 "Photo: Allyson Riggs")
 "Photo: Allyson Riggs")
 "Photo: Allyson Riggs")
 "Photo: Allyson Riggs")
Helen Taylor said she feels like one of the characters in Michelangelo’s paintings, the Last Judgment. She feels like the character who hasn’t reached hell yet, but chews on his nails and has horror written across his face as he awaits his fate.
Instead of being in hell, Taylor, an activist at the war protest in Eureka on Saturday, is in a country that keeps sending its troops to an unwanted war.
About 60 people gathered in front of the courthouse in Eureka to protest for peace. They want their troops to come home from the far-away wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Passengers of passing cars honked and made peace signs at the troopers who stood out in the rain.
The protest held in Eureka was only one protest of many that communities were taking part in. By remembering the 40th Anniversary of the Vietnam Moratorium, people everywhere took action to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on Oct. 17.
Less than half of the crowd had umbrellas, but the people didn’t seem to notice the soaking rain as they stood captivated by the speakers.
Penny Evans, a 21-year-old mother of two, mourned the loss of a loved one due to war. She wore a black hat and veil that made her face indistinguishable. She stood in the rain with no umbrella by an old-fashioned baby carriage. A short doll was placed on the ground beside her with a paper dove on it advocating for peace. She coddled a baby doll in her arms, rocking it back and forth.
Her voice shook with emotion as she said her babies’ father had been killed in the war. She has two daughters, Joy, who is almost 3 years old, and month-old Willa Rose, who was named after her father, William.
“He died before she was born and never got to see Willa Rose,” Evans said. “When I can’t take it anymore I go on a walk.
Elvira Schwars stood next to a bike as she listened to the speakers while getting drenched. When asked why she was against the war she said, “I consider myself to be a pacifist and have been most of my life. I am against violence period.”
Mac McCormick was one of the veterans who attended the protest. “I’ve been an anti-war activist ever since I got out of the army in 1960,” he said. “We can afford to dominate the world, but we cannot afford to feed Americans.”
HSU government lecturer Dan Faulk was one of the speakers at the protest. He gave a speech on the Ten Commandments. As the crowd silently listened, he read and discussed each one. He talked about how we, as a nation, have made our god the dollar bill.
“We have put on the dollar bill in this god we trust,” Faulk said. “On this piece of paper we trust in.”
He went on to discuss the other commandments. “We are not to steal,” he said. “Not from the third world, not oil, and not the redwoods from the earth. Revolutions are not about seizing power, they’re about asking questions.”
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