The crowd at sunset in Washington Square Park                  Kathleen Kelly speaks about her experiences in Iraq

September 11, 2002 - www.rebfile.com this material may be copied and redistributed freely.

NEW YORK CITY - A group of families of people killed in the September 11 attacks organized an all night vigil in New York City's Washington Square Park to simultaneously commemorate the one year anniversary of 9/11 and protest the use of 9/11 as an excuse for war.  

"Our grief is not a cry for war" is the motto of this demonstration, and was repeated throughout the night by speakers including former Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathleen Kelly and Martin Luther King III.  The vigil began at sunset on Tuesday, September 10 and continued until Wednesday morning, September 11.

In a statement issued by the family group, which is called Peaceful Tomorrows, Colleen Kelly, who lost her brother, William at the Trade Center said “September 11th must not continue to be used to promote more war and violence.  This first anniversary, let us initiate an exploration of what it will take to bring healing and wholeness to our world. It is in remembering the universality of our grief that we shape our hope for a future of peaceful tomorrows.”

 
3 photos - caption: Some of the many anti-war signs displayed in the crowd. 

Flyers handed out by the group stated the following declarations:

"We believe that as people living in the United States it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government, in our names. 

Our grief is:
- not a cry for war.
- not a license to attack anywhere and anyone the president sees fit.
- not a call for roundups and detentions of immigrants
- not a demand for neighborhood spy networks
- not a forfeit of our right to question... or of our responsibility to resist injustice."