Twin Cities students, teachers take turn in peace spotlight

By Randy Furst
Star Tribune March 1, 2003

A War may be imminent, but the peace movement has been rearing its head throughout the Twin Cities. On Friday afternoon, it was students' and teachers' turn.

About 400 demonstrators, most of them teachers, rallied on the pedestrian bridge that connects Loring Park to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Earlier in the day, a group of middle-school students joined Macalester College students in a peace demonstration at the intersection of Summit and Snelling Avs. in St. Paul...

...On the bridge

Standing on the pedestrian bridge near Loring Park, Megan Unger, 31, said she was one of three teachers at Emerson Elementary School in Minneapolis who formed Educators for Peace, the group that organized the protest. She held a sign that said, "Invest in weapons of mass instruction."

"We're always telling students we need to work things out," said Ann Luce, 50, a teacher and librarian at Lake Country Montessori School in Minneapolis. The government's handling of the Iraq conflict is not a good example for young people, she said.

Other events

More protests are planned in the Twin Cities to coordinate with national protests. There will be readings of the antiwar play, "Lysistrata," at 6 p.m. Monday at 16 locations, followed by a peace concert at 8:30 p.m. at the Historic Pantages Theater in downtown Minneapolis.

Another vigil is scheduled on the Lake St./Marshall Av. Bridge between Minneapolis and St. Paul at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Next Saturday, a noon antiwar march is planned from the Minneapolis Midtown YWCA at 2121 E. Lake St. to Powderhorn Park as part of International Women's Day.

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