Candlelight Vigil No. 259, 2/23/11

"I've read where it will cost more to care for the U.S. soldiers after the wars than the cost of the wars themselves," said a 40 ish man after he read the sign and parked his bike. "I don't know if it will be that costly," I replied, "But the results from the Vietnam War tell us it will be very expensive and those costs continue to mount."

"These wars are crazy, a big mistake," he replied. "They will accomplish nothing. I guess it's all about money."

"May I take your picture with the candle in front of the sign for my relatives in Finland," he asked." They will want to see this." He then took the picture. "I remember meeting you out here 21/2 or 3 years ago."

"I was in the Peace Corp and was in Rwanda (after the 1994 genocide)," he continued. "It was the most efficient genocide in the last century in terms of the number of people killed in the shortest amount of time. They were killing 15,000 a day. [According to Human Rights Watch, 800,000 Rwandans were killed from early April to mid-July]

"There wasn't a village I would go to where children weren't missing ears or arms. One man had 55 relatives and 50 of them had been killed.

This man, with Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from Humboldt State Univ. in California is no longer in the Peace Corp, "but I try to help someone every day. We are all on this planet together."

Later a 45 ish bus driver stopped at a red light, honked her horn in support and opened her doors. She said her daughter had been in the Army and served in Iraq. "She's home safe now." And soon after she left, another bus stopped at a red light, and the 55 ish driver honked his horn and opened his doors.

He asked where John Fortier is, the Korean War veteran who regularly participates in this vigil. I told him John is with his family tonight but will host a vigil on Friday up the street. With a big smile, this driver welcomed me into the bus and shook my hand, expressing his gratitude for the vigil.

At the end of the hour as the vigil was about to conclude, a 22 ish muscular man who was jogging read the sign from a distance and stopped to join the vigil. "Thanks a lot," he said, as he explained he is in his first year in the Air Force and that he appreciates the vigil.

After he left, I blew out the candle and while packing up, thought of the vigil and its quest for peace as one little crack of many in the vast wall of war. It is the persistence of this and other vigils and you who support them that will eventually help end these wars and all the suffering and wasted resources they cause.

Dick