New Haven Independent

Chanting “Go down, Joseph/ Way down to Washington/ Tell George Pharoah Bush/ Bring our troops back home,” the wet but impassioned protesters first gathered on the Green Sunday evening.

Putting the transformative spirit of Easter and Passover into action a week early, they carried candles in a vigil of prayer that the senator might change his ways, and votes. Just to be sure the plan was also to knock right on Joe’s door, at 900 Chapel St., to, literally, bring the war home to him. But would he answer?

After campaigning for reelection last fall on a platform of bringing home troops as soon as possible for Iraq, Lieberman immediately reverted to his position as one of the leading proponents of President Bush’s plan to increase the number of American soldiers there.

“I was a military chaplain in Vietnam” said one of the event’s lead speakers, Rabbi Israel Stein (at left in photo) of Congregation Rodolph Shalom of Bridgeport, “and I officiated at many a funeral of boys brought home in body bags. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that justified that war was as much a lie as weapons of mass destruction that Bush lied about to get us into this one. I say bring these boys and girls home so they can have a full life, not die, or lose their arms and legs.”

The Palm Sunday Passover Interfaith vigil was organized by Connecticut Opposes the War (COW), a coaliton of over 50 faith-based organizations, labor unions, and advocacy groups. Among its supporters are Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz and many state legislators.

But this was a night designed for testimony to be given from ordinary people, many of whom spoke from the heart to the senator. “This is so terrible,” said Valda Jones (pictured at the top of this story). “The way the man do not listen to what the people are saying. I am saying and the people are saying ‘No’ to this war. My son is in Jamaica. But if he were here, do you think I would let him go to fight in this wicked war? I wouldn’t let my cat go!”

Then she called on the senator to heed Second Chronicles, chapter 17, which she paraphrased: “My people, who are called by my name, seek my face and turn aside from your evil ways.”

Alfred Marder, who is the chair of the Peace Commission of New Haven, spoke directly to the absent senator.

“To the families of the 3,200 Americans killed,” Marder said, “this war is personal. It is to the 24,000 wounded soldiers, to the families of the 650,000 dead Iraqis. These are not just numbers, Joe. This is personal.”

COW’s lead organizer for the event, Greg Spear (on the left in photo), and Henry Lowendorf, chair of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, urged the protestors to keep calling Lieberman’s office “to let him know that every day he supports the president and John McCain and this war that he is not representing us.” Then Lowendorf, a good bass, and Spear led the crowd in Susan Klein’s (not pictured) ironic variation on “Go Down Moses,” adapted for Sen. Lieberman: “CT friends got you re-elected/ Bring our troops back home/ Don’t leave our citizens’ needs neglected/ Bring our troops back home.”

Then the crowd crossed Chapel Street and went to the senator’s building. In addition to being the week before Passover and Easter, it was, of course, April Fool’s Day. While Sen. Lieberman is many things — and the crowd of protesters certainly enumerated them — he is no fool, and apparently had other places to be this night. Undaunted, Rabbi Stein told the peripatetic peace congregation that each Saturday he reads the names of the dead to his congregants in Bridgeport. “They sit there stunned as I read a dozen, two, sometimes three dozen names. That’s my real parsha, my chapter of the week. My congregants know, and we want Sen. Lieberman to know that each of these people is a boy or a girl who was not allowed by you, Senator, to grow up, to grow old, and to die in their bed. It can’t go on. I want a storm of protest to grow and race across the country, as it did in the time of Vietnam, and this is part of it!”

Lisa Wyant, of Branford, who’d heard about the vigil via the Internet, turned to Rabbi Stein and asked him to end with a prayer.

“You’ll please pardon me,” Stein responded to her, “but I feel God did not start this war. George Bush started this war and he’s the one to end it. I just can’t bring myself to pray to God who didn’t start it. Let’s send our prayers and our protests to the president and to Congress.”

For other events organized by COW, visit its website.