Opening Days of the Iraq War, March 2003, by Elizabeth Turner

From MemoryArchive

Who: Elizabeth Turner
What: Opening Days of Iraq War
When: March, 2003
Where: Oregon, USA

I couldn't tell you the date we went to War with Iraq. I do know it was late March 2003. During the build up to war I had the fortunate experience of being on my speech and debate team, so everyone at the National Qualifying tournament was glued to the television set up just so we could watch the bombing unfold.

For an entire day hundreds of teenagers sat glued to CNN instead of MTV. There was a quiet feeling blanketing the crowd. No one really talked about what we were watching, we just absorbed it. Since we'd spent the whole day watching national news we didn't know that the city of Portland had erupted in protest.

Our bus ride through the city took an extra half an hour because crowds had closed most of the main roads. When I called my parents to let them know I'd be late getting home my die hard Democrat father asked if our coach would let my sister and me off the bus to join them. Sadly, she said no.