The Occupation Project
By John Curran
March 28, 2007
Associated Press
Eight war protesters were arrested Tuesday after refusing to leave the Burlington offices of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., capping a peaceful 3 1/2-hour sit-in.
Among them: an 82-year-old woman and a young mother with her 9-month-old daughter in tow.
“I feel strongly that this war is illegal and immoral,” said Marmete Hayes, 82, of Burlington. “Anybody who keeps saying they’re against the war should not be funding it.”
The demonstration was the second in a week by Iraq war opponents that targeted anti-war members of the Vermont congressional delegation.
Last week, six people were arrested during a similar action at the offices of U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. Three of them were among those arrested Tuesday.
After refusing to leave Sanders’ district office at its 6 p.m. closing, several were handcuffed — one requested it — and all were given trespassing warnings, according to police Capt. Walter Decker. Police will confer with prosecutors today to decide whether to charge them, Decker said.
“We’re going to stop the war!” Palmer Legare, 27, of Cabot yelled as he was taken away by an officer. “Bernie’s not going to do it, Peter’s not going to do it.”
The protest was organized over a war aid bill approved by the House of Representatives and awaiting action in the U.S. Senate. The House measure set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and earmarked $124 billion for war operations.
About 30 people participated, including Beth Ryan, 32, of Essex, who brought her infant daughter, Evelyn. Ryan wasn’t handcuffed when arrested.
“They say they’re anti-war, but we feel like you can’t be anti-war and then sign a check for $100 billion,” said Liza Earle, 27, of Richmond, an organizer who attended both protests.
“It’s like 100 billion thumbs up signals. For someone like Peter Welch, who said he wanted the troops home yesterday, to vote for this funding was a real disappointment. Many people feel they’ve been betrayed.”
In the incident last week, the six — who were among 30 people in the demonstration — refused to leave the office when it closed for the day. They were arrested but not formally charged with trespassing. That demonstration occurred on the eve of a debate in the U.S. House of Representatives over additional funding for the Iraq war.
In Tuesday’s demonstration, the war opponents camped out in a conference room and had a contentious back-and-forth conversation with Sanders chief of staff Jeffrey Weaver, who was on speakerphone from Washington, D.C.
“The goal that we have, to bring this war to a close, is the same as yours,” said Weaver.
The demonstrators, irate that Sanders wasn’t present and didn’t join the telephone call, said they didn’t understand why a war opponent would vote for funding.
“The funding has got to stop,” said Bunny Daubner, 75, of Bristol. “How can you say you’re against a war and still give money to it?”
In a telephone interview Tuesday, Welch defended his vote in favor of the bill in the House, saying it marked a change of direction for the U.S.
“This takes away the president’s blank check, imposes accountability and sets a date certain” for troop withdrawals, he said.
In a statement read to the protesters by Weaver, Sanders said he wants troops home sooner but that insisting on it was politically impractical.
“I believe it would be counterproductive to take the position that some are advocating, namely to vote against anything that doesn’t include an immediate or nearly immediate withdrawal from Iraq,” Sanders said.
“That would mean voting with the Bush administration and congressional Republicans and handing a victory to those who want to continue and perhaps expand the war into neighboring countries.”
University of Vermont political scientist Anthony Gierzynski, who was not present at the demonstration, chalked it up to lack of pragmatism by the protesters.
“There’s an awful lot of frustration with the war out there. It’s a combination of that and failure to understand that you can’t have everything you want right away, in order to get something accomplished.”
