The toll of war, to put it bluntly, is death. Soldiers on either side of a battle are literally fighting for their lives. That’s why we admire and honor those who are serving our country; they’re willing to risk their lives on our behalf.
That’s also why many abhor war. Sometimes the cause is not worthy of the sacrifice of young lives. The Walpole Peace and Justice Group feels this way about the war in Iraq. In a statement Monday, the group said, “We urge people to direct their outrage to those who used deception in leading our country to war and to tell their government representatives to bring about a speedy withdrawal.”
The Peace and Justice Group demonstrated on the Town Common June 21. Their display included strings of wristbands imprinted with the names of the more than 4,000 American military members killed in Iraq since 2003. In an impromptu move, the group draped the cardboard boxes used to transport the wristbands with black cloth, which, to some, evoked coffins.
The boxes provoked a response from Selectmen, who had previously, by a 3-2 vote, granted the Peace and Justice Group permission to demonstrate on the common.
“Please be assured that this Board recognizes that you may have been within your Constitutional ‘bounds’ during your demonstration. However, please also be assured that it is the opinion of this Board that from a tactful and respective perspective, your group was totally out of bounds,” Selectmen wrote in a unanimously approved letter. “Residents of this community and beyond have sleepless nights and constantly struggle with the fears that comes when a son or daughter, husband or wife, mother or father, or even a close friend are called to duty in our Armed Forces in hostile lands in far away places. Your group’s insensitive inclusion of caskets or coffins as part of your display served no other purpose than to exacerbate and heighten those fears senselessly.”
Selectmen were right on one count; the Constitution protects the group’s right to protest the war. How does one protest the war without pointing out that people are dying in it? What other reason is there to oppose war?
Walpole Selectmen took a step forward by approving the demonstration, but a step backward by censuring it. It would have been better to stay out of it and simply allow a local group to practice its Constitutional rights. Those who found the display offensive also have the Constitutional right to say so. Freedom of expression is at the heart of what America stands for and a governing body should respect that.
The Walpole Peace and Justice Group’s members only want to stop more of what they see as needless deaths. The last thing they can be called is insensitive towards those whose lives they are trying to protect.
