by Aidan Turowski
Daily Lobo
About 30 members of the First Unitarian Church gathered in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to protest the war in Iraq on Monday.
The protesters said the late civil rights leader would be against the war if he were alive today.
The demonstration was the first of two held throughout the day. The goal was to get people thinking about King, and what his impressions would be on the current political crisis overseas, said Christine Robinson, senior minister of the First Unitarian Church.
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"I think he'd be horrified," Robinson said. "The long-term consequences of the war in Vietnam have come back to roost with us, so I don't think he'd be happy."
The First Unitarian Church is part of the Unitarian Universalist Association, a Protestant denomination that accepts members with a wide range of beliefs, such as atheists, pagans and liberal Christians.
Robinson, who has been senior minister since 1988, organized the protest in December, e-mailing friends and colleagues to join.
"I wanted a project in which those people who wanted to express their dissatisfaction on the war could be able to do that in a way that honors the fact that this is a diverse community," Robinson said. "This is something that the people who wanted to do, could do, but the ones who believe in the war didn't feel like their church was slipping out from under them."
Ralph Dunn, chairman of the UNM College Republicans, said liberals should not use the day of commemoration to promote their own agenda.
"I find that the extreme left likes to use any and every event or means at all possible to use it as an anti-war protest," he said.
Alicia Blake stood with protesters, along with her 9-year-old daughter.
"I think it's important to honor Dr. King and to bring my daughter out here where she can see the importance of this," she said.
Blake stressed the importance of college students taking an active role in politics.
"I think it would be good to have more involvement," Blake said. "It's always good to be active, no matter how old you are."
UNM junior Will Byrne has not participated in any political protests, but said he would if the cause were worthwhile.
"If it's an issue that I'm deeply concerned with, and I think there should be government intervention," he said.
Freshman Emily Sokolski said Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an appropriate day for a war protest.
"I think it's a better day to volunteer to do stuff," Sokolski said. "I bet he wouldn't be for the war in Iraq, but I don't think he'd be for bringing the troops home early."
Brenda Broussard, 51, said she felt strongly about student involvement in political affairs.
"Students back in the Vietnam era were the leaders, so I would hope that our young leaders feel the war is immoral."
Broussard said King would be strongly opposed to war in Iraq.
"He was protesting the Vietnam War at the end of his life, despite a lot of discouragement from people wanting to just focus on poverty," she said. "He saw it as a huge moral issue."
