On Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2007, a group of students conducted a “die-in” in remembrance of the U.S. soldiers and Iraqi people killed in Iraq. The die-in, organized by Pax Christi, had 84 participants who symbolically died on Saint Louis University’s Quad-for 40 minutes: 10 minutes for each year of the war. Each participant carried a tombstone with the name of an Iraqi and an American soldier who was killed.

The event had several purposes. First and foremost, it was meant to be a solemn reflection on lives tragically lost to war. Second, it was supposed to bring awareness to the fact that people have died, are still dying and will continue to die in the second Iraq War. Motivations for participating ranged from a desire to bring an end to the war, to simply paying tribute to all of those who have given their lives.

Fortunately, it was my job to provide a drum beat during die-in, and I was able to witness passers-by as they reacted. Everything seemed to be going well. If nothing else, we had a good turnout, and students walking by could not ignore, even for a second, that a war is raging in Iraq.

That was until I noticed Phil Hayes, president of the College Republicans, reading some type of statement aloud. I had seen several people before the event handing information on sending soldiers care packages and thought to myself, that seems like a perfectly acceptable thing to be handing out at a memorial; but then came Hayes’ rude interruption.

At first I could not hear him, but I imagined it was something against what we were doing. When I got closer, I could hear pieces of information comparing Vietnamese communists and Muslim terrorists, comments about the “anti-American left” and claims about the Iraqis’ desire for the U.S. occupation to continue. I believe members of the group also claimed that we were disrespecting soldiers and using their names for our own political gain. While the die-in was meant to be a solemn remembrance, it was, unfortunately, rudely interrupted by his actions and those of several of his peers. Eventually, DPS confronted them and asked them to leave (since they had not filled out proper paperwork with Event Services).

My reflections and response to the interruption:

First, a memorial to the dead is not the place to read a propagandist piece linking communists and terrorists. If these individuals honestly supported our troops, perhaps they would lie down and help us pay tribute to the dead. Furthermore, we did not and do not claim to represent the view of American soldiers, dead or alive. How dare you claim, as you did, Phil, to represent the view of dead human beings? Certainly none of us can pretend to speak for a deceased individual.

Phil, I’m not sure where you get your information, but you must have missed the most recent poll of Iraqis conducted by the BBC. According to the polls, 78 percent of Iraqis oppose U.S.-led coalition forces, 82 percent lacked confidence in U.S. forces and 69 percent said the U.S. presence was making the security situation worse. So if you truly respect the right to self-determination and democracy, I’m afraid you must reconsider your position.

While I am an ardent advocate of free speech and freedom of assembly and question DPS’ request for the counter-demonstrators to vacate, quite frankly their actions were rude and disrespectful. It was disrespectful to disregard all of the hard work the organizers put into the event, to claim to speak for deceased soldiers and for misconstruing our message and ideas. Perhaps if you had approached the organizers, they would have gladly agreed to let you pass out information on care packages for soldiers.

Rather than claiming that we are somehow anti-American, or do not truly care for human rights, during our demonstration, maybe you could schedule and organize your own demonstration. Or, even better, you could organize an honest public debate between yourselves and the supposedly anti-American left.

To all readers, I am sorry for the disheartened attitude of this piece. I want to express gratitude to all those who organized and participated in the event on Tuesday. I consider it a huge success. Regardless of our political leanings, hopefully, Tuesday’s die-in can help us all remember that a war in Iraq continues to rage on, devastating people’s lives.

Chris Olliges is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.