The Daily Tar Heel

Issue date: 3/20/07 Section: City

Media Credit: DTH/Lauren Schoeffler Mary Andrews (left) and Michael Andrews participate in a candlelight vigil Monday night at the Franklin Street post office, commemorating the four-year anniversary of the Iraq war. About 50 people gathered at the event organized by second-year master's student Claire Hermann to hear readings from family members of soldiers and to stand in silence.

Media Credit: DTH/Amy Holter Anne Hillman, a graduate student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, lies Monday in the Pit with Students for a Democratic Society to protest the deaths of Iraqi civilans.

The fourth anniversary of the day the war in Iraq began isn't going unnoticed by Chapel Hill community members or students.

Local anti-war groups are seeing the anniversary as an opportunity to make a public plea for peace.

About 50 people participated Monday night in a silent candlelight vigil outside the Chapel Hill Post Office on Franklin Street to observe the anniversary.

Claire Hermann, a second year master's student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said she organized the event after being unable to make it to a march in Washington, D.C., last weekend.

She said she hoped the vigil would reiterate the message sent by November's vote for a Democratic majority in Congress.

"I think the election really showed the American people want the war to end," she said. "I hope this shows that we're not just a vote. We're still there, still wanting this war to end."

The group gathered from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and participants read a list of the 74 soldier casualties from North Carolina and a selection of memories written by family members of fallen soldiers.

"I think it's important to show we support the troops and that we support the families of the troops and the civilians that are in harm's way," Hermann said.

Hermann hosted the event through MoveOn.org, an organization that works to bring citizens into the political process through campaigns, petitions and protests. The organization hosted more than 1,100 candlelight vigils Monday around the country.

Norene Daly and Joanne Barton traveled from Fearrington Village in Pittsboro and from Durham, respectively, to attend the vigil. This was their third protest against the war in Iraq, after a march in Washington, D.C., in January and a protest in Fayetteville last year.

Daly said the vigil was a way to get their voices heard without being accused of causing a disturbance.

"It's like saying your prayers," she said. "You're hoping that people will take note."

Wally Friedman, a retired Chapel Hill resident, said he has been protesting the war since before it started four years ago.

"The administration only had plan A - that people would welcome us like France did when we liberated them from the Nazis," he said. "There was no plan B. They haven't come up with it, yet."

Sophomore Frank Sturges held a flag that replaced the 50 stars with a peace sign.

"It's kind of chilling when you think it's been four years," he said.

"It will probably still be going on by the time we graduate."

He said the more protests like this there are, the harder it will be for the administration to ignore.

One passer-by said he respected the protest as a form of free speech, but he said he found parts of the protest to be in poor taste.

"It's disrespectful that they have the flag altered," freshman Keith Gordon said. "Those 3,000 people died for that flag."

Gordon said he supports the "global war on terror."

"I hope we can be successful as soon as possible," he said. "I hope we can return to peace in a smart way."

On campus, the UNC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society organized a "die-in" Monday afternoon in the Pit also in protest of the Iraq war. A handful of students lay on the ground with blood-splattered shirts that read "Iraqi civilian" while others made announcements on a bullhorn letting passers-by know the meaning of the display.

Freshman Ben Carroll, who organized the event, said the purpose of the protest was two-fold.

"The people dying here today represent the people who have died in the four years of the war," he said

"We also hope this will promote the walk-out we are staging."

This larger protest calls for students to leave their classes at noon today and meet in the Pit for a rally. Afterward, there will be a march to a location to be announced.



Staff Writer Jamie Williams contributed to this article.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.

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