Milwaukee Army Recruitment Center Protesters: They're Back!

This time in the light of the day, protesters have returned to the same Milwaukee U.S. Army Recruitment Center that was the scene of a violent protest a few weeks ago.

This afternoon's protesters made reference to the previous protest that included setting off smoke bombs, throwing paint, smashing windows, and resulted in the arrests of 21 people.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A couple dozen people protested outside the U.S. Army recruiting office near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus this afternoon.

It was the first demonstration at the recruiting office on Oakland Ave. since 21 people were arrested last month after demonstrators broke windows and threw paint bombs at the office. The protesters held up signs that said "Bring Our Windows Home Now," "Give Windows a Chance" and "100 Windows are Broken Every Day in Baghdad."

The event was organized by the Milwaukee chapter of Students for a Democratic Society.

As a guitarist played and sang "Eve of Destruction" and other '60s protest songs, Dawson Barrett, a UWM graduate student in history, said, "It's a little ridiculous that three broken windows are treated as violence while no one wants to talk about 700,000 dead Iraqis and almost 4,000 dead U.S. troops."

Really?

I don't think it's ridiculous. I disagree with Barrett.

Anti-war protesters claim to support the troops. They hate President Bush. They hate the administration's policies, but they love our fighting men and women.

When an army recruitment center is targeted with violence, it exposes that big lie.

Furthermore, it's ridiculous to say that "no one wants to talk" about Iraqi or American casualties.

The nation is embroiled in discussions about the war.

It's just silly to suggest that people care more about the protesters' violence than what's happening in Iraq.

It's typical fringe crap.

What's with the 60s protest songs? Was the protest a "let's pretend we're protesting the Vietnam War" event?

And the lame signs with the references to windows, "Bring Our Windows Home Now," "Give Windows a Chance" and "100 Windows are Broken Every Day in Baghdad," were really goofy.

Dawson Barrett whines that the broken windows at the recruiting center got too much attention. So why carry signs about the windows?

What was the purpose of the protest?

Remembering Vietnam?

Raising awareness about the fragility of glass?

It's hard to say.
____________________________

UPDATE: I received the following email from Dawson Barrett.

He provides more details about the protest and offers perspective not found in the Journal Sentinel report.

My name is Dawson Barrett. I am the UWM student quoted in the Journal Sentinel article that you referenced today. As I'm sure you realize, that was not my entire statement, but that's another story...

I am writing you with the intention of starting a dialogue, which was the point of our demonstration today. People drive by signs that say "Support Our Troops," but they do a double-take when they find the word "windows." We were hoping very much that people would ask us what we were talking about.

I stand by my original statement that the mainstream media's obsession with the window event was ridiculous, and that reactions calling for these youths to be executed for treason were another level of obscenity altogether. I also take offense to the notion that I am not allowed to support the troops and oppose the war. I have friends in the military, and I love them very much. My love is reflected in the fact that I do not want them to be killed, and I do not want them to kill people either. In fact, I think that it is unfair to presume that people willing to stand in the freezing, windy cold for hours on end are guided by anything other than a feeling of empathy. I honestly think more people should be demanding that troops get proper protective gear (maybe Halliburton and Bechtel should go ahead and pay for that) rather than merely put ribbon magnets on their vehicles...

Some of today's press reports confused whether or not today's protestors were involved with the March 19 action. We are different people. We were not there today to endorse the tactics of those youth; however, I think the frustration that their actions represent is understandable, if you are willing to try.

I think that many in our society treat this war as if it's a sporting event, debating a troop surge as if it's a debate over changing quarterbacks. This is an enormous insult to our troops - and really to humanity - and it is not the anti-war movement that is guilty of this behavior. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party wins a Congressional landslide (not based on their merits, specifically on the issue of the war), and the best they can muster is a non-binding resolution. Regardless of your party affiliation, you must recognize that this is not democracy in action. And then of course, the media in Milwaukee refused to cover the peaceful protest downtown...

I am not asking you to endorse the destruction of these windows; I do not do that myself. I am merely asking you to attempt to understand where these people were coming from, a task apparently too complicated for our wonderful media. I think you would find that very few of these kids are terrorists who hate American and hate our troops. I would be willing to place bets that most of them are driven by extreme feelings of love, even if their actions do not reflect it very well.

Breaking windows in response to your team losing the big game is juvenile, but can we at least say that something fundamentally different is going on here, that even if we condemn the breaking of windows, we understand that it is in response to near genocide?

I am sure that we will have to agree to disagree, but I hope that we can maybe reach a bit further than the hatred and ignorance so often reflected in our media.