Lawrence anti-war activists will travel near and far this weekend to join a national day of protest Saturday against the anticipated war with Iraq.

More than 30 Lawrence residents will join nearly 200 people from northeast Kansas on a bus caravan leaving today for Washington, D.C., where tens of thousands of demonstrators will gather Saturday for what they consider their last chance to speak as one great multitude against the gathering clouds of an Iraq war.

“War infuriates me,” said Maggie Beedles, a Kansas University student making the trip. “I think it’s important to oppose it as strongly as possible. And I think it’s important to have a Midwestern showing, because a lot of people view us as Republican fly-over zone, while a lot of us are opposed to war.”

Closer to home, the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice expects hundreds of residents to join a rally at noon Saturday in front of the Douglas County Courthouse, 11th and Massachusetts streets.

The group has sponsored weekly protests against war with Iraq at that location since last fall, drawing between 65 and 300 people each week. Saturday, protesters in Lawrence will make a cellular phone link with protesters in Washington.

“We’re hoping to have a particularly large turnout (this week) because this is a national day of protest,” said Allan Hanson, the coalition’s coordinator.

Among the Lawrencians headed to Washington: A group of nine teenagers from the youth group of Peace Mennonite Church.

“We have a long tradition as Mennonites of doing these sort of peace witnesses, and they thought it would be important to do,” said Doug Nickel, a youth leader at the church.

Allison Edwards, 16, dries a freshly painted shirt. Seven teens from Peace Mennonite Church met on Thursday at Edwards' Lawrence residence to paint shirts, which will be used this weekend in Washington, D.C., where they will protest a possible war with Iraq.

The main protest Saturday, featuring politicians, entertainers, union leaders and regular citizens, will go from the Capitol to the U.S. Marine Corps barracks to the Washington Navy Yard, where marchers will demand access and ask to inspect weapons of mass destruction.

The rally, which also will have a counterpart in San Francisco and several other major cities across the United States, is being coordinated by International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and is supported by a long list of unions, advocacy groups and international peace organizations.

Similar demonstrations are scheduled this weekend in 18 other countries, including Mexico, Japan, Italy, Spain, Egypt and Argentina, said ANSWER spokesman Tony Murphy.

“The goal is to stop the war and demand that money that gets used for weapons be spent instead on programs that have to do with things people need, like schools, health care and jobs in the United States,” Murphy said. “Really what’s motivating the successive demonstrations is that the goal is not yet met.”

National organizers said they expected as many 200,000 demonstrators to converge on Washington. Police there said they expected no problems.

“We’re looking for a large group this weekend,” said Kevin Morison, spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department. “But we think it will be a peaceful event.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

¢ Area residents protest possible war on Iraq (9-8-02)¢International ANSWER¢Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice¢KC Iraq Task Force