This picture reminds me of the high-school girl who organized a protest in Norwich, CT three and a half months before the invasion. I was impressed by her resolve and courage, and, being retired with "nothing better to do," I drove through the snow storm as soon as I read about her plans in the morning paper. There were just a few of us there, but her youthful indignation was the catalyst that got me out of my own indulgent and slothful "retirement rocking chair" and out on to the streets.

( Here's the old Norwich Bulletin article that I just now found in the detritus of my hard drive. )

For years and years, I've hung a quote on my refrigerator by Jeannette Rankin (two-time Congresswoman from Montana and the only person to vote against both World Wars, let alone the only person in all of congress to vote against WWII):

"There can be no compromise in war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be disciplined with decency or codified into common sense; for war is the slaughter of human beings, temporarily regarded as enemies, on as large a scale as possible."

That just about says it all, right?

Here's another letter to the editor that was published in the New London Day on Sunday, November 13, 2005 (the version in the Day was slightly edited to make it a bit shorter).

( Protesting the War )

So here is one more archive/benchmark - stated about three months BEFORE 9/11/01

( Memorial Day, 2001 )