Miami Student

Issue date: 12/3/04 Section: Campus

Pushing aside political preferences, a small group of students is trying to get people to support U.S. troops by wearing red on Fridays. After a chain e-mail was sent to first-year Adam Van Treese asking college students to wear a red ribbon in support of an individual serving in Iraq, he decided to take it a step farther."It has all to do with the fact that we all know someone over there," he said.Sophomore Chip Wolford, a friend of Van Treese, joined forces to make a statement. Wolford thought that a great way to promote the idea of wearing red was to make a group on Thefacebook, the rapidly spreading online college network. Part of the group's descriptions reads, "We are trying to start a nonpartisan grassroots movement at Miami that isn't politically skewed or affiliated with any party."Wolford wants students to know that despite many of members of the group being Republican, political party preference has nothing to do with this."We can't stress enough how much we don't want this to be a partisan thing," Wolford said. "The majority of the people in our group are part of the College Republicans, but we don't want people to look at it that way - if they are, they're missing the point."Van Treese and Wolford are hoping the exposure from TheFacebook and word of mouth will spread the message about supporting our troops."People are so polarized on their issues," Wolford said. "We wanted to start something to bring people together."Wolford knows that the idea of wearing red for this cause might not be recognized immediately on a campus where red is seen everyday."But it's the original spirit of the e-mail and we didn't want to take away from what someone else started," Wolford said. "I know that it's not huge, it's not like we're doing something earth shattering. It's just a place to start and hopefully there can be a little bit of unity - instead of so many arguments."As long as there is motivation or a conflict in Iraq, the "Support our Troops" group hopes that people will wear red on Fridays. "Realistically speaking, we can't expect people to wear red shirts for the rest of their lives," Wolford said. "But maybe at some point when you walk around and see a bunch of red shirts, you will recognize why."

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