A human wave of more than 1,000 marched down Massachusetts Street on Saturday, joining with millions throughout the country and the world who were calling for peace with Iraq.

In Lawrence, marchers shouted anti-war slogans from the Vietnam War, but their signs carried caricatures of President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld instead of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

“It’s been a long time since Lawrence has seen anything like this,” said Mark Swanson, owner of Hobbs Inc., a specialty store at 700 Mass. Swanson marched against the Vietnam War while a Kansas University student more than 30 years ago

Watching from a second-floor window above his store, Swanson said he counted at least 1,350 marchers.

“You could feel the energy, even though it was so cold,” he said.

Marchers braved cold north winds that sent the wind chill index down to 19 degrees by noon, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka.

Leaders of the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice and the Lawrence Anti-Imperialists had set a goal of 1,000 participants for the rally. The largest previous crowd had been 650 on Jan. 18, coalition coordinator Allan Hanson said.

Dressed as Patriot drummer boys, Taylor White, left, and Mel Smith, both of Lawrence, keep cadence during an anti-war rally on Massachusetts Street. More than 1,000 protesters took to the streets Saturday to protest a possible war with Iraq. The protest coincided with an estimated 600 similar rallies around the world.

“I’m just blown away,” Hanson of Lawrence said afterward, commending the crowd for its determination to prevent war.

“You do not bring about an end to terrorism by threatening and waging war,” Hanson told the marchers as they gathered at the bandstand in South Park.

“Why do we have to go to war with Iraq?” asked Chris Fletcher, a KU student and spokesman for Veterans for Peace, who also spoke over a public address system.

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“Because we’re stupid,” someone in the crowd yelled.

Near the bandstand, Barbara Michener and others from the coalition collected $2.50 for yard signs proclaiming “Peace is Patriotic. No War.” More than 300 of them sold in about 30 minutes.

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The money for the signs covered the cost for ordering them, Michener said. Some people paid considerably more and didn’t want change, she said.

Carrying a sign that read “A village in Texas has lost its idiot,” Linda Gwaltney, 52, Lawrence, said she didn’t know whether the worldwide protests would stop the United States from going to war.

“I think people are getting pretty frustrated,” she said of the Bush administration’s attitude toward war.

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Rebekah Gaston, 24, a KU law school student from Osawatomie, was attending her first anti-war protest. She said it bothered her that the U.S. leadership was “willing to bomb people in other countries, and it really doesn’t matter to them.”

Earlier, during the march down Massachusetts, passersby stopped and watched. Some clapped and cheered. One of them, a woman who would identify herself only as Tara, rushed out of a clothing store with a co-worker.

“I think it’s wonderful that people can express their feelings like this,” she said. “There should be no war with Iraq.”

Others who watched the peace march weren’t so sure.

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“If nobody does anything about terrorism, then they are going to be over here,” said James McClurkin, 34, Lawrence. “It doesn’t make any sense for us not to do anything.”

Standing next to McClurkin, Zach McDermott, 20, Lawrence, said he was unsure what course of action the U.S. should take with Iraq.

“I’m not really for war, but I can understand it,” he said. “I’m kind of sitting on the fence.”

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