Ideologies clash over continued protests of war

Members of the peace camp in Dunn Meadow said they won't end their call for peace until U.S. military forces leave Afghanistan. But an investment banker in New York whose brother-in-law died in the World Trade Center said he wants them to change their minds. \nJohn Ubaldo, who works for H.C. Wainwright & Co. Inc., said he became outraged when he saw the peace camp at Dunn Meadow on national television. Ubaldo offered to fund a trip to New York for members of the peace camp to help them understand his perspective of the the terrorist attacks and the bombings in Afghanistan.\n"These kids are looking for attention, and they are full of shit," Ubaldo said. "If they see what's really going on here, they wouldn't be banging on bongos and looking like fools."\nUbaldo said the peace camp is infuriating. \n"Certainly at this time there are more productive things to be done," Ubaldo said in a letter to Dean of Students Richard McKaig.\nBut members of the peace camp say their mission is to promote peace. They said they believe violence is not an acceptable solution to any problem.\n"There's a misconception a lot people have about our mission," said graduate student Peter Drake, who stays at the peace camp. "Somehow they think we consider what the terrorists did is acceptable. That is not true at all."\nUbaldo said he would take them to Ground Zero, which he said is still smoldering and smells of "burnt plastic, concrete and bodies of more than 6,000-plus innocent people." \nNext, Ubaldo would take students to morgues where bodies and pieces of bodies are being kept. Ubaldo said he also wants to have members of the peace camp meet with people whose family members and friends were victims of the terrorist attacks. \nFinally, he would end the trip by taking them to a memorial service for a fireman, policeman or an employee of the World Trade Center.\n"I'll do anything I can to help positively," Ubaldo said. "I'll be (in Bloomington) in a plane ride. But to see this stuff on TV is infuriating when I've lost 20 to 25 close friends and every weekend I'm going to two to three memorials."\nSome of the people staying at the peace camp have said they wouldn't go to New York. \nIf they went to Ground Zero, it would inspire them even more to stay with their mission of promoting peace, said Sean Bagley, who prefers to be called "Steps to Freedom."\n"If (Ubaldo) was in Afghanistan and saw the innocent victims of the bombing and the starving people, hopefully he would change his view." Steps said.\nPeace groups in New York have also been formed since the bombing in Afghanistan started, said Elizabeth Qn, who prefers to be called "Bright Owl." Bright Owl is from Washington and said she heard of the camp through IU students at a Rainbow gathering in Kentucky. \n"There are a lot of families who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center that are saying the war in Afghanistan is just another act of violence and think it's more of a revenge than anything else," Bright Owl said.\nMcKaig responded to Ubaldo's letter by saying that while he sympathizes with Ubaldo's losses, the peace camp members have a right to speak out.\n"The overwhelming sense of sadness by people who lost friends and family in the World Trade Center is justifiable, but people staying at the peace camp have a right to express their own views," McKaig said."A large diversity of views and opinions exist on a college campus like ours. People at IU ought to be able to express points of view and exchange ideas in hopes to form a better future"