Peace Rally - 9/25/04    Pritchard Park , Asheville

Mosaic Poster
 The Peace Park Project called for this ANTI-WAR Rally on Saturday, September 25th to demonstrate against the war at a point in which US Troop casualties exceeded the 1000 mark.  (At the time of the rally, the official count was up to 1048.)  As the Peace Park Project web site had noted, prior to the demonstration,
 
"The death toll for Iraqi civilians is thought to be over 12,000. The US keeps no count. However, the death numbers are only part of the devastation. There are far more wounded and maimed, and the damage we have inflicted on Iraq’s infrastructure will retard development there for years. And of course, the huge sums we've spent on the war (over 125 billion dollars so far) bleeds funds from other pressing needs at home, like health care and education."

This remarkable poster to the left, is actually a mosaic, composed of faces of men and women who have died while in the service of our country during this evil war.  Click on the photo to view a larger version of it (opens in a new window).

Early Arrivals
Early Arrivals: 40 minutes before the event began, these anti-war demonstrators were anxious to make their statements.
Start
By the start time, demonstrators had filled the small park and continued to look for more nooks and crannies, in which to find a comfortable position.

Ken Ashe
 VFP Chapter 099 Ken Ashe addressed the crowd.

His speech covered many of the horrific specifics of the war and even though much of the audience was already well aware of them in general terms, there were gasps of genuine shock and horror heard from the crowd as he went into details about the radiation effects of Depleted Uranium (DU) upon not only the land and people of Iraq, but also upon our troops, past and present since the first gulf war:  how many of them have developed radiation-related illnesses; how they have passed this on to their spouses after their return; how many of the children they have born after a parent's radiation exposure have been born with birth defects, such as missing limbs.

No one in the audience was left unmoved.
Click here for the full text of Ken's speech.
(This photo series is continued on Page 2.  Click here to see it.)
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