Sunday June 5

There were ten to thirteen people present during most of the vigil. We had a couple of visitors, one from Lebanon and one a young man who comes occasionally. Just before the end a young man stopped his car and walked up to ask what we were protesting. We said, maybe this is a vigil, not a protest, but the vigil-ers agreed that we are generally against war. The young man was a soldier, recently returned from Iraq and about to deploy to Kandahar in Afghanistan. He said that the vigil's signs made him feel that we did not support him. Someone explained that we "support the troops by bringing them home", but I think that was not satisfying to him. Six o'clock cut the conversation short. I very much respect his courage in stopping to talk. I wonder if we could have responded more effectively? or more sympathetically?