Interfaith rally protests war

[Breeze54]

Interfaith rally protests war

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070317/NEWS/703170326

BY JILLIAN DALEY
Statesman Journal

March 17, 2007

A Vietnam veteran stood on the Marion Street Bridge on Friday holding a sign saying "Peace is Patriotic."

"War has never solved anything," said John Roy Wilson, who served for 399 days as a medic in
a mobile U.S. Army hospital.
"War is the most idiotic human behavior. It's horror beyond horror."

A crowd of about 50 people lined the pedestrian walkway on the bridge Friday, holding anti-war
signs in anticipation of the March 20 fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq.

The Salem Fellowship of Reconciliation held a Christian/Interfaith Peace Witness for Iraq at
the same time as one in Washington, D.C., and many more across the country, said Janet Brown,
the Salem event organizer.

"It is a peace witnessing: To witness means you're visible publicly; it means
you don't keep quiet; you don't keep still, but that you stand up and speak," Brown said.

What happens in Iraq is draining U.S. resources that could be spent on programs for children
and health care, she said.

Fellowship member Kathy Campbell-Barton said the rising death toll, more than 3,200 soldiers, aggrieves her.

"My heart's so broke that everybody's dying," she said.

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Today

The same group will demonstrate from noon to 1 p.m. at Liberty and Chemeketa streets NE.


Schedule of Peace events

TODAY

What: Salem Fellowship of Reconciliation Peace demonstration

When: Noon to 1 p.m.

Where: Liberty and Chemeketa intersection.

information: Janet Brown, [phone].

MONDAY

What: Candlelight vigil

When: 6 p.m.

Where: Steps of the Capitol, 900 Court St. NE

Information: Margaret Strong [phone].

TUESDAY

What: Worldwide Anti-War reading of Simon Levy's "What I Heard About Iraq"

When: 6:30 p.m.

Where: First Congregational Church, 700 Street NE

Information: Event organizer Kevin Scott [phone]