Can we try to organize the media coverage of last night's peace vigils?

[wildeyed]

Here is an article from the Charlotte Observer. Local section, page 2.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/12411152.htm

Iraq war protesters support grieving mom

More than 150 anti-war activists demonstrated Wednesday at Freedom Park as part of a national show of support for a grieving mother protesting the war in Iraq near President Bush's ranch.

Demonstrators chanted slogans and sang songs during a candlelight vigil, which was one of more than 1,000 staged across the country for Cindy Sheehan.



And another about a local gold star mom who is going to join Cindy.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/12411148.htm

Mother: Why did he die in Iraq?

STATESVILLE - Summer Lipford wants to know how her son died. The Pentagon says Pfc. Steven Sirko died in his sleep on April 17 while serving as an Army medic in Iraq. He was 20 years old.

Lipford, of Statesville, says the Army's Criminal Investigations Division (CID) initially ruled Sirko's death a drug overdose. But she asked to see the toxicology results. It shows no drugs were in Sirko's system. Lipford says the CID has reopened its investigation.

Now, Lipford plans to join forces with another military mom. Cindy Sheehan has spent nearly two weeks in Texas trying to get President Bush to speak with her about her son's death.


Post you local articles here! I would love to read about what happened all over the country last night.

[grrl62]

1. More coverage in NC

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/2731663p-9169126c.html

Triangle vigils seek troop withdrawal
Advocates show support for slain soldier's mother trying to meet with Bush
By ANNE BLYTHE, SARAH OVASKA AND JESSICA ROCHA, Staff Writers

Ellie Mayer pulled at candle drippings Wednesday night while attending her first war protest in downtown Durham.
For the better part of an hour, she stood somberly and quietly with the nearly 400 peace advocates lined up near the intersection of Gregson and Main streets in the candle-lit dusk.

In Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill on Wednesday, hundreds of war protesters gathered at street corners and on city walkways to call for swift withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq and to urge President Bush to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of one of the more than 1,700 slain U.S. soldiers.


http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-637541.html

Vigil lets people express dismay with Iraq war
BY ERIC OLSON : The Herald-Sun
[e-mail]
Aug 17, 2005 : 11:20 pm ET

DURHAM -- Six-year-old Jackie Keul held a sign that read "Bring our Children Home" among hundreds of people in downtown Durham Wednesday evening during a candlelight vigil in protest of the war in Iraq.

Jackie's father said the girl was familiar with the reason she was there, and she stated it simply in her own words.

"I think George Bush is a loser," Jackie said.

About 430 people lined the intersection of Gregson and Main streets holding signs and candles to voice their support for Cindy Sheehan, whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in April 2004.


click on the links to read more!

[Justyce]

2. Vigil in Austin:

http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/08/18vigil.html

The first few paragraphs from the article:

"Austinites crowd bridge for peace
Several hundred join vigil to protest war.

By Dick Stanley
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, August 18, 2005

Between 300 and 500 people in Austin joined hundreds of candlelight vigils Wednesday night across the United States and Europe, organized by backers of an antiwar demonstration near President Bush's ranch.

Young and old, many old enough to have demonstrated against the Vietnam war, the Austin crowd took over the north end of the Pfluger pedestrian bridge over Town Lake.

Signs and leaflets said the crowd was behind Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who started an antiwar protest Aug. 6 on the outskirts of Crawford in memory of her son Casey, a 24-year-old soldier who died fighting in Iraq last year. Symbolically, some women pushed empty strollers on the bridge..."