Profiles in Protest

JOHN CHIASSON FOR TIME
BANNER: Meeker takes cover in one of her handmade peace quilts

(2 of 3)

Meeker's new vocation brought her into contact with relief workers in Iraq, who told her of the dismal conditions of Iraqi civilians under the weight of U.N. sanctions. She believes that Western policies have exacerbated the suffering. Her opposition to war with Iraq has taken her to protests in Washington, Nashville and Macon, Ga. Last month she joined women from across the U.S. in their vigil in Washington's Lafayette Park. For two days they subsisted only on coffee and took cover from the cold and rain under flimsy plastic tarps. Meeker says she intends to return to fast again.

The Professor
David Fox, 33

It came to David Fox in a rush one day last summer. The University of Minnesota paleontologist had become so irritated with all the White House talk about a pre-emptive war that he decided to type a manifesto decrying it. He figured the campus paper would publish his four-page, single-spaced letter, which he first e-mailed to a few colleagues to get a few signatures. Within days he had 230. When the petition grew too large for the paper's letters section, Fox and his friends paid $900 to publish the letter as an ad. Soon the 1,000-word essay started circulating on academic e-mail lists at universities like Harvard and M.I.T. It eventually became a website NoAttackIraq.org ) with more than 31,000 signatures, half of them from academics from around the world.

Fox is an unlikely leader of the campus crusade. As a professor in the department of geology and geophysics, he spends most of his time studying rock fossils to discern the habitats of ancient mammals. Fox was active in campaigns against U.S. policies in Latin America, but he supported the Gulf War and U.S. intervention in the Balkans. Fox subscribes to several oft-recited criticisms of a military campaign against Saddam. He believes a war with Iraq would kill Iraqi civilians, produce a new generation of anti-American terrorists and destabilize the Middle East. "These are very likely consequences of war," he says. "This is not the way to achieve a more just society in Iraq." And yet, while he supports "aggressive" U.N. weapons inspections, Fox like many others in the antiwar camp doesn't know how the U.S. can remove Saddam without resorting to force. Unlike others, he is willing to admit it. "I don't have a good answer," he says.

The Professional
Rebecca Elswit, 24

Rebecca Elswit was born to be radical. "I've had the fire in my belly since I was 3 years old," she says. Rebecca's parents raised her to be politically conscious (her mother is a professor, her dad a lawyer). In high school and college, she campaigned for women's rights before turning her attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last summer she waded into the intifadeh, living in the occupied territories and engaging in "loving and nonviolent action against the Israeli government."

Elswit lives near scruffy MacArthur Park in downtown Los Angeles. She fits the profile of the eager young progressive: her tastes run to mountain climbing, experimental art and the Buddhist religious scholar Thich Nhat Nanh. But she's no flake. Elswit is the closest thing to a professional antiwar activist, holding down jobs at two peace-advocacy groups. In between breakfast meetings with religious leaders and other opponents of the war, she is coordinating a civil-disobedience event planned for this week in Los Angeles that will include a candle-light vigil on Hollywood Boulevard. Elswit and other young antiwar activists spread the word and enlist recruits through the websites and e-mail lists launched during the anti-globalization movement of the late '90s. "The dialogue is happening at a much faster pace than in the past," she says. "There's so much happening against the war, I could attend events every day of the week. But I try to limit my attendance to events once or twice a week, or else I'd burn out."

The Veteran
Charles Sheehan-Miles, 31

During the last days of the first Gulf War, a 19-year-old tank crewman named Charles Sheehan-Miles found himself face to face with the enemy in the southern Iraqi desert. Assigned to stop Iraqi forces from fleeing to Baghdad, his division had found a fuel truck filled with Iraqi troops. The Americans blasted the truck with cannon fire; when those still alive tried to run rather than be taken prisoner, Sheehan-Miles and his platoon mates shot and killed them. "What we did was militarily right," Sheehan-Miles says now. "But I had to live with myself after that. It was really a turning point."