By Brian Terrell
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Betsy gets carried away
More than one hundred people gathered at noon yesterday in downtown Des Moines’ Nollen Plaza in solidarity with communities around the nation making a Declaration of Peace. State Representative Ed Fallon and Betsy Keenan along with the ‘Raging Grannies’ provided musical entertainment and inspiration and members of the various organizations sponsoring the event spoke. A proclamation by Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie encouraging citizens to act for peace to commemorate the UN’s International Day of Peace was read. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa released a statement for the occasion that was also read, saying. ‘President Bush saying “stay the course” is not a strategy, it is a slogan. It effectively means to stay in Iraq forever, to “stay and pay.” Already we have paid with nearly 2700 US servicemen and women dead and more than 32000 wounded.’
The rally ended about 1 pm and many walked across the plaza to the Federal Building where Senator Chuck Grassley (Rep) has his office and others walked to Congressman Leonard Boswell’s (Dem) office in a commercial building six blocks way. Previous unsuccessful efforts had been made to convince Senator Grassley to sign on to the Declaration of Peace and commit to taking steps to end the war in Iraq. The senator’s lack of response to these entreaties and his statements quoted in the Des Moines Register on September 14 that critics of the war have a ‘demoralizing impact on our troops’ and ‘embolden the enemy,’ the group did not expect a warm welcome and did not get one.
A dozen or so protestors entered the lobby of the Federal Building and were met with the senator’s representative who met with them for less than one minute, just to tell the group that he was not going to talk with them and that the group would not be allowed in the senator’s seventh floor office. An officer of the Federal Protection Service backed by a large contingent of Des Moines City police, several sheriffs’ departments and state troopers told the group that since they had exercised their rights to address their grievances it was time for them to go. Members of the group declined to go and began reading aloud the litany of 2700 and more names of US service members killed in Iraq. Four, Betsy Keenan, Rev. Chet Guinn, Brian Terrell and Chris Gaunt attempted to walk to the elevator to the senator’s office but were blocked by police officers. When these four, continuing to read the list of names of the dead, explained to the police that they would remain standing in the hall until the officers would step aside to let us through, police cleared the lobby, threatening any who remained with arrest. Each of the four were then handcuffed and taken to police wagons to the police station and were quickly released with federal citations requiring them to pay a $100 fine or appear in US District Court. The police were professional, respectful and even friendly in their response, even as Gaunt and Keenan refused to walk with them out of the building and were carried to the van on stretchers.
While Congressman Boswell supports continued war in Iraq and refuses to sign the declaration, his Des Moines office staff spent many hours in earnest conversation with Declaration organizers in the days leading up to their action. When protestors arrived on Monday after the rally they were welcomed at the Congressman’s office. A 45 minute telephone conference with the congressman was arranged and while he would not relent in his position on the war, there was a respectful exchange of views. The rest of the afternoon was spent in conversation with the Congressman’s aides, in silent worship in the manner of the Quakers and in reading the names of Iraqi and US war dead. When the office building closed at 5pm and the protestors held to their commitment to remain until Mr. Boswell joined with them to end the war, the office staff reluctantly called the Des Moines Police. Seven, Ed Bloomer, Wendy Vasquez, Lynne Howard, Dr. David Drake, Kathleen McQuillen, John Findley and Elton Davis, were arrested and taken to the police station. They were given a state charge of trespassing and released with citations to appear in court on October 10.