For the eighth time this fall, area residents gathered Saturday in front of the Douglas County courthouse to rally against the use of force in Iraq.

The crowd was similar to past weeks  about 100 people stretched down the block  but the message was somehow stronger for the protesters who knew their voices were joined by the thousands who converged on Washington, D.C., with similar goals and placards.

“We’re trying to make a special effort to show up today,” said Allan Hanson, coordinator of the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice.

But he noted that getting people to care about U.S. involvement in Iraq really wasn’t that difficult: About 40 people from Lawrence traveled to Washington for the national march, and already Lawrence activists have collected about 500 signatures for an advertisement they plan to publish in the Journal-World. The attendance at rallies on Massachusetts Street has hardly dwindled, remaining strong with at least 70 to 80 people attending each week.

Numbers make a difference

After a day of inching her way around the White House with thousands of other protesters, Kansas University junior Amanda Flott was convinced that the repeated demonstrations could make a difference  even if it’s a small one.

“I guess I don’t really see it as stopping altogether because that would be a little unrealistic,” Flott said during a telephone interview.

But the day inspired her to help put together a weekly rally on KU’s campus; in her mind, organizing and voicing opinions is the least people can do.

“When you get a crowd of 200,000 people, that’s when things start to matter,” said Flott, who is from Omaha, Neb.

Although polls show strong public support for the use of force in Iraq, both Hanson and Flott argue those polls do not reflect Americans’ true feelings.

People might say they support a war, Hanson said, but if they are then told it will cause a certain amount of American casualties, the support dwindles.

Furthermore, he added, those who support a war on Iraq usually are not especially intense in their feeling.

“The depth and determination of the anti-war movement is far greater than any pro-war sentiment,” he said.

Disappointed in Moore

Although she doesn’t like her alternatives, Myrna Ikenberry can’t decide whether she will vote for Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., in the upcoming election.

She’s disappointed by his vote to support the resolution to strike, and enough people agreed with her that Denis Moynihan, who opposes a strike on Iraq, launched a write-in campaign last week to challenge Moore for his 3rd District seat.

Moynihan’s chances of winning the election are slim, but his goal is to allow citizens to cast a vote that reflects their views on Iraq.

And for those like Hanson, who is frustrated by politicians’ apparent indifference to demonstrators, Moynihan’s might be an important stance.

Voters start to question whether elected representatives are really listening to the people, Hanson said, adding that he was “terribly disappointed in Rep. Moore.”

In a telephone interview Saturday, Moore called his decision to support the resolution “the hardest vote I’ve passed in four years of Congress.”

A few months ago his outlook would have been different, Moore said, but several briefings  most of which were classified  changed his perspective.

“I now have a lot of information I didn’t have before,” he said, adding that he had a responsibility to protect the American public even if he was not enthusiastic about his choices.

“If people had the information I had, they might be of a different mind,” he said.

Moore said he hoped Bush would declassify some of the information to foster better public understanding, and he emphasized that it would be a “grave mistake” for the United States to act unilaterally.

“My hope is that force will never be used,” he said. “My belief is that force should always be the very last resort.”

Going strong

Hanson and his band of protesters said the Saturday rallies on Massachusetts Street would continue indefinitely.

“Every time we have met, there has been a lot of interest in continuing to meet,” he said.

And Ikenberry, who’s missed only a couple of rallies all fall, agreed as she emphasized her determination to make a difference.

“I’ll have to have something a lot more important to do than not go,” she said.