Child protesters make plea for peace
“The Children’s Voices” is an anti-war group that aims to give kids a voice in the ongoing war debate.
LEWISTON – Natalie Bornstein, 10, stood in the biting wind Sunday and made her plea for peace.
She spoke of the “beautiful world” we might have if there was no war. She described her fears of children dying in a far away place.
The little girl read the descriptions from a letter she wrote and addressed to the president, Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins. As Natalie read, she faced Collins’ Lewiston office. The office was dark. Its blinds were pulled.
“I hope she reads it,” said Natalie, a fifth-grader at Sherwood Heights Elementary School in Auburn. “I’m not sure what she’ll do. I hope it affects her somehow.”
That’s the hope of the eight protesters who gathered Sunday. Together, they helped form “The Children’s Voices,” a little anti-war group aimed at giving children a voice in the ongoing war debate. They had hoped for more. As the presentation began, the group had compiled four letters. One was Natalie’s. Another came from a girl in
Presque Isle.
The group was begun by Gregory Rosenthal, a 20-year-old Bates College student. He plans to mail the letters to leaders on Monday, he said.
“Though we received only four letters, I feel that they are four very passionate, meaningful letters, and they will matter to our senators,” said Rosenthal.
They should matter, he said.
Rosenthal was 8 years old during the Gulf War. He was aware of the war then.
He kept a journal during the war. He saved pictures and videotapes of the TV coverage, he said. He still has these materials, he said. They’re his proof that kids have a general understanding of what’s going on.
“A child who is beaten up on the schoolyard by the school bully knows that violence is painful,” Rosenthal said, ignoring the taunts of drivers who passed the Lisbon Street office. “George Bush is a schoolyard bully, winning voters by showing off his ability to win a war through violent means. The American populace is the gang that follows the bully.”
Bornstein stood with her mother, Renee Cote, as Rosenthal spoke.
“How many Iraqi children must die to ensure the freedom of their peers?” he asked. “How many American children would we kill to ensure our own freedoms?”
Half of the Iraqi population is under 16, he said.
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