Bill “Doc” Walls
Chicago mayoral candidate
“Absolutely yes; African Americans should speak out about this war much more loudly then we have in the past because this war affects us more then anyone else. We’re the people who rely upon social services to help balance our budgets, our seniors on fixed incomes that are raising their grandchildren [and] now have to send those grandchildren off to war. When they come back maimed and injured the United States Government does not provide the necessary care for them. So for those reasons and more we should absolutely speak out against this war.”

William Hooks
attorney
“I do think that African Americans have not spoken out against the war enough. It is left up to the adult generation to spark our younger generation. When we were young we had folk against the war being very visible and very involved. This generation needs to be pushed along a little bit more and it’s left to us who are older professionals and community members to push those folk along. It is very important that we take a position concerning the war and it should be that our sons and daughters shouldn’t have to go because we’ve already gone. And there is no system setup for the veterans when they come back sufficient enough for them to risk their lives.”

Bruce Cook
President of the Cook
County Bar Association
“Well let me say this, I think that we should absolutely speak out on the war in Iraq. We went to war under false pretenses, we were lied to, lead astray and bamboozle (to bother a term from a popular movie). It seems to me that it’s one thing to lie as previous presidents have done, it’s another thing to lie and have people die in the thousands as a result of the lie. The reality is that there are a whole lot of black and brown people who are losing their lives in this war. At some point somebody has got to start talking some common sense about why we are over there and how we get out because it was wrong from the beginning. That doesn’t mean that we compound the wrong by continuing to do wrong. It seems to me that there ought to be someone among our politicians and our so-called leaders and our policy makers who have the courage to say enough.”

Barbara Minor
“Yes we should be speaking out more about the war in Iraq. I think we should be represented because our young people are going to have to go and fight. Right now they don’t have the draft, but I know this war has to continue because [President] Bush is creating wars all over the world, so it’s going to have to be a draft eventually and our children are going to have to go. And we need to be speaking out. We need our voices to be heard. We don’t need to send our children, we need to encourage our children not to go into war and encourage them to go into businesses for themselves and that they are responsible for themselves. So we should definitely be speaking out more about the war. We should teach our children that war is not the way. We should teach our children to be responsible for their actions, the things that they do and the life that they produce on this planet. They are responsible and nobody else is.”

Andrea Buford
attorney and sister of Renault Robinson
“Certainly African Americans should speak out about the war and Iraq. Not only should we speak out about that but we should speak out about all topics we are equally affected by. There are also people of color in Iraq, and we definitely should speak out.”

Eunice Wigfall
“African Americans most definitely need to speak out more. Whenever there is a rally against the war, you see few black folks who are participating. I’ve attended rallies against the war and I’m saddened that so few African Americans are in the crowds. This Bush administration has sold the country a rotten package of meat, and the only people dying from the rotten meat are our sons and daughters. Why aren’t there any senators, congressmen, cabinet members or Bush children fighting this unjust war? The American people were given a non-sufficient bill of lies based on fear. The so-call terrorists have gone free and Bush is bankrupting the country for his personal ego. The people who are and will suffer the most from this ungodly war are black folks. I’m wondering if they are all asleep.”