Not giving peace a chance

Last Thursday, a group of Illinois high school students used their lunch hour to stage a peaceful sit-in protest against the war in Iraq. “We were holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya’ and the song ‘Give Peace a Chance.’ ” one of the students tells the Chicago Tribune. According to school officials, this constituted “gross disobedience and mob activity”. The students have been suspended, and some are threatened with expulsion.

Judging by the way the school board were booed this week when its members tried to justify the punishments, and the thousands of signatures on a petition supporting the students, it seems that much of the public disagrees with school officials about the mob-ishness of singing “Kumbaya”. The school board has delayed its decision on whether the students should be expelled.

It’s just a further example that no matter what people in either great positions of power (G.W. Bush), or in lesser positions (the Berwyn school district, the organizers of the Long Beach Veterans Day Parade), do to squelch criticism, the public’s opinion of the war is not going to change.

Tags: Berwyn school district, Give Peace a Chance, gross disobedience and mob activity, Illinois, iraq, Kumbaya, Long Beach Veteran's Day Parade, peace, sit-in