 "Photo: Dan Bollwerk")
 "Photo: Dan Bollwerk")
 "Photo: Dan Bollwerk")
On the morning of Saint Patrick's Day, the March 17th Coalition held an anti-war rally that started at the Haliburton offices near 17th and Lawerence, and finished on the steps of the Capitol for the anniversary of the war in Iraq.
The main speaker at the event was Shareef Aleem, the activist that was arrested at a CU regents meeting on Feb. 3, 2005. Among those in attendance at the rally were the Denver Green Party, Code Pink and Veterans for Peace.
The rally took place on a Saturday, three days before the March 20 invasion. There was no association made with the Saint Patrick's Day Parade, which took place earlier that morning.
Aleem lead the rally down 16th Street Mall, where police officers blocked traffic for the march to continue uninterrupted. Aleem began the rally by putting President Bush on trial. He spoke aloud charges to the audience and they returned with a verdict of guilty. "For misleading the American public about weapons of mass destruction, how do you find him?" asked Aleem.
Aleem's message was one of unity. He urged the community to come together. He explained in a personal story how another culture reached out to him when very few people were there for him. "The line between the indigenous brothers and African American and colored people, we will never be divided, we will always be united," said Aleem.
At issue were political issues such as the ballooning cost of the war in Iraq, the increasing death toll of Americans and Iraqis, the profiteering of the war by corporations and proper health care for soldiers when they return.
One of the speakers related the war in Iraq to America during the Old West and the government treatment of Native Americans. He related the Sandy Creek Massacre in Colorado to the situation in Iraq, claiming that Iraq has become "Indian Country" now, with the U.S. government behaving in a similar manner that it did during Sandy Creek.
Coupled with a message of unity was a message of motivation. "We need to motivate people more," said Larry Hales, an organizer of the event. "It's about education, but it's also putting the politics out there so people can make the choice to organize further beyond just March of every year," said Hales.
Hales believes that the wide base of issues present at the rally did not detract from the focus of the war in Iraq.
"The problem is that, once you make it primarily about the Iraq war, you're forgetting what started the war in the first place; there's that link between the oppression of people here, the theft of indigenous land, the theft of over half of Mexico, slavery; all these things are linked to an economic system who people like Bush are representatives of; the democratic party, republicans, all these capitalist parties are representatives of the system," said Hales.
Hales believes that it will be the oppressed that will pave the road to change in American politics. "It's always been the most oppressed, the ones with the most to gain and the ones with the most to lose," said Hales.
T.J. Westphal, with Veterans Against the War, spoke briefly about what it means to be an American. "There used to be an America that used to lead the way in human rights; there used to be an America that would have done everything they could to prevent something like this from happening, and that's not the Amecia I see today," said Westphal.
"Although I love my country, I am not proud to be an American," said Westphal. He pressed for more accountability of lawmakers to vote according to the will of the people. He argued that representatives are not doing the job that the people elected them to do.
This rally will most likely be the last one in Colorado held by the March 17th Coalition. "Even though we were able to organize behind stopping the war at home and abroad, to keep something constantly here in Colorado would be difficult," said Hales.
"I've been here in Colorado for eight years and there's been about 10, 12 different formulations," said Hales. Retaining consistency within the activist community has been difficult in Denver.
Aleem was arrested in 2005 at a CU regency meeting. He was charged with allegedly assaulting a police officer. Video and witnesses at the time show Aleem being forcibly taken down and shot with a taser. Aleem was approached by police officers at the CU regency meeting for arguing that students should be given a chance to speak.
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