I said I would look for the announcement of the meeting i would be
attending this weekend. It follows. Now you right wing neo-cons can
tear it apart at will

Join a candlelight vigil in your community this weekend
by David Batstone

It is hard for me to believe this weekend will mark the second
anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Perhaps if you told me
that four years had passed since the Marines stormed into Baghdad, I
would find it credible. So much has happened.

Since March 19, 2003, more than 1,500 U.S. soldiers have been killed.
The total number of those maimed is many times higher; more than 20,000
American soldiers have been so wounded or become so ill that they are
unable to continue their service. And still more soldiers will return
home with deep and lasting psychological scars from their experience.

The toll on Iraqi citizens defies description. Tens of thousands of men,
women, and children have lost their lives. The list of those seriously
injured runs into six figures.

Iraq has a population of 25 million people, half of whom are under the
age of 18. Children are particularly vulnerable in post-war Iraq. A
respected U.K. medical group reports a dramatic increase in maternal
mortality rates in Iraq, and acute malnutrition has doubled from 4% to
8% in the last year. The effects of chemicals on civilians, such as the
depleted uranium used by invading forces, could take decades to manifest.

Due to the economic diversion of funds for the war effort, impoverished
U.S. citizens also have suffered on the domestic front. Crucial domestic
programs that benefit low-income families have been threatened as the
national deficit swells to unthinkable levels.

This weekend we at Sojourners are calling for citizens around the globe
to gather together in prayer and silence at candlelight vigils in your
local communities. We invite you to affirm your belief that all life is
sacred - the life of a U.S. Marine, the life of an innocent child, and
even the life of an Iraqi insurgent.

We hope these gatherings will deepen the memory of the high cost exacted
by military solutions to international conflict. War is never an answer;
it is a failure of diplomacy. Yet today debate rages in the highest
echelons of the U.S. government about whether to intervene in other
countries that are deemed a threat to the interests of the United
States. War is being treated as a possible solution. In response, the
citizens of the world need to raise the voice of the victims of this
war, and not let their lives be forgotten.

At vigils across the globe this weekend we can all, both in the East and
the West, whisper the universal message found in the prayer of St. Francis:

Make me an instrument of Peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.