March will make Iraq war's cost personal

Organizers hope to have participants to represent each U.S. military fatality

                By DANIELLE FURFARO, Staff writer
                First published: Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Mickie Lynn never met Army Pfc. Melissa Hobart. But as she learned more and more about the 22-year-old mother who died in Iraq in 2004, Lynn started to feel a real connection to her.

Hobart, of East Haven, Conn., had a 3-year-old daughter, liked sports and played the flute.

"You get a soulful feel of these people," said Lynn, a member of local peace group Women Against War. "Now I feel like I know this young woman personally."

On Sunday, Lynn will represent Hobart during the Walk For Peace, a protest march in Albany marking the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. She is one of nearly 3,200 marchers that organizers hope to recruit -- one each to carry the name of a fallen service member.

"We want to show the sheer quantity" of the losses, said Lynn.

Local peace organizers have held protests to commemorate each anniversary of the war. Previous events have attracted around 300 to 400 people. Despite that, Women Against War founder Maureen Aumand believes the march will appeal to those who normally do not consider themselves activists.

"We want to march with the citizen who feels great sorrow and grief and determination but doesn't usually think they can stand on the street and express that," said Aumand. "This is really about being a citizen. Our elected officials really look to see the numbers and a physical presence."

There have been 3,193 military deaths since the war began on March 19, 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. David Easter, a spokesman for Upper Hudson Peace Action, the group that organized the event, said he plans to find a way to honor the tens of thousands of wounded service personnel and dead Iraqis.

Organizers in New York City and Washington, D.C., are also planning marches for this weekend, but local activists felt it was important to have a march in Albany as well.

"We thought we could make the message stronger by being here and having a large turnout than adding our numbers to New York City," said Aumand.

Local organizers have set up a Web site -- www.rememberingthefallen.org -- where marchers can sign up. If they do not have the name of a specific service member they want to represent, they will be randomly assigned one. The Department of Defense database is also a source of names.

Russell Sage College sophomore Vanessa Vieira will represent Kevin Neil Morehead, a 33-year-old Army master sergeant from Little Rock, Ark., who died in 2003 during a night raid.

"I'm going to be carrying around a poster with his information and his picture," said Vieira, a psychology major who has volunteered at the Social Justice Center and interned with Upper Hudson Peace Action. "He was married and received two Purple Hearts. I want people to know about him."

Many young people have expressed interest in participating in the march, said Easter.

"I've gotten calls from five area colleges and six or seven high schools," said Easter.

The event will start at 2 p.m. with a rally at the Capitol building's East Park on State Street. From there, the march will proceed to the Leo O'Brien Federal Building on the corner of North Pearl Street and Clinton Avenue.

An hour before the rally, several other marches will begin at various points around Albany. The marches will all meet at East Park.

"The Ironweed Collective is going to be doing a noisy, New Orleans-style march," said Lynn. "Women Against War is going to have a solemn march with us all dressed in black."

Danielle Furfaro can be reached at 454-5097 or by e-mail at dfurfaro@timesunion.com.