I quickly went with others to the fence that surrounds the White House to hang on it the signs we were wearing. Soon the fence was covered with the names of the Americans and Iraqis killed in the war, as well as protest signs. 

Members of veterans' affinity group gather in front of the White House during mass civil resistance action, organized by United for Peace and Justice on Sept. 26, 2005. (Photo © 2005 Loret Gnvecki Steinberg, Associate Professor, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology.)

After half an hour, a U.S. Park Police officer ordered the media to clear the area. Shortly after that we were given the first of three warnings that if we did not vacate the area we would be subject to arrest. Two police vans and a city bus were pulled up, visually cutting us from the people in the park, who continued to sing and chant and call out their support to us. At around 2:30 p.m., the first arrest was made when two police officers carried Cindy Sheehan from the sidewalk to the street, where she was handcuffed and placed in one of the police vans. She was cheered mightily.

Guest author Scott Rutherford, right, and friend await arrest during mass civil resistance action in front of the White House on Sept. 26, 2005. (Photo © 2005 Loret Gnvecki Steinberg, Associate Professor, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology.)

The arrests continued well into the evening. I was fortunate to be taken into custody at around 3:30 p.m. I was held for about six hours with some 35 others, including members of my affinity group, inside a D.C. city bus in front of the park Police headquarters in Anacostia in southeast Washington. I was booked, issued a citation to appear in court or pay a $75 fine and released on my own recognizance at about 10:30 p.m. A shuttle took me along with some members of my affinity group to the Anacostia Metro station, and I was home by midnight. The last of the detainees was released at 5 a.m. the next morning. 

I have been advised to hold off on paying my fine, since the charges may be dropped because of the administrative hassle facing the D.C. court system of prosecuting 370 arrests.

It was a wonderfully gratifying experience. I met a number of old friends, made some new ones and found myself strengthened in my resolve to continue to resist the war and all of its terrible consequences. I would do it all again in the blink of eye.

Learn more about the author of this guest column, Scott Rutherford.

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*Editor's note:  Read Scott Rutherford's Sept. 4, 2005, letter, "Trip to Camp Casey, August 2005."

Note: Views expressed by our guest columnists are not necessarily the views of Keweenaw Now.