The vigil was initially formed by CodePink, and the purest sentiments of its purpose are the following two phrases: “love the troops, hate the war” and “bring the troops home now”. For the first, the vigil challenges the assumption that it is possible to support the troops without supporting the many individual people in uniform. Second, given that it is our duty as citizens to inform our elected representatives of what we want them to do, it seems to us that the very best way to support the troops is to bring them out of Iraq, as rapidly as possible and in good order. This is real support, rather than keeping them in a position where even more soldiers, civilians, and their families will suffer, with no discernible gain for anyone.

Still, in the time since its inception in February of 2005, people from different walks of life have wandered in and out of this group that meets on Georgia Avenue. The amazing part is the community that we have formed, caring for each other, as we catch-up each week on what is new in our lives and our country. In the other 166 hours of the week, some of us are focused on visiting those inside the hospital, some on giving aid to the civilian casualties of the war, some on ending the war, and some on political action for a variety of causes, including the labor movement, civil liberties, and just the business of living from day to day. In truth, the Walter Reed vigil is an outgrowth of who each of us is and what we believe.

We are all sorts of people, and we bring all that we are and feel to the vigil every Friday. With all the things we bring with us, the signs we carry and the words we say on Fridays in front of WRAMC are restrained to focus on those things which make the vigil necessary in the first place: the people inside there who have sacrificed where the rest of the country has not even been asked to, in a war that should never have happened. Those who have gone and fought there will carry the marks of the conflict with them for as long as they live with the repeated attempts to under-fund the VA, in the diminishing funding for their long-term treatment, and especially with the tremendous number of unemployed and homeless vets we already have, from many wars.

For some of us, this vigil is primarily a vigil in the name of peace. For others, it is tied to the labor movement, an expression of outrage at the treatment of enlisted citizens, when contractors are making millions for much the same work. For some who are veterans, it is an intensely personal struggle above and beyond any other reasons. For some, it is about the shared duty we have to this country. For all of us, it is a mix of things, and in truth it is about these things and more; it is about human beings.

Please join us.