A Woman in Black

I noted that this was to be a big weekend for protest against the war in Iraq, but I didn't see any events listed in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, where we are now living. So I recalled a a small group I had seen on a busy corner in Santa Rosa a week or two after we moved here--Women in Black. I checked their website for place and time, donned all-black clothing, and joined them today for their weekly demonstration from noon to 1pm. It was a small but very welcoming group, the core of them Quakers. I learned that it is an international movement which started in the Isreal/Palestine area, not to protest any one conflict, but to promote non-violent solutions and to mourn victims of all violence. I felt privileged and happy to be among them.
I don't know how soon I will be able to join them again, with a trip and a major surgery coming up in our lives, but I intend to when I can.

The messy fighting and in Iraq continues. Is it a war? Is there such a possibility as victory or success? I can't conceive what it would be. As a NYT columnist said, there are no good outcomes there. We must now choose among bad ones. For the record, we had drive-out days in July (a movable day, due to vacation travels), August, and September. I hope others will post their experiences and thoughts.
Blessings.