Walkin' to New Orleans... freedom IS on the march.

[KyndCulture]

:sarcasm:
Walking to New Orleans: Veterans Arrive in Style

By Shannell Jefferson


click here for related stories: Peace/antiwar
3-20-06, 8:56 am


(APN) NEW ORLEANS – Over 100 veterans and other activists who marched 150 miles along Highway 90 over 5 days from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans, Louisiana, arrived amidst cheering crowds today at Congo Square in New Orleans’s Armstrong Park for a huge rally. The rally lasted from 12pm to 5pm.

The Veterans Gulf March started in Alabama on March 14, 2006, and ended in New Orleans today. It was modeled after the famous civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery several decades ago. The arrival of the March in New Orleans was scheduled to coincide with the three year anniversary of the launch of the US Invasion of Iraq.

"Every bomb dropped on Iraq, explodes along the Gulf Coast," the stage banner said.

"I signed up at age 17 to defend the US constitution," for the military, "but this is the first time I feel that I’m protecting the constitution," Geoff Millard, 25, US Army Sgt., said during his speech, in regards to his peace and justice activism.

Millard said he did not feel he was defending the US constitution while stationed in Iraq, and he thanked his "family"–meaning several of his fellow soldiers present–for being there for him.

The point of the rally was to oppose how Bush has ordered US troops over to Iraq when they ought to be in the US trying to protect and serve, David Cline, National President of the Veterans for Peace (VFP), the group which organized the march, explained.

"We were here before FEMA," Cline said, of the response from Veterans for Peace to the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Cline explained that VFP had been protesting in Texas at the time of Hurricane Katrina, but immediately redeployed with supplies.

People expressed they felt Bush had lied about the purpose of invading Iraq, and they opposed Bush having troops in Iraq.

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http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/2995/1/32/