Hundreds in WPB protest the war (Palm Beach FL)

[struggle4progress]

By LESTER J. DAVIS
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 08, 2007

... Elna Laun, president of the Palm Beach Democratic Club, said hundreds of protestors turned out, in large part, to voice their displeasure with the ongoing war in Iraq.

"We want to stop the war. The Congress isn't doing it, and the president isn't doing it," said Laun, whose organization helped sponsor today's rally. "We want them to get off their butts and stop funding the war." The rally kicked off around 2 p.m., when hundreds of protestors, some holding cardboard posters with anti-war slogans painted on them, marched up and down Okeechobee Boulevard, between Sapodilla Avenue and Quadrille Boulevard. After about 30 minutes, the group moved into the Cohen Pavilion inside the Kravis where a number of speakers criticized the war in Iraq and demanded an immediate troop withdrawal. Hillary Keyes, a Boca Raton resident, said she hopes today's protest shows elected officials in Washington that voters are tired of the war and the bloodshed associated with it.

"We want our legislators to know that we voted them into office for one reason and that was to stop the war," Keyes said. "They're dragging their feet, and we're getting nothing but death and destruction. Enough is enough." West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, who marched alongside the protestors, said a lot of people mistakenly believe that not supporting the war is the same as not supporting the troops. "We support our troops. We love our troops. We respect our troops," Frankel told the crowd of protestors. "But this is a bad war that we got into by deceit. Thousands of people have died and suffered." About an hour into the event, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a virtual hero to the throng of anti-war protestors for his early opposition to the war, walked into the pavilion to applause and shouts of support. Kucinich, a 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, worked the crowd into a lather when he promised an end to the war in Iraq if he were voted president ...

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/09/08/0908peace.html