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Heroes of a Different Stripe:
How One Town Responded to the War in Iraq
By Olga Bonfiglio
PREFACE
While most books on the war in Iraq today focus on the words and experiences of soldiers, generals, politicians and pundits, this book chronicles how ordinary citizens responded to this crisis from January 2003 to June 2004 in Kalamazoo, a medium-sized city in southwestern Michigan.
 I began researching this book by attending the national peace march on January 18, 2003, in Washington, D.C., and then by going to the events and weekly peace vigils of the organized group called the Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents to War (KNOW). I also attended six of the seven Bush rallies held in March—April 2003. Throughout this time, I surveyed peace activists and Bush supporters, interviewed their leaders, monitored the responses their demonstrations aroused from street traffic and followed newspaper stories from our local paper, the Kalamazoo Gazette. Several key points describe the mood in Kalamazoo during this critical time.
First, Kalamazooans were incredibly divided over the war with each side lacking any understanding of the other’s positions because people simply didn’t talk, socialize or debate with those they disagreed with about the war in Iraq. The Kalamazoo Gazette printed wire service news from Washington and Iraq and provided several stories on the local peace activists and a couple stories about the Bush supporters. Various columnists offered their opinions on the war before it started, but the paper largely shied away from analytical pieces on its consequences or implications. As the war commenced, it covered stories about soldiers, their families and the dead.
Second, Kalamazooans were idealistic and passionate about the war regardless of how informed they were about it. People had an opinion and freely shared it, but the peace
| "The Bush supporters saw the president as a moral man who was right to use the swords of vengeance against the 9/11 perpetrators. In this way he could bring justice into the world and rid it of terrorists. Some more radical right-wing people viewed this war as a prelude to Jesus’ Second Coming." |
activists did so through their own reading, study and attention to the independent media, while the Bush supporters generally relied on the mainstream media and the president’s word as their sources of information.
Third, many Kalamazooans’ view of the war and America’s role in the world was influenced by their religious beliefs. The Bush supporters saw the president as a moral man who was right to use the swords of vengeance against the 9/11 perpetrators. In this way he could bring justice into the world and rid it of terrorists. Some more radical right-wing people viewed this war as a prelude to Jesus’ Second Coming as described in the New Testament book of Revelation. Some of the peace activists, on the other hand, regarded Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and Isaiah’s prophecy of “beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks” as their model for creating a more just and peaceful world.
Fourth, the local political parties in Kalamazoo, which had been very quiet since the 2000 election, remained silent on the war during the 18 months covered in this book. The rallies and vigils that took place by both the peace and Bush groups were organized by individuals. Flyers, websites and signs were made and distributed by individuals. Spokespersons who took on a particular project were individuals. The peace activists did coalesce into the Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents to War (KNOW), but the group remained an informal organization with no set leadership or membership and no alignment with the Kalamazoo County Democratic Party.
Fifth, Kalamazooans from both sides expressed a desire for the same things: security, a good life and a future for their children.
Sixth, many Kalamazooans were consumed by fear. The Bush supporters feared terrorists and approved of the president’s move to eliminate them by military force. The peace activists feared that military force would augment terrorism and encourage the spread of war throughout the world. The Bush supporters liked the president’s strong  arm in confronting this crisis; he appealed to their conceptions of leadership. The peace activists were repulsed by Bush machismo and found it difficult to tolerate his arrogance, his unwillingness to work with our allies or the United Nations and his administration’s attack on Americans’ civil liberties in the name of national security. Their advocacy for peace and justice, whether inspired by religion or humanism, sought to end all war—forever.
Originally I had planned to present an account of these two major factions within my town and how they responded to a war with Iraq, but the Bush rallies ended in April 2003 and those who supported the president no longer assembled publicly as a group. Part III and Appendices G and I, however, provide material I did manage to gather about them during that short period of time. As the peace activists continued their activities beyond the start of the war, this book evolved into a story about them and how they advocated for peace as a minority voice in the midst of all the dramatic national and international events that occurred before and during the war.
I pursued this story for several reasons. First, the national media had systematically dismissed and distorted the activists’ message with images of jobless anti-war “hippies” chaining themselves to buildings, being hauled off to jail or creating traffic jams in the city streets. They consistently gave low-ball numbers for the national marches that took place in cities all over the country and barely covered the huge marches that took place throughout the world. Although authorities no longer “count” the demonstrators, it was obvious to me that the numbers of people present at these events were largely underreported since I witnessed the massiveness of the January 2003 peace march in Washington and the August 2004 pre-GOP Convention in New York City. I wanted to provide a more comprehensive picture of how the peace activists thought about the war, why they were dedicated to the cause of peace and why they continue to demonstrate even today. I do this by describing their activities in the run-up to war (Part I), the beginning of the war (Part II), the occupation (Part IV) and during first six months of 2004 leading up to the U.S. handover of Iraq to Iraqis (Part VII) on June 30, 2004. Profiles of their leaders are presented in Part VI, preceded in Part V by national and internationally-known peace activists who came to the Kalamazoo area.
There were other reasons why I wrote this book. Critiques about a war with Iraq were largely blocked or buried deep in the newspapers. Rumors or impressions, like the link between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein, were not corrected and instead were allowed to fester. News from abroad that challenged the United States’ actions and policies wasn’t coming in. Unfortunately, in this environment, the media were | "In truth, I did not intend to write this book . . . . I soon realized that what I collected from the Kalamazoo peace activists might reflect the sentiments of millions of other Americans who made a stand for peace." |
not giving American citizens a complete picture of why we were going after Iraq or why most of the world protested our plans to do so. It is for this reason that I have also provided many footnotes to the text and news summaries of events in an attempt to fill in the gaps of the news that went unreported or for readers who may have been forgotten them. These summaries also provide a context for the activists’ responses during this very intense time.
In truth, I did not intend to write this book. At first, it served as a means of re-channeling my frustration at the media. As I wrote the book, it quickly became a coping mechanism that allowed me to deal with my growing fears about the war for those who might be drawn into it, for the families who might sacrifice their children for it and for the retaliatory consequences that might result in the homeland and around the world. Some days I literally fell into a panic about a reinstatement of the draft because I knew too many people who would be of age and forced to  serve in the war. So my writing became an outlet while I waited for the war to end, which like most Americans, I believed would be as short as the 100-hour Persian Gulf War was in 1991.
However, as I interacted with the demonstrators, I became intrigued by what they said and did. My pen, paper and listening ear became vehicles for them to express their concerns, fears, tensions and hopes and I felt privileged that they trusted me enough to share so much of themselves. I soon realized that what I collected from the Kalamazoo peace activists might reflect the sentiments of millions of other Americans who made a stand for peace. Then my purpose changed once more and the book became a spiritual endeavor to understand what it takes to be a peacemaker and how one sustains that ambition, especially in the face of public ridicule and loathing.
Like many people, I considered peace a passive activity or, at least an absence of war. After spending months of observing and talking with the Kalamazoo peace activists, I learned that peacemaking is really an action-oriented endeavor that takes much time, ingenuity, determination, discipline, restraint and sacrifice. To adopt a vision of peace and to enact it in one’s daily life requires a faith-filled belief that one can make a difference in the world—or as Gandhi reportedly put it: “Be the change you wish to see.” Such peaceful, nonviolent aspirations are radical departures from the assumptions about war and violence where forcefulness changes or isolates people.
What I also discovered in writing this book is that while all people are capable of being peacemakers, they will find it difficult to pursue this noble cause in isolation. They must be part of a group, a community or some public entity that constantly challenges its members to be true to the virtues of peacemaking. So peacemaking is also a community-building process that attempts to work for justice and equality among all people in the world by starting with its own members. This is heroic work and surely a 21st century skill we need to learn for the survival of our dear earth! I believe that the collective leadership of the people involved in the Kalamazoo peace movement—and in peace movements all over the world—provide a witness to peacemaking as well as the hope that a world without war IS possible. For this reason, I call the peace activists—heroes of a different stripe.
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