Articles
December 2011, Pages 66-67
Waging Peace
Social Justice, Antiwar Activists Meet And "Occupy Iowa"
Some 500 Iowans expressed their support of and solidarity with Occupy Wall Street protests nationwide by occupying a park near the state capitol building in Des Moines on Sunday, Oct. 9. The group, dubbed "Occupy Iowa" by its organizers, represents a wide variety of concerns, and many of the activists addressed more than one issue.
Kate Dirks, a student at Iowa State University in Ames, held a hand-lettered sign declaring on one side "Fox 'News' Will Lie About This" and "I Am A Human Being Not A Student Loan Number" on the other.
"There is a lot of diversity in the messages," Dirks acknowledged, "but the overarching theme that everyone can agree on is that we want the government to be "about the people" again, whether that be concerns about war or about finance or business, or about student loans."
David Drake, a member of the Des Moines Human Rights Commission and a psychiatrist, wore his white lab coat to the protest. Many of the issues that most concern Iowans are related, he pointed out.
"As a physician, I'm most concerned about health care. I see health care as a right not as a privilege, and I support a single-payer health care plan. I work with lots of people who've had foreclosures, who've lost their jobs, who lose their insurance. I'm very concerned about that," Drake said.
"I'm impressed with the interconnections of all these issues with ongoing wars, with the billions, even a trillion dollars that we're spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places, it's just astounding to me," he added.
According to Drake, the huge amounts of money our government is wasting on horrific wars abroad could be better spent here at home to address the pressing needs of Americans who are in need and in distress.
Phil Carlson, a Des Moines social studies teacher, came to the protest wearing a T-shirt that read, "Give Peace A Chance!" He, too, spoke of a direct connection between the nation's economic problems and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The wars that have been dragging our country down for so long are certainly a factor that needs to be addressed in terms of the economic impact," Carlson said. "We need to bring the troops home, and much of the money our government spends on defense would be better spent elsewhere."
Added Carlson, "We need a public works program like FDR's for infrastructure and other things our country sorely needs."
Cora Metrick-Chen, a University of Iowa student, and Adam G. Krause, who attends Ashford University, facilitated Occupy Iowa's first general assembly.
Krause was one of more than 30 protesters arrested by Iowa State Patrol officers who ejected the protesters from the park on the Capitol grounds after they refused to leave at 11 p.m. Also among those arrested were Des Moines Catholic Worker and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement community organizer David Goodner, and Des Moines WOW-FM radio host and former state representative Ed Fallon.
"Getting arrested only encourages me," said Fallon.
—Michael Gillespie
