Staff Report
Members of an anti-war group dressed as clowns and demonstrated near a National Guard booth in front of the SUB on Wednesday.
"The National Guard should not be here," said Ethan Ganuer, a member Carnival Insurgente de Albuquerque. "We hope to persuade students not to join the National Guard."
National Guard representatives were on campus to promote a paintball tournament Saturday sponsored by the Guard, Staff Sgt. Carlos Tenorio said.
Tenorio said the Guard was not on campus to recruit.
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"It's all about just having a good time," he said. "They're traveling from campus to campus across the nation to bring people's focus on the Guard."
The demonstrators were responding to the seriousness of the Guard by teaching people to have more fun, said Mike Butler, a member of the group.
"We're also, by dressing as clowns, pointing out the real clowns, the real stupid-heads," he said. "The idiots are those who are trying to get you to join their cause for war, corruption, oil and capitalism."
Tenorio said the representatives came to UNM to tell people about how the Guard benefits the community.
He said people tend to forget how the Guard helps New Mexico with its efforts such as putting out fires in the Bosque and searching for lost hikers.
"We help out with a lot of stuff like that, and people tend to overlook that," he said. "The National Guard is there, and we're here to support in every way possible."
Tenorio said the demonstrators did not bother him. He said he's proud to serve in a country where people can express their opinions.
"They're enjoying their privilege and their right of freedom of speech," he said. "It's great they're able to do that."
Butler said there is a misconception that the military secures rights for people, but social movements, such as civil rights, prove otherwise.
"Soldiers don't protect our rights," he said. "We, standing up here as individuals, give us our rights."
People need to learn to relax so things like war don't happen, Butler said.
"In this society, people get mad too easily," he said. "We need more people who are into fun to go out and have more fun in open spaces."
