For Spring Break, 8 Holy Cross Students Protest the War
PROTEST
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Jason Millman
Boston University Washington News Service
March 21, 2008
WASHINGTON – Like so many others their age, a group of College of the Holy Cross students headed south for spring break – but they didn’t have warm weather in mind.
Eight Holy Cross students spent part of their spring breaks in the nation’s capital to protest the Iraq war during the week of its fifth anniversary.
“The capital is where it’s happening,” said Katie Guardino, a 19-year-old sophomore who organized the trip. “It’s where Congress meets. It’s where the Supreme Court is. Our message is ultimately to the government that we’re going to take control.”
On Thursday and Friday, the group of eight traveled around Washington, carrying signs and chanting anti-war slogans as they walked to protest outside the White House, Supreme Court and the Capitol. Though the Holy Cross students arrived in D.C. one day after Wednesday’s massive anti-war protests on the actual anniversary of the war’s start, they elicited plenty of response from onlookers.
“There’s a small number of us, but we really got out there,” said sophomore Casey O’Keefe, 20. “There were tourists who asked to take pictures with us. We got lots of beeps [from cars] and lots of peace signs.”
Ms. Guardino said she had not been active in her opposition to the war until recently, and the milestone anniversary in the war’s history prompted her to organize the Washington trip. The students said it was refreshing to voice their views in Washington, an environment receptive to anti-war protests – much unlike the Holy Cross campus, which the students said lacks in political activism.
Some people on the trip, which was sponsored by the College Democrats, said they were disappointed in the turnout considering it had been advertised on campus since November. Tom McGlynn, a 19-year-old freshman, said after five years his peers have become uninterested in the war.
“The fact that it’s been going on so long, it gets pushed to the back burner and people forget, so they become apathetic,” Mr. McGlynn said. “I talked this trip up for a while and got very few people to come. It’s a tough blow to see people not interested in their future.”
Ms. Guardino, citing political apathy on campus as the reason for the trip’s small turnout, said she was not disappointed that only eight students showed up.
“I was expecting more people to come, but I’m glad there’s eight,” she said. “If we can do small actions and walk around, then we’ve done something.”
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