More Promised
Demonstrating against the NATO war in Serbia, peace activists picketed the Social Security building during the evening rush hour yesterday. Protests and silent vigils have been weekly occurrences in Baltimore this month. According to Max Obuszewski, spokesman for the Baltimore Coalition Against War in the Balkans, such actions will continue until the bombing ends.
Along with the vigils and protests, seven members of the Coalition were arrested while hanging anti-war banners at Andrews Air Force base earlier this month. An accompanying journalist was also detained. The Coalition is planning several more “resistance actions” against military installations and an unnamed legislator.
As to their choice in yesterday’s protest site, Obuszewski pointed out that Social Security funds are being used to fund the bombing. About forty protesters held banners and handed out leaflets that decried the bombing of civilians to pedestrians and motorists stopped at lights. A minor argument with security personnel for the Social Security Building occured at 5:30 PM, but was resolved quickly.
Referring to President Clinton, Obuszewski remarked that the characteristics that make a U.S.
President were not those which allow an admission of fault. He stated that. Clinton was falling into the same trap Lyndon Johnson had with Vietnam.
A motorist drove by yelling “what about ethnic cleansing?” When asked to address the issue of Kosovar deportees, Obuszewski made an allusion to a hypothetical drug dealer in one’s neighborhood. “Do you ask the police to come in and bomb the whole neighborhood? Of course not. Are we going to destroy the village to save it?”