Bull Magazine

Issue date: 5/14/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Jared Iorio Gil Riego, Jr. and Jesse Lomelli [Click to enlarge]

"Dissent is the most American value."

The candid words of Pierce College student Danielle Gresham, 19, rang through the shouting crowds at a Hollywood protest
marking the five-year anniversary of the Iraq War.

Gresham, pictured above center, has been an activist since she was 13, after discovering punk music and being influenced by its focus on citizen rights and freedom.

She is a member of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), which hosts two major, nationwide antiwar
demonstrations a year.

"Band together, whatever you believe in," said Gresham, who expressed her fury toward media agendas that tailor to the youth,
including Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of MySpace. "Not everything's OK. Your civil liberties are at stake."

Gresham noted that the ANSWER Coalition's student contingent is getting bigger, drawing membership from all types of
activists including "anarchists, socialists, communists, whatever."

"Your tax dollars are going to support an imperialist and racist war that the U.N. didn't even approve of," she said, standing
behind an ANSWER Coalition table. Her best friend, 18, just returned from a tour in Iraq. She says he will be going back to Iraq soon, even though "he has shrapnel
inside him." "Ask the soldiers," Gresham encouraged.

"They'll tell you that it's not un-American to stand up for
what you believe in."







Protest chants rang through the streets of Hollywood on March 15, as thousands of anti-war demonstrators marched to the CNN
building at Hollywood and Cahuenga, shouting, "Iraq for the Iraqis, troops out now!" and "Alto a la Guerra, stop the war!"

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools