Over 800 Rally for Peace in New Hampshire

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1001-04.htm



Over 800 Rally for Peace in New Hampshire
Marchers Protest Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan
by Anne Saunders


CONCORD, New Hampshire - peace rally yesterday drew about 800 people, who marched down Loudon Road and gathered on the State House lawn to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Hundreds of people from New Hampshire faith and peace communities march to the State House lawn where they listen to music and speakers. (Concord Monitor Photo/Preston Gannaway)
The rally was organized by several churches and peace groups from around the state. Many marchers carried signs such as "War Just Makes It Worse," or "Is the World Safer Now?"

"We're made to think that nonviolence is some sentimental gift," said keynote speaker Scott Schaefer-Duffy, co-director of the St. Francis and St. Theresa Catholic Worker House in Worcester, Mass. "Being nonviolent is strong, not weak," he said.

Turner Masland, of Concord, said he heard about the rally from friends and came to join in.

"I wish there were more people. I wish it was bigger," he said. "More of this needs to happen."

Neal Sharter, of Sanbornton, attended the rally with his wife and grown daughters after learning about it from New Hampshire Peace Action. He said his mother survived the Holocaust but lost her parents.

"I came into the world with a sense of the horrors of war, and I want it to stop," he said.

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