"My father got shot in the head during World War ll," said a 55 ish woman from her beige Volkswagen bug. "He was [incapacitated} for the rest of his life. That's why I oppose war. My mother was a dentist catering to veterans. I support what you are doing."
This was the tenor of last night's vigil, conducted by Korean War veteran and retired school teacher John Fortier and me. Among the horn honks and waves of support was a 50 ish man in a gray Corvette. He held up a U.S. Marine Corps baseball cap and then honked his horn and held up his hand in a two fingered peace sign.
The vigil was joined by a 50 ish man who often joins and later, after John and I parted company, by a 67 year old woman who occasionally joins. But as the vigil had ended, I thanked her and drove her to her church, which is where she often goes after attending the vigil.
"Thank you," said a 60 ish woman as she walked up and read the sign. "I appreciate what you are doing."
This vigil focuses on the U.S.'s Iraq and Afghan Wars and the incredible price being paid in lives and in mind numbing suffering and in the vast waste of resources that otherwise could be used to uplift the world instead of destroying it in the name of "The War on Terror." America's leaders never grasp the inherent conflict in their wars which is: To go to war is to attack someone. What does that make us to him? Of course it makes us terrorists. Now the U.S. has added a 3rd war in Libya.
Later, as the vigil drew to a close, two 25 ish women in a small gray sedan stopped at a red light and began vigorously waving at us. As they did, a 3 inch wooden cross swayed from a chain hanging from the car's rear view mirror, mesmerizing in how the cross moved back and forth. It was a fine reminder that during The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus urged his followers to "turn the other cheek" rather than to attack others.
Dick
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