Far left: Hungry for Peace rally at the civic center in downtown Duluth, Minn. (Photo by Naomi Yaeger-Bischoff)Right: Names of the dead soilders from the Iraq war on a University of Minnesota pillar near the bookstore. (Photo by Will Rhodes.)
By Eric Lund
As part of the “Hungry for Peace” campaign that I had co-organized, several others and myself abstained from food for five days to protest the occupation of Iraq. It was a joint effort between UMD and St. Scholastica’s campuses.
We held various activities throughout the week, as well as camped out in St. Scholastica’s lawn each night. Each day had a theme. Monday was Open Discussion day, in which we had both UMD and CSS’s student political groups hold a panel on the War.
Tuesday was Veterans Day, in which we held another panel, with an Iraq and Vietnam War veteran, as well as a member of the Duluth Chapter of Veterans for Peace. We then showed a movie following entitled “When I Came Home” chronicling the abuse of some already homeless Iraq War veterans.
Wednesday was titled “The Cost of War: Health, Environmental and Fiscal Costs of the War in Iraq.” It was an informative lecture that highlighted how much money the war, whether we support it or not, costs each and every one of us, the damage its doing to Iraq’s ecosystem, and the effects of substances such as depleted uranium is having on our soldiers returning home, and the lives and well-being of the citizens of Iraq. Following the lecture we had an open-mic concert on CSS’s lawn.
Thursday featured a lecture by Dr. Sabah Alwan, who teaches at CSS and is from Iraq. He talked about the history of the country, and the startling changes that have occurred pre-invasion, and post. Friday we ended the week with a rally in front of the government buildings downtown, featuring among others local peace activist Michelle Naar’Obed.
How did this all get started you might ask? Well this past week was a product completely manufactured by students. A few months ago a couple of UMD freshman, Steve Wick and Coly Wentzloff, perturbed that there wasn’t an anti-war group on campus started-up a group they called “UMD Students for Peace.” I attended the first meeting, and that’s where things really kicked off.
We staged a protest in front of the UMD bookstore, in which we cut out and pasted up the names of the over three thousand dead International soldiers, all over the pillars and walls. We even dragged a bed down from the dorms, and had a John Lennon-style bed-in for peace. We garnered a good amount of attention that Friday afternoon, and it put us in contact with numerous peace and social justice groups around the city.
The fast and encampment was an idea of mine. I thought we needed to do something really radical, because while marches and protests are great, 95% of those in attendance put in their hour and a half, and go home unmoved. We needed to show people that we were willing to make sacrifices; that we’d give up something so fundamental as food!
I attended a Northland Anti War Coalition meeting, and presented my idea of a fast. They thought it was a great idea, but it was a busy couple of weeks, and nothing much got done about it. Finally somebody put me in contact with two girls who run Amnesty International at CSS, Emily Slagle and Lorena Rodriguez. As soon as we met, we both said the magic word, FAST.
Across campuses we had the same idea. They had done some research and the University of Baltimore Maryland was organizing a fast the week of April 30th – May 4th calling for other campuses across the nation to join them in solidarity. The dates were set and we spent the next month filling in the details and doing our best to advertise while trying to stay on top of schoolwork.
“I think the reason that fasting works well as a form of protest is because it shows that you are dedicated to what you are doing,” said Slagle. “It involves sacrifice, granted it is a relatively small sacrifice, but it makes people notice. The idea behind the “Hungry for Peace” protest is that the citizens of this country need to take back the control that they have lost. The majority of the people in this country do not support this war and we need to stand up and let the government know that this is unacceptable.”
We had done some research on fasting, and we knew it was going to be difficult, but at the same time a very healthy and cleansing experience. However, by the start of the week, we had about thirty people pledging to fast, and by the end of the week, about five made it. I prepared well for the fast eating only fruits and vegetables two days before it. According to our research the first three days were supposed to be hard, really hard, and after that our body would pretty much forget it was hungry, and we’d be in a healthful bliss the last two days.
It kind of went the opposite for me. The first three days were relatively easy for me, the only distractions came when I’d see a bowl of candy, or somebody biting into a big juicy sandwich, and I had to constantly remind myself of the cause. The last two days were extremely difficult however. I had no strength, I’d get winded going up hill or up stairs, and was constantly tired. I found myself easily irritable, and a little delirious. One-by-one people fell off, saying they couldn’t concentrate on the school, or had a choir concert. I couldn’t blame them.
Regardless we made it through the week relatively unscathed, and with an overwhelming sense of success. The events were well attended and, upon talking to people, exiting. I got the impression that people thought the events were informative and thought provoking. The media gave us a fair amount of attention, which assisted our other main goal, awareness.
People asked me what I missed most about not eating last week. It wasn’t so much the actual food, because the human body can live a long time without it, it was the ritual of eating…something I had never really thought about before. But three meals a day is so ingrained in our heads, we stop to take a break midday, read the paper, and in a sense center ourselves and evaluate our goals for the next several hours. Without this regimented schedule, I felt all my days just blended together without much direction or purpose. So there, a little food for thought!
