From the onset of the Walk Out rally, Sue Niederer was vocal about her opinions on the Iraq War. She continuously pursued students at Voorhees Mall on the College Avenue campus about their feelings on the subject, debated supporters of the war and offered her own views on the conflict.
At the root of her vigilance and impassioned demeanor is the fact that the war hits close to home. Her son, Ceth Dvorin, who graduated from Livingston College in 2002, died at age 24 in Iraq.
In speaking to the crowd, Niederer started her speech with the lyrics of Edwin Star's song, "War." She chanted "what is it good for, absolutely nothing."
Among the opinions she expressed in her speech was her belief that Iraqis want freedom, "but want us the hell out." She also said she would personally take supporters to any recruitment station to enlist if they felt strongly about the war. "You want to go and I'll have you sign on the god damn line," she said.
But her main emphasis rested in answering the question: What is sacrifice?
"Sacrifice is the young men over there fighting for a non-war because this war has not been declared a war it is a fucking occupation," Niederer said.
She went on to briefly describe her son's enlistment into the armed services up to his death.
"My son was a Rutgers graduate. My son went here. My son paid the ultimate sacrifice. He was 24 years old and he had just been married," Niederer said. "And the recruiters were on this campus and all the other campuses around and they got him by their lies, deceit and deception."
Recruiters had been pursuing Dvorin for enrollment since his junior year in high school, Niederer said. "I actually physically had the recruiter in my home," she said. "[The recruiter] was out of the East Brunswick recruiting and he pursued him and got him."
When a person in the crowd interrupted Niederer's speech to say that it was her son's choice to go to war, she replied by saying, "let him have his piece, that's what democracy is."
She continued to describe a situation where her son was told a different story by recruiters prior to entering the army from the reality of war that unfolded thereafter.
"My son, as many others, was told by the recruiters that he would become an officer, which he did. As an officer he would never ever see the front lines if we ever went to war," Niederer said. "Well guess what, they trained my son in air defense artillery-not as infantry. He got to Fort Drum and said guess what your leaving for Iraq, you're brilliant, we don't have officers we need you you'll get on the job training."
She expressed her opinion of the army's involvement in her son's death in a blunt, infuriated fashion, almost devoid of maternal grief. "Yea they blew him up. That's on the job training."
She also spoke about the army failing to meet their promises of paying her son's tuition. When he returned he owed $12,000 to the University and the army would not pay it, Niederer said.
She shifted her tone of voice from anger to reveal a smile when talking about her relationship with her son after the speech. "We talked, we hugged, we kidded around, and we ended every conversation with I love you," she said.
A fourth-year School of Engineering student told a similar story of dissatisfaction with the army's treatment of its troops. Otoniel Bruno's brother, who is stationed at Fort Drum, is supposed to be sent over to Iraq for a third time.
Bruno explained his family and his personal sentiment toward his brother partaking in yet another term of duty.
"He doesn't want to go, I don't want him to go, and my family doesn't want him to go," Bruno said. "We want information on how we can stop him from going."
Bruno also spoke about the current political situation, which allows for soldiers to be deployed without placing a cap on the amount of time they serve.
"Because its not considered a war anymore they can send him as many times as they want," Bruno said. "Your first time is your duty, second time, I have a responsibility to my friends and my soldiers, a third time that's just suicide now. How many times do we have to send them to die?"
Other attendees of the rally believed that it stirred up emotion but produced a divisive political climate.
"It has stirred up our passion but it is also ripping our generation apart. We are in the middle of an ideological clash," said Christian Stasse, Rutgers College junior and history and political science double major.
"This walk out is counter-productive, almost destructive, it removes the responsibility the professors have," he said. "You're here for school. You're here to do your work. To walk out of your class to sit on your butt, it's not going to stop the war."
Jim D., who wishes not to disclose his last name because he is serving in the military, spoke about the Walk Out in conjunction with war protests occurring across the country.
"It is part of a larger movement against the war. But I think that locally and immediately this student walk out does have an impact," he said.
Jim D. served in the military for thirteen years and spent seven months in Iraq with the first Marine division and currently works with several veteran associations that are calling for the troops to come home.
In describing the military presence in Iraq during his time there, he said, "I think our presence in Iraq is only making things worse. The Iraq people see us as occupiers."
He also touched upon the course of the war over the years, expressing his regret on how the administration has conducted its foreign policy initiatives.
"I think that from its inception it could have gone a lot of different ways but because of the way the administration failed to plan this is the only way it could have ended up."
Be the first to comment on this article!