Mary LaverInformed Cabrini students who are worried about the future of their world started an activism group wanting to take a stand for what they believe in, and they want to go one step further by educating the students about certain events taking place around the world that they might not know about. The group’s first meeting was on Jan. 21, in the Wolfington Center.
All of the members of the group do not believe the same things about certain situations in the world. An issue like war is one of the many situations in the world that not everyone agrees about. Senior Karen Bonin and freshman Chris Friel are not anti-war. “I do believe in a form of just war,” Chris Friel said. “I am not anti-war, but let’s say that I am pro-peace.”
Renee Di Pietro, a senior English and communications major, said. “Joining an activism group does not mean you get together with people who are exact replicas of yourself, it is getting together with people who are passionate about humanity and are ready to debate about what is going on, why and if it is right. Our group represents opposite opinions on the same focus.”
The rest of the group, which includes Mike Paolucci, Haven McMickle, and Marian Gibfried oppose what is behind most wars, especially the possibility of one in Iraq. Those three attended an anti-war rally on Saturday Jan. 18, in Washington D.C. Paolucci said, “It was amazing to see how many people do not support a war against Iraq. The police estimated that the crowd was only 30,000 but several news organizations say the number is much higher.”
The only opposition that the protesters faced was, as MckMickle and Gibfried said, “One or two people shouting out of the windows of high story apartments shouting things like ‘hippies’ but that was the only opposition.”
Bonin, an education major, believes that educating people about issues around the world is the most important thing for the group to do, which the group agrees with.
Gibfried said, “Too may people at Cabrini say that they are uninformed about issues in the world to be able to do something about them.” She added, “I have joined an activism group to represent my own beliefs and to get the facts out on Cabrini’s campus. Ignorant compliance and a non-informed society are things which I dislike and this is a good peaceful way to battle them.”
Bonin said, “Education is the reason that I came to Cabrini and I really want to be involved with this aspect of it.”
January 28 marked the day of the involvement fair and the first Cabrini campus activity that the group was involved with. McMickle said, “It is not about trying to change people’s opinions on the world, but informing and educating people so that they can make an educated decision about something that is important.”
The group has been meeting in Wolfington Center on Tuesday nights and will continue to do so as they take on new questions about where they want to go. Decisions will have to be made like what will the group’s focus will be and if it will be affiliated with a group like Amnesty International will be addressed in future meetings.
McMickle said, “People should be in activism group if they care, once you care the next step is to get all of the information that you possibly can and act on it. Why sit around and complain if you are not going to act?”
