peace vigil

yesterday noah and i went downtown for the weekly peace vigil and the ending celebration of evan knappenberger's week-long stop-loss protest. we heard people speak about evan, about the war, about their own experiences, about their hope for change. one mother spoke about her son, evan's best friend, currently stationed in korea. she said she knew if anything happened to him she would become a crazy person. i felt the truth of that in my gut. i don't know how mothers deal with the losses of their sons, particularly through this kind of impure, unnecessary violence.

evan spoke after her, and he thanked everyone for all their support, and he told his friend's mother that he knew his friend would be okay. i really really hope he's right.

while i can't really say noah participated in the vigil, he did enjoy watching the colorful flags wave in the wind. many folks smiled and said hello to noah, mostly older folks, some of whom we knew from garden street united methodist or the quaker meeting. above is our friend leonard, who is nearly blind but full of passion. i also recognized one woman as ellen murphy, who was recently on trial for trespassing during a non-violent protest outside of representative rick larson's office. you can read more about her story here.

this experience has inspired me to start noah's "conscientious objector file." a few years ago i read this article in mothering magazine about how to help your peace-loving son avoid the draft, and i guess now is the time to put its ideas to use. considering noah does become a lover of peace... (did george bush's mother pray the same for her son?)