Peace trains pick up steam
Manuela Da Costa-Fernandes, Register Staff February 14, 2003
NEW HAVEN — When Henry Lowendorf launched a plan to charter "peace trains" to attend an antiwar rally in New York Saturday, he estimated he would need to reserve six Metro-North cars for 650 people.
Lowendorf, a peace activist since 1967 and member of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, was wrong. After event organizers started to send e-mail messages and spread leaflets about the train, about 2,000 people are expected to climb aboard for what could be the largest caravan of its kind.
"I am absolutely stunned by the response," said Lowendorf, 60, about residents of Greater New Haven and New England ex-pected to ride the train.
The first train, at 9:45 a.m., will have 12 chartered cars, and will stop in Bridgeport, Westport and Stamford. Demand for a second train was so great that Metro-North agreed to charter a second train, with eight cars, leaving at 9:52 a.m.
"It’s certainly one of the largest group (charters) we have ever done, if not the largest," said Dan Brucker, a Metro-North spokesman. "It’s certainly exceptionally large in terms of size and scope."
Organizers say people signed up for the train from as far afield as Vermont and western Massachusetts. Seats are no longer available.
"We are convinced that if enough of us protest and witness against George Bush’s determination to go to war, we will have peace instead of war," said Bruce Martin, 75, of Milford, a board member of Promoting Enduring Peace, one of the groups coordinating the peace train.
The New York rally is timed to coincide with an expected report today by Hans Blix, chief United Nations weapons inspector, and Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to the U.N. Security Council on whether Iraqi President Saddam Hussein cooperated with U.N. weapons inspectors.
The case for peace is stronger than arguments for war, many area peace activists say.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to converge on New York, joining millions in 315 cities in a global day of opposition to an attack on Iraq. Globally, organizers say it will likely be the single-largest day of protest in history, dwarfing the event in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18.
Event sponsor United for Peace and Jus-tice has obtained a permit for gathering within sight of the United Nations building, north of First Avenue and 49th Street, starting at noon. The organization filed suit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to require the Police Department to issue a permit.
Federal Judge Barbara S. Jones ruled Monday that the city can deny United for Peace and Justice a permit to march. Citing "heightened security concerns," she ruled that the group could only hold a stationary rally.
That ruling is being appealed by the New York office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Organizations that Lowendorf and Martin represent, among the city of New Haven Peace Commission and Connecticut Peace Coalition/New Haven, have met almost weekly to coordinate attendance of the event Saturday.
"New Haven Peace Commission Chairman Alfred Marder, 81, attended the Washington rally and says the peace train convoy from New Haven represents many Americans, who are concerned about the country’s ail-ing economy and military spending that is draining the country’s financial resources.
Many attending the rally are political neophytes.
"Most of the volunteers are people who have never participated in a protest," said Judith Le Blanc, the New York-based national outreach coordinator for United for Peace and Justice. "These are people who never thought they would march."
Lowendorf said, "They don’t consider themselves as part of the peace movement.
They consider themselves patriots and are upset and are terrified about what our government is doing. These are people who never took a (political) step in their lives."
For more information about the train, call Promoting Enduring Peace at 878-4769. |
