Peace Vigil, War Protest Planned for Hatch's Provo Office

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(KCPW News) Mormons for Equality and Social Justice, as well as Radical Action Against War, will hold a peace vigil and war protest in front of the Provo office of Senator Orrin Hatch this evening at 7. Organizer Ashley Bledsoe predicts a good turnout in the conservative community:

"It's an opportunity for people in Utah to come together on International Peace Day as well as Iraq Moratorium Day and stand up and say it's time for the war to end," says Bledsoe, who helped organize the alternative commencement in protest of Vice President Dick Cheney's speech to Brigham Young University graduates earlier this year. "It doesn't matter that we live in one of the most conservative cities," she says, "people in America are ready for this war to end, and they want it to end now."

Vigils and protests like this evening's are part of the International Day of Peace, established by a United Nations resolution in 1981. Pete Ashdown, the Democratic challenger for Hatch's senate seat in 2006, will be a featured speaker. He says he'll take the opportunity to emphasize the last phrase of the Pledge of Allegiance, "and justice for all":

"I think that's not just ‘and justice for Americans,' I believe that's justice for everybody on the Earth. I want people to think about justice for people coming home from the war, people who have lost loved ones in the war, people who are in Guantanamo without trial, people in Iraq who have lost loved ones and the numbers of deaths and casualties we've had all around."

Ashdown says his participation in the event outside the Provo office of Senator Hatch does not mean he's decided to run against him again in 2012. In addition to Ashdown, local Vietnam veterans will speak at the peace rally, which begins at 7 p.m. at 51 South University Avenue in Provo.

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