For an explanation of this vigil please read Lawton Peace Vigils For Camilo Mejia

We held a vigil in two separate places on Tuesday, returning in the morning to the entrance to the cemetery, and in the afternoon vigiling at a large Xmas display, on a grassy meridian where 100 colorful and cheerful “nutcracker” toy soldiers stood tall and erect in neat rows. We interspersed ourselves among them in the front row facing traffic, each of us holding a large, vinyl, color picture of one of our Iraqi friends — children, families, people we’ve visited their many times. Bob stood in the middle of our row with a sign reading “Free Camilo. Conscience is not a Crime.”

The local ABC television affiliate came to film and interview us. Kathy and Bert were quite compelling, saying that, like children here in the US, children in other lands also dream of happiness and security and have as much right to them. We support Camilo’s decision to refuse to be a continuing part of a war which (like all wars) inevitably maims, kills, and damages children, killing their futures in countless ways. “He’s our Prince of Peace,” Kathy said. The journalists were genuinely moved by Camilo’s story, and they hoped to air a 2-minute segment on prime-time TV this evening.

Several people approached us today while we were vigiling, encounters that proved to be enlightening and poignant. The first person was a young woman, who worked for the park service and was part of the crew assembling the Xmas display. She drove up on her ATV, and when she found out what we were doing, she had her own story to tell. She had been engaged recently to a young soldier at Fort Sill, but the marriage plans fell apart when he received his orders to deploy to Iraq to fight. She told us that all the young women she knows whose husbands have been sent to fight in Iraq have had their marriages destroyed as a result: in some cases, husbands commit suicide; in others, they are so “changed” by the experience of war that the marriage no longer works; or the time apart, considerable especially for young married couples, does irrevocable damage.

Not coincidentally, we received the tragic news Tuesday morning that a soldier at Ft. Sill killed himself Friday, leaving a young wife and child. He had returned recently from Iraq.

Later, during our vigil, a woman (Colleen) approached us, carrying her 11 month-old child (Stella). Colleen is married to a young soldier at Ft. Sill. He re-enlisted when Colleen became pregnant, because the family didn’t want to face childbirth without health insurance. Clearly, it was a difficult decision. Colleen was strongly against it, but left the ultimate decision to her husband.

As Colleen approached us, she said, “I saw your signs. I had to stop and talk with you. I’m trembling…I’m so terrified that they’re going to send my husband to Iraq.”

Listening to these stories, we are reminded of Tich Nhat Han’s call for people to listen deeply and compassionately.

As Steve said, these are the images of war that confront us today: the family left behind, the family torn apart.

Read the Lawton Journal Day One, and Day Three.