My New Phaseby Howard Pellett While I was on a peace vigil recently, a woman asked me "how long will you be doing this?" I replied "until peace breaks out." I think that I have started a new phase in my life, the pursuit of peace in this country, in this world. So I have stood three vigils each week, holding my "Unite for Peace" sign, hoping for change. I'm not unusual. There are others; in Mount Vernon, in Bellingham, in Anacortes and Seattle. Why peace vigils? To what purpose? Because there's a darkness on our land--a barbaric regime with money as its god and warfare as its creed. There's no one to help us, neither Republican nor Democratic politician, their voices are stilled by fear. All give their blessings to the oppressive horror our government has become. But they can't take away my right to protest--yet. It's not for me that I stand vigils, I'm old, near life's end. It's for my children and grandchildren who are endangered by this regime's eradication of international treaties, preemptive attacks on other nations and assaults against the weak and the poor in this once great nation of ours. I fear their lives will end in a mushroom cloud or with a whimper of despair. I don't believe that things are as most Americans want them to be. I take heart in the supportive handwaves and peace signs. And yesterday a black man and a white man stopped to talk and said they'd attend the next peace meeting.
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