The Observer, September 8, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 2
Peace rally held in the
On Labor Day, while biplanes and fighter jets streaked across the sky for the Cleveland National Air Show, activists, families, and concerned citizens held a rival peace show at the Free Stamp in Willard Park, near downtown.
Organized by Cleveland Nonviolence Network (CNVN) and Artists for Peace (AFP), the Peace Show provided a positive atmosphere for like-minded, peace-loving people to enjoy music, food, and other activities while war planes boomed overhead.
The Peace Show began five years ago as an alternative to what some saw as the misuse of war machines like the Blue Angels for entertainment. CNVN and AFP organized the Peace Show to protest what they saw as an attempt to promote militarism by masking it as amusement. The Peace Show offered another option to those who thought similary.
Case students at the Peace Show enjoying the sights, sounds, and sunlight had conflicting opinions about the validity of the protest.
"The planes were once used for wartime but now they're peaceful machines," said fourth-year students Michael Davidson and Tran Tran. "[We] think that using a once-violent thing for nonviolent purposes is actually a step towards peace."
Jess Oslund, a third-year student, summed up the feelings of most Case students trying to study through periodic overhead roars that rocked the campus over the weekend, "I'm not that impressed by [the air show]. It's just annoying."
Those interested in getting involved with the Cleveland Nonviolence Network or working at next year's Peace Show can e-mail cnvn@hotmail.com.
Over the past five years, the Show has folded other causes like voters' rights and the Iraq War into its purpose, but the main message has remained the same: nonviolence works, and war only causes death and destruction.
While the Peace Show was far from deserted last Monday, it was a tiny event compared to the much larger four-day Air Show. The importance for the region and its dual function as a recruitment event for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines assure that the Air Show is well-funded and well-staffed.
The Peace Show, on the other hand, is funded by community donors and organized by the compiled efforts of a hand-ful of volunteers.
Resource discrepancies aside, however, the Peace Show had one of its most successful years ever, drawing about 2000 people over the course of the afternoon – almost double the number that protested and partied last year. Organizers attributed the increased interest in the show's message of nonviolence to a variety of factors.
Increasing lack of faith in the current administration's handling of the War on Terror and the lack of a set withdrawal date from Iraq have caused some past supporters to consider alternatives to the current national policy.
Locally, others see the multi-billion dollar cost of the war in the context of Cleveland's position as the nation's poorest major city and wonder if some of that money might have been better spent subsidizing education, job placement, or housing programs.
