by Freeda Cathcart
Woodstock – Saturday, Feb. 28 the same day the Iran war started, hundreds of people gathered for the 52nd week at the Interstate 81 Exit 283.
They came prepared with signs saying “No War”. They had made their signs before the war started hoping protests would stop the U.S. from going to war with Iran. People expressed anger and frustration that they woke up to the news the U.S. had started a war of choice with Iran.
People thought that the war was started to distract from the Epstein files. Now that the House Oversight Committee had taken depositions from Hillary and Bill Clinton, people called for the committee to make Melania and Donald Trump testify to what they knew about Epstein’s pedophilia human trafficking operation. The protesters aren’t going to get distracted from the Epstein files, the attempts to rig the midterms, affordability, ICE abuses…. while they add opposing the war to their protests.
The reason for starting the war kept shifting from preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapons program (the program they “obliterated” last year), to Iran being an immediate threat for the U.S. (no evidence of that) to what is more likely the truth, that the Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced Donald Trump to do it.
For decades Americans had been more supportive of Israel than the Palestinians. Since the Israel regime launched the brutal war in response to the Hamas attack and kidnappings, 41% of Americans sympathize with the Palestinians compared with only 36% sympathizing with the Israel regime.
So far six U.S. military members have been killed. 787 people have been killed in Iran. 11 have been killed in Israel and 52 people have been killed in Lebanon.
There have been bi-partisan accusations that the war is unlawful because the Constitution gives the power to declare war to Congress. The war resolution is expected to be voted on this week in Congress.
Despite the darkness of the impending war, the mood at the Woodstock protest was full of joy and community. These brave patriots persisted in their weekly protests and survived attempts by the Republican state government to try to intimidate them. They had much to celebrate. A judge had thrown the charges against three protesters out of court!
People talked about how their weekly protests helped to build community. It also gave them an opportunity each week to respond to whatever crazy or horrendous developments had happened that week.
The protesters were proud of the work they did to help elect Gov. Spanberger, Lt. Gov. Hashmi and AG Jones. Now they were already working on building the movement to pass the new redistricting map. They had signs saying “Vote YES!”. Voting starts March 6 and the final date to vote is April 21. People can find out more information by going to VoteYES.US to learn more about the new redistricting map and how they can join the Vote YES movement.
