Thousands answered the call for action to mourn the 2000th U.S. military death in Iraq.
Thank you.
Your Messages:
In Gainesville, Florida we had about 115 turnout. We were on TV, radio and a good story in today's newspaper with photo. The most special thing was to have Gold Star Mom Ann Marie read the page of soldiers names that contained her son, Jeffrey Wershaw. Also to hear MFSO Mom, Ann Lane, put a prowar guy in his place!! She said, "You have nothing to say because your son is not over there -- I know what is going on because my son sees it first hand. We are killing people and our soldiers are dying for companies like Halliburton, who make big money but don't even feed them enough."
We directed the press to MFSO and the stories on TV, radio and print were good. If you want to read the local news story , going to www.gvillesun.com. Also, the 10/25/05 edition of the Gainesville Sun has a letter to editor from me (go to opinions page) about the war, the vigil and CodePINK. Their editorial today is also terrific about the loss of life and bring the troops home now. The TV coverage was great, too.
Jacque Gainesville Fl
Besides CODEPINK, Moveon and the afsc were there as well as the lancaster coalition for peace and justice LCPJ. I was on tv! On Channel 8 WGAL. We also had a mother of a son who is serving in Iraq now; and the chair of Lancaster LCPJ. I took a couple of pictures but it was a candlelight vigil. It's pretty; but it doesn't show much.
Traci Guynup Lancaster, Pennsylvania
As Hartford Connecticut will hold its vigil on November 1 on several locations, my next stop on my US tour was Silver Spring, Maryland, the home of a friend. Around 100 people joined on all four corners of Georgia Ave and Spring Street. Traffic was heavy and some of the drivers thanked us and told us to keep up the good work. Many others honked their horns.
My friend said that she felt good about standing in her community, knowing that every 6 miles or so, others were standing to be counted in their comunity in the D.C. area.
Mathilde Rand (visiting from Santa Cruz)
Through Moveon.org, I found a vigil at Alki Beach (Seattle). About 100 people attended, most about my age from the Viet Nam Era. Besides paying a slient tribute, there was an open forum about thoughts, ideas to end the war, etc.
Visually, the striking scene was our burning candles left behind at the feet of the Statue of Liberty monument, located at the beach and our meeting location. Truly a lump-in-the-throat moment.
Shari Barnhardt Seattle WA
In our town of 400 we had about 35 people turn out last night for the candlelight vigil in rememberance of the soldiers who died and calling for the troops to come home. We had a huge bonfire in the small park downtown and each person who wished spoke. I started off by talking about the unjust war and read the names of the Montana soldiers that died in Iraq and Afganistan. There was a large complete circle around the fire and we lit candles from one to the other as speakers concluded. People felt positive about the vigil and we announced the meetings of the High Country Peace and Justice group and invited attendance. We also talked about 'opting out' and the highschool students there were eager to bring the forms to their school. One student suggested that a goal should be to eliminate war from the dictionary. I felt some discomfort at all the mention of prayer and god and wonder if it might not be better to designate speakers next time. However, the overall experience was educational and built community.
Susan Hagen
The Potluck Democracy group of Joliet and a peace group from Morris met in Morris for a candlelight vigil. The names of the soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, from Illinois, were read after we observed a moment of silence. About 45 people were present.
Lorna Paisley Potluck Democracy
12 Peaceful souls gathered tonight to commemorate All lives cut short by the Iraq Invasion... We were honored to have the founder of Veterans for Peace and his wife from Rhode Island join us atop Jockey's Ridge (the tallest sand dune on the East Coast). Our candle lights shown brightly for the passers by on the highway below as we dedicated ourselves anew to working for peace in everything that we do....
