Though many Americans have turned from the war in Iraq to issues such as the Mark Foley e-mails and the race for the Senate between Harold Ford Jr. and Bob Corker, resident Bob Grimac is not going to let Knoxville forget what’s going on in the Middle East with his own tri-weekly protests against the war.
“We should all be outraged,” Grimac said. “It’s a war that we should not have started.”
Since before the war, Grimac has been adamantly against America going to Iraq. He thinks people made a morally wrong choice and have now forgotten about it.
“I participated in anti-war rallies before the war started because to me, it looked like we did not have reason to be going into this war,” Grimac said. “To me, it’s a moral and religious issue.”
Grimac said he started his protests after reading an ad for the National Council of Churches asking people to rally on the Fourth of July of last year.
“I wanted to turn that call into a Sunday morning demonstration on July 3rd,” Grimac said. “That was the first protest and we’ve done that every three weeks since last year. There’s been about 21 of them now.”
Now 21 protests and about 20 protesters strong, Grimac is keeping the war on the forefront of Knoxville residents’ minds for a number of reasons. Like many Americans, he thinks the United States entered the war under false pretenses and after the number of deaths and possible torturing incidents, Grimac thinks people should be even angrier than before. Fortunately, Grimac feels Knoxville cares almost as much as he does.
“The reaction on the street is overwhelmingly in our favor and it always has been,” Grimac said. “I would say six out of seven people are on our side in terms of gestures and remarks that we get. A lot of people thank us for being there.”
Caitlin Elledge, president of UT College Democrats, is grateful for the protests.
“I actually know Bob personally, since I was a little kid,” Elledge said. “He’s a really cool guy, and I’m glad that someone is out there taking a stand.”
Though many other campus organizations, including representatives of the College Republicans, refused to comment on the protests, Elledge thinks students are still thinking about the war because of the protests.
“They’ve been protesting like this for a long time,” Elledge said. “And I think it’s good in terms of keeping this issue on the table and not letting people forget about it. During the election year, a lot of … people make remarks about these things. I’m happy with those people who are not intimidated by it.”
Grimac still feels a lack of UT support. He said that though a couple students have helped out in recent protests, the group would benefit a lot from more student participation.
Yet Elledge said it’s unlikely Grimac’s efforts will affect voters’ decisions this November.
“I don’t think it will affect the mid-term elections in the Knoxville area, bless his heart,” Elledge said. “But we’ll see what happens.”
Nevertheless, the diligent Grimac has another protest planned. It will be held October 29 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the corner of Kingston Pike and Concord Street, west of campus.
