Topangans Roar For Peace

Over 400 attend, Hayden speaks

Tony Morris
Special to the Mirror

   The Topanga Community House filled to capacity Saturday, January 11, as over four hundred people gathered to hear actors, poets, authors, musicians and former state Senator Tom Hayden speak out against war in Iraq.
   “Roar For Peace 2003,” was organized by Arlette Parker, a Topanga activist and owner of Café Mimosa. The production included many of Parker’s fellow Topangans, who took part in a protest reminiscent of the 1960s anti-war demonstrations.
   Noting that organizing the event with help from a few committed volunteers took only a week, Parker said its “purpose was to do something for those in Topanga opposed to the war.”
   A reading of excerpts from “Our Stunning Harvest,” by poet Ellen Bass, was presented by Theatricum Botanicum director Ellen Geer, Ernestine Philipps, and Melora Marshall. Geer’s reading set the tone:
   I want to talk to the President. I want to go with other mothers and meet with the President.
   “And I want mothers from Iraq there. And the head of Israel And North Korean mothers and the head of Hamas and mothers from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and South Africa and all the heads of state and the families of the heads of state and the children, all the children of the mothers ... I want a meeting.
   “I want to ask the President, ‘Is there nothing precious to you?’
   “And when the President explains how it’s the ‘EVIL DOERS,’ I want the Iraqi women to say “We don’t want war. I want all the women to scream, WE DON’T WANT WAR, WE, THE PEOPLE, DO NOT WANT WAR!
   Actor John Savage then delivered an impassioned reading of the lyrics to John Lennon’s anti-war anthem, “Imagine.”
   Journalist Celeste Fremon said interviews she conducted with Iraqi-Americans revealed that most are against a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Although their futures are in the United States, they all have families in Iraq. An Iraqi psychiatrist, Wiad Aza, who has a website, www.wackyiraqi.com, told Fremon, “The entire country of Iraq is in a state of post traumatic stress syndrome.”
   Tom Hayden said President Bush does not have a mandate to invade Iraq, and, “the situation is not hopeless.” Referring to area Democratic Congressmen Brad Sherman and Henry Waxman, who voted to support Bush’s war plans, Hayden advised the audience to contact the congressmen and challenge their support for Bush.
   Addressing the theory that Bush is completing his father’s agenda, Hayden said, “They’re going there for the oil. Cheney and the others are like an oil slick.” Remarking on Condeleeza Rice’s former board membership with Chevron Oil, Hayden told the crowd that the National Security Advisor has an oil tanker, the Condeleeza, named after her.
   Hayden said the United States is poised to build new oil pipelines in the Middle East, for an American Empire, along the same route as the ancient Silk Road. To remain a dominant force in the world, and undertake a war against Iraq at a cost of $100 billion, the United States would spend three times the budget necessary to build all the schools needed in this country, according to Hayden.
   Musical highlights of the evening included Rick Ellis’ band with “Masters of War,” a family ballad for peace by the Knight-Shea family, and award-winning singer-songwriter Peter Alsop, who had the audience delighted as they sang along and even used sign language.
   A petition signed by participants opposing the Bush administration’s plan for war will be sent to the White House.
   The event was videotaped, and copies will be made available to communities throughout the country who are planning activities supporting opposition to a war with Iraq.
   For further information on Roar For Peace, contact Arlette Parker at (310) 455-4341 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays.