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Anti-war groups organized the display and the somber reading of more than 1,000 names of American troops and Iraqi civilians killed in the war, as a gong sounded between each name. The reading lasted four hours, drawing about 100 people at the outset and smaller groups later. Some cried. Others hugged.
Rick Hanson of Minnetonka came to the Capitol wearing a baseball cap with a peace sign. His youngest son, Eric Hanson, has served two tours in Iraq’s Anbar province, and the father said he can’t believe the war is still going on.
“The reality of what we’re doing up there, they’re facing it every day,” he said.
Former state Sen. Becky Lourey displayed a photograph of her son, Army helicopter pilot Matthew Lourey, as she criticized the war and the Bush administration in a speech. Matthew Lourey’s helicopter was shot down almost three years ago. His mother said the anniversary of the war’s start was “laden with pain.”
“It is sad that Americans have become accustomed to the backdrop of ongoing killings in the war in Iraq as they struggle to make ends meet,” said Lourey, a Democrat and former gubernatorial candidate who said the war is hurting the U.S. economy.
The reading of the names began with 59 Minnesota troops killed in Iraq.
“Private First Class Joshua Anderson, age 24, Jordan. Specialist Randy Pickering, age 31, Bovey. Sergeant First Class John Tobiason, age 42, Bloomington.”
A 60th name was included — that of Jonathan Schulze, a Marine whose suicide after a tour in Iraq helped focus national attention on post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues among returning soldiers.
A St. Paul anti-war group called Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace organized the event, which also included clusters of shoes — tennis shoes, sandals, flip-flops — tagged with the name of Iraqi civilians killed in the war. The tag on a small pair of black-and-white sneakers said, “Tamara Mahdi Alankome, age 1.”
Some of the soldiers’ boots were decorated with American flags, photographs and personal items including a Fort Bragg, N.C., bumper sticker and a cross.
Wednesday evening, about 800 people gathered for a peace vigil on the Lake Street-Marshall Avenue bridge across the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul, KARE-TV reported. It’s a spot where activists have long held regular weekly protests against the war,
