A close-up of the Veterans for Peace flag, the white dove their symbol
There were twenty plus people milling around smartly, some of them local, some out of state. I could recognize a few members of OffBase, Norfolk Catholic Worker, the local Amnesty International and other groups, but a good number I had never seen before. One such, Angela Stevens, whom I learned is affiliated with the local Hope House, but not actually representing them this day, provided me with what I consider an iconic moment in photography, as she stood all alone facing incoming base traffic entering from a side road. The passersby, all military or civilian contractors, were not all exactly receptive to her sign's blunt message, "DISARM NOW" so she was getting a few unkind comments from them like "fu*king hippie", although she was getting some positive responses too.
Angela in front of Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base
By close to 9:00 am, the motley lines of peace activists gathered together across the street from the base for a vigil prayer circle to end the event. There were just shy of two dozen people, young and old alike, who now gathered together to annunciate a sense of collective spiritual purpose for the event. And when I say young, I mean really young:
The youngest member of the vigil
The highlight of the vigil was when a red-headed Virginian gal named Patrice, who has a son in Iraq, read aloud Julia Ward Howe's famous 1870 Mother's Day Proclamation. Here is what she read:
Patrice speaking as a mother with a son at war
Mother's Day Proclamation
by Julia Ward Howe Boston, 1870
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
