September 2012 vigils

[Roberta]

Sept 22, 2012 0:00:59 GMT -8 Brian said:

This Friday was also the International Day of Prayer for Peace, long promoted by the World Council of Churches and this year observed for the first time on the corner of Ocean View and Honolulu in Montrose. Jeanne, Paige, Wendy, Nancy, Roberta and Anni rolled out the Astroturf on one of the grassy areas for meditation and discussion. Spontaneously joining the rest of us in holding signs along the curb were Rebecca and her daughter Sophia.

To augment Brian's mention of Sophia and her Mom, I wanted to report a bit of my conversation with Rebecca. She said that they joined us at the corner "semi-regularly", around the time the Contras showed up. (She remembered correctly that they started out mingling with us, then moved across the street in front of Coffee Bean, shouting abuse at us for a couple weeks.) She said that Sophia was upset by the situation, and on one Friday after the Contras had moved to the SE corner, she went of her own accord across the street to talk to them. (She's just a little mite now, maybe 7/8, so would have been, what, 4 or 5 years old?) Unfortunately, our counter-protesters were very unpleasant to this little girl.

Rebecca said they came back because Sophia noticed the Contras weren't there. She is a girl in charge of her own political expression at an early age!

She also seems like someone who would dig a nice parade so I invited them to join the Peace Train on Saturday, December 1st.