Sat 20 Oct 2007
The regular Saturday noon 
vigil on the green in West Hartford yielded to a press conference today to promote next week’s nationwide rally for an end to the war in Iraq. Instead of a single assembly in Washington, this rally is being held in 11 cities, and Boston is the gathering point for this region, with buses leaving Saturday morning from West Hartford, New Haven, and Willimantic.
Steve Thornton, local labor organizer and activist, introduced the speakers. Cornell Lewis, a Hartford clergyman and civil rights leader, brought a can-do attitude to the crowd of about 25, warming them up for Bill Shortell, of the Machinists’ Union, Mims Butterworth, a longtime West Hartford resident and Quaker activist, Rich Sivel, of AFSCME, and Henry Lowendorf and Al Marder of the Greater New Haven Peace Council.
I reminded the gathering that bus riders can charge their fare on-line using my terminal, accessible from http://www.stepfour.com/peacetrain. It’s a secure site, and it accepts a credit card or an electronic check. A bus ride from Hartford is $45 and a ride from New Haven is $50, with reduced fares for seniors and students. Transportation details are published on the web site.
To the accompaniment of an occasional supportive car horn, all of the speakers emphasized the Illegality of the Iraq enterprise, and all expressed confidence that our ever-growing movement will end it. The West Hartford News was there to take a few pictures, but there were no television cameras, and no Courant photographer that I could see.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
WFSB Channel 3 dropped by later and we snagged the guy for some video and a sound bite. Also, MetroRadio Network did an interview yesterday, which should be picked up by stations this weekend and Monday. Best coverage so far: INDYMEDIA!
October 24th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
“and all expressed confidence that our ever growing movement will end it.” Time for a good dusting off of the speakers if they really think that 25 people in West Hartford are a growing movement and will end the war. How many people live in West Hartford? How many people drove by and didn’t honk? This goverment doesn’t care if more than 1 million are in the streets the war will not end until they end it or are defeated by the people of Iraq. Those are the only two options since Americans do not have the time or the stomach for serious revolt. We would rather just go shopping and be “good germans”.