The Standard

Issue date: 1/15/08 Section: News

Bricks, stones and handing out Molotov Cocktail instructions were part of a Missouri State University student's riot plans for the Missouri presidential primaries until he recently deemed a peaceful protest to be more appropriate.

Ryan Culbertson-Faegre, a sophomore English major, said he is planning a protest called Vote with Violence to project questions and ideas toward voters on Feb. 5.

Originally calling the protest a riot, Culbertson-Faegre had planned using signs reading "chop off the head of state" and handing out stones.

Culbertson-Faegre said he'd also planned to hand out "empty glass bottles with rags tied to the neck and directions on the construction of the incendiary bomb...the Molotov Cocktail."

Culbertson-Faegre said he decided not to have violence incorporated because of the possible legal consequences.

"I don't really want to hurt anybody," he said. "I know it's Vote with Violence, but I'm not really that violent of a person. I want a commotion. I want a scene. I don't really want to hurt anybody in particular."

Sticking with the original name, Vote with Violence is what Culbertson-Faegre continues to call the protest, despite the change to a peaceful assembly.

Because it is a catchy name it will make people want to be a part of it, he said.

The point of the protest is to talk to people going to the polls and make them think about issues that they might not have thought of before, Culbertson-Faegre said.

After actively campaigning during the 2004 elections for John Kerry, Culbertson-Faegre said he was turned off by politics and peaceful protests.

"Peaceful protests, I used to love them," Culbertson-Faegre said.

Culbertson-Faegre said he and his family would gather to protest, hold signs, sing songs, there would be a guitarist and sometimes cookies were passed out.

However, protesting peacefully offered few immediate results for Culbertson-Faegre.

It was like they were doing nothing, he said.

"While there were peaceful protesters," he said. "There were Iraqi civilians being killed."

Culbertson-Faegre said he feels if nonviolence was going to work in changing the political scene it would have worked already.

People who follow the law and pre-determined protest boundaries won't change anything, he said.

Culbertson-Faegre said he is proposing marching and protesting in places where the police restrict public protests.

Continued...

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