Groups Stress Peace on Memorial Day
,BOSTON. Flowers floated in Boston Harbor, tears
rolled down cheeks and the lives of those lost in wars overseas were honored. In
a lot of ways, it was a traditional Memorial Day ceremony.
And in a lot of ways it wasn’t.
“This is a different kind of Memorial Day remembrance,” said Veterans for
Peace organizer Nate Goldshlag, one of several anti-war vets to pack Christopher
Columbus Park yesterday. “Others stress militarism, we stress peace.”
The event brought together many high-profile anti-war groups. While each
spoke on the tragedies suffered in far off lands, there was an underlying theme
of the effects those deaths have on the home front.
Joyce and Kevin Lucey lost their son, Jeffrey, in 2004 when he hanged himself
in their basement soon after returning from war. Kevin Lucey’s description of
cradling his 23-year-old son in his arms the night before Jeffrey died in an
effort to comfort him, and again the night after to uncoil the garden hose
wrapped around Jeffrey’s neck, stirred the masses.
“Before there is another Jeffrey, help us stop it,” Kevin Lucey said before a
weeping crowd, citing a system he said failed his son when post-traumatic stress
took over.
Gabriel Payan, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, talked about toeing
the line between protest and honor.
“Some will say my words are a dishonor to our soldiers,” Payan said. “But we have a responsibility to honor them by speaking out against the war. ... It is not a mistake; it’s a crime.”