Author: Alex Gronke
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: September 26, 2001
Berkeley (California), Sept. 25
(Reuters): The times, they sure ARE a-changin'.
The University of California at
Berkeley, a famous hotbed of anti-US rhetoric and student protest during
the Vietnam War, broke out in a "Rally for America" yesterday as a coalition
of student activists and fraternities gathered to back President George
W. Bush's "war against terrorism."
From the steps of Sproul Hall, the
place where some scholars of the 1960s say American student protest and
anti-war activism got its start, 150 students rallied for a show of unity
behind the US government after the attacks on New York and Washington,
DC.
Rally supporters waved American
flags and hoisted signs with such slogans as, "Whip Terrorism," and "We
Cannot Stand Idle," while student speakers called for military action against
those they called terrorists, praised the United States, and denounced
anti-war activists as unpatriotic.
"This is 2001, not 1968," said rally
coordinator Randy Barnes, a Berkeley senior majoring in Mass Communications.
"This is not Vietnam, but an act of aggression against the United States."
Before the rally, Barnes borrowed
the language of the Vietnam War era by saying that he wanted to give voice
to the "silent majority" of students that he said do not blame US foreign
policy for the attacks on September 11, and who want to see a punishing
military response. "We are average students," said Barnes. "We are here
to go to class and get an education. We are not the readymade, professional
protesters of Berkeley."
While the rally's supporters cheered
and pumped flags, a group of counter-demonstrators, some of them students,
chanted, "1-2-3-4, We don't want your racist war," and held aloft banners
with anti war messages.
Barnes and his supporters took pains
to say that the rally was pro-American and not pro-war, but the language
from the podium was often bellicose and many in the anti-war group saw
the rally as a bloodthirsty call to arms.
"I'm not against the US" said Patricia
Mueller-Moule, a graduate student at Berkeley and an anti-war activist.
"This is a pro-US rally, but I assume there will be some people here who
want war. They shout, Win the war.' I'm just against the war."
Robb McFadden, president of the
university's Republican club, and a junior majoring in political science,
blasted what he described as anti-American sentiment on campus. "There
is an unwritten rule in Berkeley: Blame America," McFadden told the rally.
The rally closed with a minute of silence observed by both factions of
the demonstration.
But students with American flags
quickly squared off against students hoisting Palestinian flags. And as
the public address system played Neil Diamond's, Coming to America heated
arguments erupted in several corners of the plaza.
Across this campus of 31,000 students,
most people seemed unaware of the protest at Sproul plaza, perhaps because
last Thursday an anti war rally drew 10 times the number of demonstrators.
