Anti-war group airs views, but Bush doesn’t see them

CAROLE HAWKINS

President Bush came to Brunswick to talk about immigration, but anti-war protesters were determined to change the subject.

The president spoke on the need for immigration reform during his visit to Brunswick’s Federal Law Enforcement Training Center on Tuesday. At the same time, across the street about 20 anti-war activists talked about getting the U.S. out of Iraq instead.

“He’s killing troops and Iraqi civilians for oil and money, and this has to stop,” said Cathy Browning, a member of GlynnPeace: Citizens to End War in Iraq. “I don’t think we should be occupying a country and calling it a war.”

Bush entered and left the center by another gate and did not see the protesters.

Protestor Thomas Clavin served as a Marine during World War II. But he called the deaths of 19-, 20- and 21-year-olds today in Iraq shameful.

“It’s always been the young who are sent, but they should die for a cause,” he said. “World War II was to stop the Japanese from coming here and taking over. This war is over politics and oil.”

Vietnam veteran Dave Stone agreed.

“If this is such a great war, why don’t the president’s and vice president’s children serve? This war is being fought on a credit card. America’s not really committed,” he said.

The group evoked mixed reactions. Several passing cars honked horns in support, while threats of towed vehicles loomed over protesters’ heads.

Although their numbers were small, Robert Randall, president of GlynnPeace, says the activists make a difference.

“We’re in the majority,” he said. “Most people want to see the war end. But people have to see folks like us out here in order to justify in their minds what they’re already thinking.”

When asked about the president’s address, protesters called the current immigration debate a non-issue, having more to do with poverty than terrorism.

“Bush could have closed those borders a long time,” Browning said. “But corporations in the U.S. want those immigrants for cheap labor.”

Protester Elaine Brown, former chairwoman of the Black Panther Party and a former candidate for mayor of Brunswick, criticized the immigration initiative for targeting Mexicans, not terrorists.

“[This bill] is just pitting poor blacks and poor Mexicans against one another,” she said. “The only reason [illegal] Mexicans are coming here is because they are willing to work for less than union wages. If you paid someone $20 an hour, you wouldn’t have an illegal immigration problem because people here would be willing to take those jobs.”

One lone protester standing apart from the others offered a different challenge to the president.

Sam Wright, who served three tours in the infantry in Vietnam, supports the Iraq war but came to protest amnesty for illegal immigrants.

“In 1954, President Eisenhower deported a half-million illegal aliens from this country. Don’t tell me that it can’t be done again,” he said.