Peace rally at West Point.

Major Peace Rally Protests Cheney Speech To West Point Graduation, May 26

"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 5-Star General, 34th President of the United States, West Point Class of 1915

Hudson Valley, NY - May 16, 2006 - Elected officials, veterans, military families, and grassroots citizen activists for peace, freedom, and justice held a march and rally at Veterans Park, Highland Falls, New York commencing at 8:30 am on May 26, 2007 as Vice President Dick Cheney delivered the commencement address to the graduating class of 2007 at the United States Military Academy.

"We feel morally obligated to continue to protest the war in Iraq and to show this administration that people around the country will not accept the perpetuation of this war. Allowing Vice President Cheney to appear in our region without protest is tantamount to supporting this war and condoning current American foreign policy," said Michael Sussman, the civil rights attorney currently defending the West Point 8, and the chairperson of the Democratic Alliance.

Organizations including Veterans for Peace, social justice groups, women's groups, media watchdogs, impeachment advocates, party activists ranging the full spectrum from Democrat to Republican, Green to Libertarian, and over a thousand citizens took part. With the endorsement of several national peace coalitions, this year's peace event was the largest in West Point history. At press time, an injunction was being sought in federal court to permit the parade to enter the grounds of the campus itself, which, if approved, would be the first access of this type in the movement's history.