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Earlham Students Initiate 24-Hour Vigil to For Immediate Release: RICHMOND, Ind. — Members of the Earlham College community are in the midst of creating a powerful memorial today, Monday, April 23, to serve as a reminder that the United States is at war. 
Welling Hall, professor of politics and international studies, and Jacob Howe, a first-year student, take part in the 24-hour vigil honoring those killed in Iraq. The event began with a small gathering at Stout Meetinghouse shortly before midnight on Monday, April 23, and continues for 24 hours. The group walked by candlelight to The Heart near Earlham Hall, where Earlham students, faculty and staff are reading the names of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and civilians who have been killed in the past four years of war. Two readers alternate reading the names, and new readers arrive every 30 minutes. "We are doing this to honor and remember those who have been killed, as well as to try to make us more aware that we as a nation are actually at war," says David Hibbard-Rode, an Earlham junior and vigil organizer. "Our daily lives are not affected at all by the war, at least for most of us, while those in Iraq are affected deeply and daily. Basically we are trying to honor the dead as well as make a point." Hibbard-Rode and co-organizer Katherine Jordan, an Earlham second-year student, saw a vigil take place at Middlebury College in Vermont earlier. "It was very powerful," Jordan says. Director of Campus and Quaker Ministries Trayce Peterson volunteered to read for two 30-minute slots. "There are men and women serving who are being killed, and there is a large number of civilians who are dying," Peterson says. "I don't always think about the fact that we are at war. In some ways I am desensitized, and I think this vigil will remind us of the war in a way that will stay with us." — EC — Contact:
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Earlham
College · 801 National Road West · Richmond,
Indiana 47374-4095 |