Students, Residents March for Peace

"Wage peace."

"War is infinite hubris."

Signs bearing these and other similar messages were a part of the scene at McCorkle Place on Sunday -- the location of a march against war attended by nearly 600 people.

"It was a cry in response to the call for war from many American people," said Nora Wilson, a Chapel Hill resident and member of the newly-formed Coalition to End the Cycle of Violence, a local community-based organization formed after the attacks.

"We mourn the events of September 11. Nothing can justify those attacks. Yet we feel military retaliation will only escalate the cycle of violence."

Before the march, which began on campus and continued along Franklin Street and Cameron Avenue, participants gathered on the quad and listened to a series of speakers.

Jim Warren, one of the organizers of the march, encouraged participants to keep the march positive by respecting differing views.

"We want to keep this a negativity-free rally, but we have a constitutional right and moral authority to have our voice heard as well," Warren said.

UNC senior Kristin Rawls, a speaker at the march and the founder of the Peace and Reconciliation Network, a campus organization also formed in response to the attacks, refuted the idea that the peace movement is naive.

"I would suggest instead the United States government is naive," Rawls said. "If we use force and violence against people, we perpetuate the belief that we are evil."

The march's leaders carried a banner demanding the United States "Stop the cycle of violence."

Members of the Paperhand Puppet Intervention, a Triangle theater group, followed closely behind dressed as white birds meant to symbolize doves. One member walked on stilts.

"The most simple, basic message everyone can understand is birds epitomizing peace," said Jan Burger, one of the theater group's members. "We're not characters, we're an idea."

The sounds of singing and drums punctuated the air as marchers followed police cars along the blocked-off streets.

Kathy Colville, a middle school teacher from Durham, said she thought the marchers were representing the sentiment of most Americans.

"There's support for this from very mainstream people," Colville said. "Many people who don't consider themselves radicals don't believe in violence."

During the speeches preceding the march, children were invited to make posters and decorate the banner that led the march.

Emma O'Halloran, an 8-year-old Carrboro resident, decorated a poster board with messages including "Don't hurt people," "No bombs" and "I love the world, so don't hurt the world."

O'Halloran said she was making the poster because she did not want a war to start.

"The president wants to drop more bombs, and they'll drop more, and it'll just create a war," she said.

Emma's mother, Frances O'Halloran, said she came to the march to set a good example for her daughter.

"It's a really good thing for her to see and be a part of all this," Frances said.

Martin Presler-Marshall, a Chapel Hill resident, said he brought his three children, ages 3, 5 and 7, to the march for a civics lesson.

"This is a lesson in what it really means to be a citizen," Presler-Marshall said as his children stood nearby wearing signs proclaiming, "Don't hurt people."

Presler-Marshall said, "Democracy doesn't work if you don't voice your opinion."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.