Two-hundred people attended a candlelight vigil last night in downtown Grand Rapids demanding an end to the war in Iraq. The vigil was in solidarity with antiwar mother Cindy Sheehan who has been camped outside President George W. Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch while waiting for a meeting that she has demanded with President Bush who she blames for misleading the country into war and causing the death of her son in Iraq. The vigil generally receive a positive response from cars and pedestrians passing by, as people responded affirmatively to signs demanding that Bush meet with Sheehan, that United States troops leave Iraq, and that war was based on falsified information. As of 9:00pm, the vigil was still going strong, with people lighting candles in remembrance of the soldiers who have died in the Iraq war. Similar vigils took place in over 1,600 cities across the United States.
Many in both the antiwar movement and the corporate media are seeing Sheehan's vigil as a boost of energy to an otherwise lagging antiwar movement. Much of the mainstream antiwar movement took 2004 off to not draw attention to the fact that Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry was pro-war while the more radical elements of the movement shifted towards less visible counter-recruitment efforts. However, Sheehan is pushing some Democrats into action. Some 45 Democrats have signed onto a resolution calling for a phased withdrawal from Iraq and longtime antiwar activist Tom Hayden has organized a People's Petition for an Iraq Peace Plan that demands that the United States set a deadline for leaving Iraq.
Most of the local corporate media covered the Grand Rapids vigil, with reporters and camera crews from WZZM 13 and WXMI 17 and a reporter for the Grand Rapids Press in attendance. WZZM's story gave very little contextual information about why the vigil was held and the reasons why Sheehan is camping outside of Bush's ranch. WXMI did a slightly better job, with their story explaining why Sheehan was seeking a meeting with Bush, although they did spend nearly half the story talking to a military mother that supports the war.
