Regional News

News RSS News Email News Podcast

on:

NCPR is supported by:

This is a Visitor-Supported website.

Regional Headlines:

Anti-war marchers in Canton

Voices from the Canton Peace March

by David Sommerstein

Listen to this story

Feb 17, 2003 — Millions of people around the world protested against war in Iraq over the weekend. More than two hundred people marched in Canton Saturday under sunny skies and in frigid cold. They carried signs like "Pray For Peace," "Honk For Peace" and simply "No War On Iraq." David Sommerstein talked to participants and onlookers as the march wound its way up and down Main Street. Rally audio, photos and

Hear this

Listen with Real Player

Download audio

(0) Comments

Explore this

Reported by

David Sommerstein

Reporter/ Producer

@davidncpr

Rally Speakers

Lydell Griffin of SUNY Canton opened the rally with gospel singing, performing His Eye is on the Sparrow and Amazing Grace

Welcome and opening remarks St. Lawrence University chaplain Rev. Kathleen Buckley.

Art Johnson military veteran and professor of history.

Natalie Kowechi student at Little River Community School.

Huda Jerri engineering student and first-generation American of Iraqi descent.

Frank Thies career Marine Corps veteran and member of Adirondack Voices for Peace.

A bi-lingual reading from the Koran by Huda Jerri and Rev. Buckley.

Anne Mamary of Alternatives to War, reading the Wilfred Owen poem The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

Michael Greenwald Rabbi, religious studies, St. Lawrence University.

Phil Harnden of Alternatives to War sent the walkers on their way with song and admonitions.

The crowd for the rally filled the pews in St. Lawrence University's Gunnison Chapel, known for its unique stained glass windows, that celebrate modern "saints" such as Mahatma Ghandi and Dag Hammarskjold.

Following the rally, peace walkers followed in the wake of this "Peace Crane" constucted by the students of the Little River Community School.

The walkers, bundled against the severe cold, made their way downtown, going up one side of Canton's Main Street and down the other, before winding up at the Unitarian-Universalist Church, where they found central heating, hot drinks, comfort food, and jazz.