Vigil promotes peace, awareness
In order to promote peace, a group of students and faculty members from Utah State University and members of the local community held a peace vigil in front of the Logan Tabernacle March 3.
The vigil is a weekly event that has been held every Friday since Sept. 24, 2005, said Rachel Carroll-Larson, a graduate student in sociology at USU. She said she got the vigil started by obtaining the necessary permits and hanging up fliers around town. She said participation ranges from about five-20 people, depending on how cold it is.
The purpose of the vigil is to “promote peace and bring awareness that people care about peace,” Larson said. “We all have a general vision that there isn’t a way to peace, but that peace is the way.”
Larson said she has a best friend who is currently serving a second tour in Iraq.
“Everyone here is supportive of the troops,” Larson said. “We want people to be safe – that’s really the big deal.”
Larson said response from the community has been great and they feel supported in their efforts.
“It was obvious Bush was being dishonest about weapons of mass destruction and the reasons to go to war,” said Mark Ellis, a doctoral student studying plant genetics at USU and veteran of the Vietnam era.
“Supporting troops is not supporting Bush,” Ellis said. “Most of us are here because we know what the game was.”
Tom Schroeder, an instructor in the Intensive English Language program at Utah State University, said he is a Vietnam veteran. “Since that time, I’m firmly convinced of the futility of violence to solve problems,” Schroeder said.
He said civilian casualties are the norm in war and he is in support of saving soldiers from that life experience. “Soldiers are the real victims,” he said.
“The real tragedy is that war changes people,” Schroeder said. “If you experience war, your life is altered.”
“There’s nothing like living with the knowledge that you killed,” he said.
-jason.givens@usu.edu
The peace vigil has been held every Friday in front of the Tabernacle since Sept. 24, 2005. (Scott Erickson)