POLAND – Army veteran and retiree Bob Chapman, 59, doesn’t join causes. He’s voted for Republicans and Democrats. “I voted for Olympia Snowe.” He’s never been an activist.
But that’s about to change.
On Saturday, Chapman and his wife, Janis, will join a march in the nation’s capital opposing the war in Iraq.
Actually, Chapman wants Bush impeached.
“The primary reason is we shouldn’t be involved in this war in the first place,” Chapman said. “We were misled. Lied to. Manipulated. There’s considerable evidence of that, if people are willing to seek it out.”
His nephew, Austin Taylor, 19, is a Marine in San Diego about to leave for Iraq. Chapman is proud, but worried about his nephew. “I’m a veteran. I’m not opposed to war, if it’s necessary,” Chapman said. The war in Iraq is not, he said.
Saturday’s anti-war march is being organized by United for Peace and Justice. The group also has events planned for Sunday and next Monday. Organizers expect the demonstration to attract more than 100,000 people, media coordinator Bill Dobbs said Friday.
Meanwhile a counter-rally and pro-Bush demonstration also is planned Saturday in Washington. That rally in support of the troops in Iraq and their mission is being organized by Move America Forward and Defendthewhitehouse.org. It will place participants close to anti-war protesters, so that people like Bob and Janis Chapman “will not go unanswered by patriotic Americans,” according to Move America Forward’s Web page.
Other areas cut
As bad as the war in Iraq is, Chapman said, the Bush administration has done other harm, such as cut funding for necessary programs while given tax breaks to the wealthy.
“The most recent revelation is that in the last three years they cut funding to the Army Corps of Engineers that would have mitigated this horror in New Orleans,” he said.
Chapman also said he doesn’t like the president’s close ties to the religious right. He’s unhappy about how other countries view the United States.
It isn’t his style to protest, Chapman said. “I’ve never done anything like this in my life. But I just can’t sit at home any longer.”
“We planned this in March,” Dobbs said of the anti-war rally. As the president’s approval ratings have fallen, “momentum is growing” for the demonstration, he said. Fueling that has been a number of events: a group of Ohio soldiers dying in Iraq, Cindy Sheehan’s protest, the Bush’s administration response to Katrina and high gas prices.
Steve Burke of Midcoast Peace and Justice Group in Rockland is organizing bus rides to the anti-war rally.
“We’re started out with three buses. Now we’re taking five bus-loads,” Burke said. “The calls are coming in. We’ll be taking a little under 250 people by bus. Others are flying, going by vans. Carpooling.”
Counterdemonstration
On Saturday, a “You Don’t Speak For Me Cindy” cross-country caravan is scheduled to arrive in Washington, D.C. It’s a response to Cindy Sheehan, the mother who lost her son in Iraq and protested in Crawford, Texas, during President George Bush’s vacation.
The Move America Forward rally is to honor members of the military and their mission of fighting the war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to organization’s Web site.
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