Iraq War 6th Year Memorials Planned in Oklahoma City

The March 19, six-year anniversary of the start of the U.S. war in Iraq will be commemorated in Oklahoma City with memorial events, public vigils, and a silent memorial walk, according to planners. Peace House Director Nathaniel Batchelder said that the tone of events planned this year is more to seek higher wisdom to make the world less violent and more humane, and less to tell Washington, D.C., what to do.

In a statement sent to The City Sentinel, Batchelder said, “We are hopeful that a new administration and Congress can resolve the Middle East conflicts with more diplomacy and less violence.”

An Interfaith Memorial Service, featuring words by Jewish, Muslim, and Christian religious leaders, will be held Thursday evening, March 19, at the First Unitarian Church, 600 NW 13th St. The public is invited, and the event begins at 7 p. m. Speakers include: Rev. Amy Venable, St. Stephens United Methodist Church, Norman; Imam Imad Enchassi, PhD, Islamic Society of Oklahoma City; Jeff H. Goss, the Jewish community and James Nimmo, Humanist and Atheist. Also speaking at the event will be two Oklahoma fathers who lost their sons in the Iraq war, Warren Henthorn (Choctaw, OK) and John Scripsick (Wayne, OK).

On Saturday, March 21, a memorial vigil with activists holding signs calling for peace in the Middle East, will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on the northeast corner of the intersection of Meridian Avenue and Northwest Expressway. The public is invited to bring signs expressing their own hopes for peace, Batchelder said.

On Sunday, March 22, a silent memorial walk will begin at 2 p.m., from Civic Center Park, downtown, at 201 N. Walker. Speakers and a song will set the tone of the walk, and the route will encircle the Murrah Building National Memorial and return to the park. “In Oklahoma City, we know that one bomb is too many,” Batchelder said. A display of boots symbolizing the deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq will be part of the event, provided by members of the American Friends Service Committee. Rev Lance Schmitz, of the First Nazarene Church of Oklahoma City, will lead attendees in a reading of the names of Oklahomans fallen in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Speakers include: Daniel Sandate, Iraq veteran convicted of refusing to return to Iraq and Reggie Cervantes, 9/11 rescue worker from Oklahoma City. John Scripsick and Warren Henthorn, who both lost their sons in the Iraq war will also be there.

A meditation event will take place on Wednesday, March 18, from 7-8 p.m., at the Windsong Dojo, on the north side of the I-44 access road, just west of Pennsylvania Avenue. And Oklahoma City Community College has events planned for the following Tuesday, March 24, after students return from spring break,” he said.

For more information contact the Peace House in Oklahoma City at 524-5577, or www.peacehouseok.org.