BALTIMORE, MD (12/21/02) -- A spirited march of 60 protesters organized by Baltimore Residents against War traveled from the west side of Mount Vernon Square to the Lexington Market, the Inner Harbor, and the War Memorial Plaza in front of City Hall. According to "Ma," one of the organizers, Residents against War is an ad hoc group who came together to protest the Bush administration's drive toward war against Iraq.

The group raised questions about this war when in Baltimore one in six adults are addicted to drugs, over 40,000 housing units remain abandoned while homeless people sleep in the streets, industry and decent employment leaves the city, and budget cuts take away needed social services. Yet, Residents against War pointed out, there is money for war making. Marchers handed out leaflets making these points to the people they passed.

The Baltimore Police Department's Quick Response Team followed along the march in three unmarked Ford sedans--one purple-black and two burgundy in color--keeping the marchers on the sidewalks. When the marchers arrived at the Inner Harbor, they were stopped by more than 20 police officers in the McKeldin Fountain area (Light and Calvert Streets), a public park. Police prevented entrance into the privately-owned Inner Harbor pavilion area which borders the waters of Baltimore's harbor and is home to restaurants and retail shops.

After a brief stand-off and communication between police and protesters, the march continued to the War Memorial Plaza for a brief rally. Groups in attendance included members of the All Peoples Congress, Coalition against Global Exploitation, Roundhouse Collective, and others.

Erik Easton, a community activist from Reservoir Hill who earlier recited a poem in tribute to peace activist the late Philip Berrigan, said that people were out protesting this war today to "make sure America stands for what is written--freedom, liberty, equality, and justice--words which should not be abstract, but concrete. And another word 'peace' with the hope that there be peace in our time."

The protesters were diverse in age and color. Most were in their twenties, like Kelly Ragland.

This was Ragland's first protest in Baltimore, though she had participated in the 150,000 plus protest against war in Iraq on October 26th in Washington, DC. Ragland said that this is the first issue that she's "old enough as an adult to contend." After the 2000 elections, Ragland concluded that "voting doesn't count. Bush stole the election. What we have is Prince G.W." Like many others, Kelly Ragland sees protest in the streets as the means for democratic voice.

78 year-old Anthony Age, who read a leaflet about the protest on a utility pole, also marched.

As a college student in the 1940s and 1950s, Age had protested the segregation of restaurants in Baltimore City. In the 1960s, he protested the Vietnam War at the Pentagon. Anthony Age, while born in Baltimore, spent most of his life in New York City working in the arts. There he met the great African American actor and activist Paul Robeson and worked with him on projects such as The Committee for the Negro in the Arts which met in Harlem. Why were few Africans Americans actively protesting the war today? According to Age, "99% of African Americans are against the war, but it's hard to get people to participate." He related two factors. One, many African Americans don't see the war as their doing. Second, the Republican Party has some success with co-optation through appointments to high government office of highly skilled African Americans like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

As for media coverage, Pacifica Radio came up from Washington DC to report on the protest. There may also have been present a photographer from the Afro American Newspaper. Meanwhile, tomorrow at the Towson Town Center mall, another group of protesters, the Baltimore Iraq-Pledge of Resistance, will make their voices heard in yet another attempt to bring this very public issue of war to citizens shopping in a privately-owned space.