C-Span coverage generates thousands of calls
By Mary Owen
New York
While the huge protest was taking place in Washington on
Jan. 18, a dozen staffers at the New York office of the ANSWER
coalition answered hundreds of calls from all over the U.S. and
Canada from people who saw the rally and march on CSPAN, CNN,
dish TV and other news outlets. They had picked up the phone to
vote "no" on the war.
"I was nearly in tears as I watched the rally on
television," said one caller from Wisconsin. "I'm so happy to
know I'm not alone and there are so many people who feel like I
do about the war."
Callers of every ethnicity and nationality from South
Carolina, Alabama, Louisi ana, Tennessee, Hawaii, Alaska, Mont
real, Quebec, Toronto, Canada and other areas echoed her
sentiments. Callers from Texas were particularly eager to
disassociate themselves from the Bush administration's war
drive.
Some callers with family members in the military who were
already in Afghan istan or being shipped out to the region said
they wanted their loved ones brought home. Others said that the
Vietnam experience contributed to their anti-war
sentiments.
"I've been a psychiatric nurse in a VA hospital since the
Vietnam War," said a woman who called from California. "I've
seen first-hand what war does. That's why I'm voting no
war."
Even a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, who call ed in to say
he disagreed with ANSWER's vote no campaign, admitted his
mother was against his being sent to bomb Iraq.
During C-SPAN's live coverage of the rally, and later as CNN
and other media carried news stories, all the ANSWER office's
many phone lines were lit up for four solid hours as staffers
logged the "no" votes. Callers with computer access were sent
to the www.VoteNoWar.org Web site to cast their votes. Many who
called had polled friends and family first, and wanted to cast
more than one vote against the war.
Reprinted from the Jan. 30, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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