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A Peace Vigil on the Town Green
an article by David
After talking about it for a long time, finally three of us (my wife, myself and a friend) made a peace vigil on our Town Green on Saturday morning in the center of Branford Connecticut. We stood for an hour with signs against war at an intersection where many people could see us as they drove downtown.
A majority of motorists made no sign for or against what we were doing, but to our pleasant surpise, when they did respond, there were ten times as many positive responses as negative ones. One couple of young men in a pickup gave us the thumbs up and yelled out "I'd go to Canada before I'd go to Iraq!"
We stood in front of the peace pole that was planted by three community groups across from the Green last year (See CPNN report, Peace Poles: the Mantra of Peace). At the time I wondered if there would be any response to the question posed by the report, "Can Peace Poles Work?" Now I have an answer: when we decided to make the vigil, it was clear that it should be in front of the peace pole.
It shows that each little act that we do, even if it seems small and inconsequential, may be magnified by the actions of others whom we inspire. We have decided to keep vigiling at the same time and place each Saturday to see if others will be inspired to join us or to do something else to bring an end to the war.
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DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
Can a small, grassroots response make any real difference?,
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Another Peace Vigil
In 1991, before and during the first Iraq war, a fair-sized group of citizens in and around Concord, Massachusetts demonstrated against the war at the town green and along a major highway. Passing motorists were about equally divided between support and opposition to this demonstration. Shortly after that conflict had ended, a few people decided to create a peace vigil which would bring attention to the human costs of war, partly motivated by the terrible destruction inflicted on the Iraqi people. Vigil participants walk slowly in a circle around the town green, while two in rotation hold the poles of a banner which says “We walk with all who suffer because of war.”
For a long time the vigil was held the first Friday of each month, from 8 to 9 am at the peak of the morning commute. Hundreds of vehicles view the message since Concord Center is a crossroads. All are welcome to join, and periodically one of the participants writes a letter to the local paper drawing attention to the vigil. Since the current Afghanistan and Iraq wars, participants have decided to conduct the vigil every Friday. Over the years there has been a gradual change in motorist sentiment – they are now expressing support by about 20 to 1. . ...more.
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