Third Anniversary Marked By Three Protests: SF, Sacramento, and Davis

The Capital Region chapter of Military Families Speak Out protested the war at three events over the weekend of the 3rd anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Chapter founders Russell and Laurie Loving joined with Bay Area MFSO, Veterans For Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War in the San Francisco rally and march Saturday, March 18. The Lovings and several MFSO members and supporters tabled at a Sacramento rally that same evening. Finally, the Capital Region chapter was one of the main sponsors of the “Vigil for Peace” held in Davis on Sunday, March 19, 2006.

San Francisco: Saturday morning Russell and Laurie Loving drove to the Richmond BART station and took the train into downtown San Francisco. A crowd estimated as high as 25,000 filled the Civil Center Plaza. Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) and Veterans for Peace (VFP) shared a booth at the rally, selling the T-shirts, buttons and bumperstickers that proclaim Support The Troops, Bring Them Home Now, and Take Care of Them When They Get Here!

Laurie spoke with a Marine recently back from Iraq and wanting to get involved with protesting the war. She was able to take him to Tim Goodrich, the California chapter founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Many Vietnam veterans came to the booth and joined Veterans for Peace for the first time. As a Vietnam vet had told Laurie and Russell at another rally “When I was in Vietnam someone marched for me. It’s my turn to march for these troops.” This seems to be a growing sentiment among Vietnam era veterans.

Both the MFSO Capital Region and Bay Area chapters carried huge blue and white banners along the March route. The veterans carried individual signs. Thousands of protestors filled the streets, most carrying signs calling for the end of the war and the impeachment of the Bush administration. Our MFSO groups ended the march lunching together and making plans for future events.

Sacramento: Driving home from San Francisco that evening, Russell and Laurie decided to continue on to Sacramento where MFSO supporters were tabling at the rally at 16th and Broadway near Tower Café. Approximately 200 anti-war protestors stood on the corners of the intersection carrying multi-national flags and both organizational and homemade signs. One group continually crossed the four sides of the street marching to a drum. A flag-draped coffin (known as a “transfer tube in Bush-language) was prominent on one corner. Hundreds of cars passed the intersection, almost all honking loudly in support, a few “flipping off” the protesters.

Russell and Laurie held the chapter banner on one corner. A woman approached Laurie and said, “My son leaves for Iraq on Tuesday”. The fear was evident in her eyes. Like Laurie, she had been unable to talk her son out of joining the military. She signed the MFSO mailing list and Laurie gave her a phone number to call “day or night”, remembering her own intense fear the first weeks of her son’s deployment. Laurie told her about the Sunday vigil in Davis and she said she would attend, and she did.

Davis: Sunday afternoon the members of MFSO, the Davis Peace Coalition and others from the dozen sponsoring groups began setting up at the E Street Plaza in downtown Davis for the 5:00 pm Vigil for Peace. The purpose of the vigil was to memorialize the thousands of lives lost in the war, both military personnel and civilians, and to call for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. By the time the program began 400-500 regional residents packed the plaza, making this the largest peace rally in Davis since before the Iraq war began.

Along with the main Vigil for Peace organizer Will Lotter, about two-dozen people wore black armbands held together with a peace pin, signifying that they were participating in a 24 hour fast started at 6:00 pm Saturday night. The fast was in solidarity with the 33 day fast being done by the group Voices for Creative Non-Violence.

Davis Musicians for Peace began playing anti-war classics such as “Blowing in the Wind” as the crowd gathered. People stopped at the Davis Students Against the War table to make homemade protest signs. Members and supporters of Code Pink, as part of the Peace Ribbon Project crafted creative and colorful fabric peace panels, each memorializing an Iraqi or American who has died in the war.

Iraqi-American and long-term Davis resident Fadhil Al-Kazily brought the crowd to tears as he spoke of the death of his 81 year old uncle two weeks ago, shot by American troops while simply driving through an intersection in the city of Mosul on his way to pick up his wife. Davis resident and co-founder of the Capital Region chapter of MFSO Laurie Loving shared her immediate, fearful thought that it had been her son, stationed in Mosul, whom had shot Fadhil’s uncle. Fadhil said he “does not blame the young soldier who killed my uncle, but the decision-makers who sent him to Iraq”. Laurie replied, “We will not let the Bush administration make us enemies”. The crowd roared and applauded in agreement as Laurie and Fadhil hugged on stage.

The last speaker was Pat Sheehan of nearby Vacaville who wore his son’s nearly new fatigue jacket. Casey Sheehan had been stationed in Iraq just two weeks when he was killed on April 4, 2004. Pat spoke of the devastating grief his family has experienced in the two years since Casey’s death. He said “I will always hold Casey in my heart and I ask you to keep him in your mind and all those who were lost”. Pat called for “no more politicians, but a statesman” that can lead the U.S. back to a country of which we can all be proud.

Casey’s sister Carley Sheehan was scheduled to read a poem she wrote three months after her brother’s death, called, “A Nation Rocked to Sleep”. But, because she was busy with finals at UC Davis, her father read the poem for her, again bringing the crowd to tears. It begins, “Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son? The torrential rains of a mother’s weeping will never be done. They call him a hero. You should be glad that he’s won. But have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?”

A healing ceremony to remember those on all sides of the conflict who have died or been injured and to “bring an end to this war as soon as possible, in the best way possible” was led by Trudi Richards of the organization Community of Well-Being.

Davis High School students, who welcomed the crowd with “How Can I Keep From Singing”, closed the vigil by leading the crowd in John Lennon’s “Imagine”. Finally, the breaking of bread together, a symbol of friendship and solidarity broke the fast.