Solemn vigil marks four years of war

A solemn gathering with prayers, poetry, and the reading of the names of Washington state residents killed in the Iraq war spilled out of the U.S. Courthouse plaza in downtown Spokane and across the Monroe Street Bridge on Monday night.

About 200 candle-carrying demonstrators illuminated the bridge as they marched to the cadence of a beating drum and bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” above the sounds of the rushing Spokane River.

A few minutes earlier, they had stood silently in the falling darkness as speakers read 74 names – alphabetically from Adams to Wilton – of the state’s war casualties. A bell tolled after each one and a stand-in stepped forward to represent the fallen soldier, airman, sailor or Marine.

The Rev. Paul Lebens-Englund, an Episcopal priest, recalled the words of poet John Donne on tolling bells, saying each person’s death affects everyone else.

The anti-war vigil in Spokane, and another in Coeur d’Alene, were among more than 1,100 around the country organized by MoveOn.org on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war.

“It’s not a happy occasion. It’s a solemn occasion,” said organizer Rebecca Lamb.

Protesters listened to poetry, some of it new from an Iraq veteran, some of it from Wilfred Owen, a British soldier who died in 1918, a week before the armistice that ended World War I.

They held up the two-fingered peace sign and sang songs that harkened to the Vietnam War, including Pete Seeger’s “Bring ‘Em Home.”

“Peace is not just something we sow outside ourselves. Peace starts inside each of us,” Lebens-Englund said, recalling Mohandas Gandhi’s admonition to “be the peace you wish to see.”