This story was produced in collaboration with Becki Veach
Close to 50 people gathered at the Catafount holding signs and speaking out against United States military action in Iran on Friday, March 6, the last day of classes before Spring Break started for WCU students.
Signs at the protest included slogans such as “Sick of This? So are Whee. Join RBC” and “Disclose, Divest, Defend.” Chalk messages around the Catafount included messages like “If holy men are spared from war make all men holy”, “Build minds not bombs” and “Your government doesn’t care if you die.”
The protest was organized by WCU College Democrats, the Revolutionary Book Club, and the Trans+ Student Union, which collaborated as WCU’s “United Front” to oppose U.S. and Israeli military actions in Iran as part of Operation Epic Fury.
Seth Blumenfeld, a member of the RBC and TSU who helped organize the protest, said the event came together quickly after news of the U.S and Israeli strikes on Iran.
“On Wednesday, we had a meeting with the RBC. We had an emergency meeting, and we put together signs and posters,” Blumenfeld said. “I’m shocked we managed to put it together in the time that we got.”
Blumenfeld, who has been politically active since high school, said he has always wanted to be more active in protests. After the U.S. actions in Venezuela, he said he had a feeling something like that would happen again and he wanted to be prepared to respond.
“It is the role of young people to do this,” Blumenfeld said. “Young people and students have historically been a big driver of social change, of protest movements, and if we do not do it, then no one else is going to.”
The vice president of the College Democrats, Seth Digh, said he was motivated to help with the protest both because of his affiliation with the College Democrats and because of a desire to inspire WCU students.
“I hope my remarks will motivate more of WCU to become politically engaged,” Digh said. “I’ve found that Catamounts get pretty involved when they’re frustrated with what’s happening in government.”
Digh began his speech with a moment of silence he said was for the six service members killed in Kuwait because of U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran, before urging the attendees to remain hopeful about political change.
“Optimism waits for change, but hope will create it,” Digh said.
Later in his speech, he encouraged students to stay politically active ahead of the upcoming elections.
“This fall we have the opportunity to shake up the government, and make our voices heard,” Digh said. “We didn’t want this, so let’s not let it stand.”
Several other students addressed the crowd, some from United Front groups and others who volunteered with prepared remarks.
Cameron Brown, a junior Business Management major at WCU and a member of the College Democrats, was one of the speakers. Brown’s remarks aimed to offer a perspective that he said he feels is often overlooked, the human cost of war with a focus on young service members.
Brown drew on his own experiences from when at 13, he joined the Civil Air Patrol. He said while part of the CAP he met many people who later pursued a career in the military and that is who he thinks of now.
“Often times in war we think of soldiers as just pawns in a chess game, but they’re not. These are human beings. They have families. They are happy, they get sad, they get scared, and they love just as passionately as anybody here,” Brown said.
Brown also referenced the death of 20-year-old U.S. Army Sgt. Declan Coady, one of six members of the Army Reserve who died on Sunday March 1 in an Iranian drone strike.
“He was a college sophomore just like many of us,” Brown said. “He wasn’t even old enough to go to a bar with his friends and now he’s dead. And what was Donald Trump’s reaction to this? In reference to the people who were dying, he said ‘It is what it is. That’s just how war works.’”
Brown continued to criticize U.S. military actions in Iran, saying both Americans and Iranian civilians are dead now.
“They do not care whether we live or die,” Brown said at the end of his remarks.
During her remarks Rose Daphne, a freshman and member of the TSU, compared the current U.S. military strikes in Iran to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
“Our politicians sent the young people of our country to die for a lie, all in order to line their pockets with oil money. And we can see today that history is repeating itself,” Daphne said when talking about the 2003 invasion of Iraq. “The American people do not want to be dragged into another war we have no place in.”
She also shared the experiences of her friends who have dealt with the effects of war firsthand.
“I have friends from Iraq and Gaza who have told me about their experiences of their homes being bombed, finding their friends in rubble, and being forced to leave the only homes that they have ever known,” Daphne said. “For all except the political elite, wartime brings nothing but destruction.”
Zach Powell, president of the College Democrats and one of the organizers for the protests, said he views the strikes in Iran as part of a broader pattern of U.S. interventions.
“It really just feels like a crusade for oil and regional dominance on behalf of the United States and Israel,” Powell said, echoing a lot of the criticism from other speakers and protestors.
RBC President Max Lynch said students should consider universities’ financial ties to the defense industry.
“It’s ultimately up to us as the masses of this university to fight back. It’s up to us to make demands of our institutions that hold them accountable,” Lynch said.
Blumenfeld’s hope for the protest was to give students an outlet and build community, in the hope that this community can more effectively create political change.
“The U.S. government does not care about 50 students in the middle of nowhere protesting,” Blumenfeld said. “But those 50 students care. And those 50 students are meeting other people who care. And I think that’s really important to build those connections.”
