Code Pink: The Vigil Outside Walter Reed Army Hospital
By Steve Boggess (02/19/06)
There are so many anti-war and anti-America protest groups that have materialized since the Iraq war began which claim to support the troops but not the war. These groups can’t have it both ways, but they try.
One protest group, Code Pink, holds a weekly vigil outside Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington D.C. Members of the group gather across the street every Friday night and hold “a very discreet, dignified” vigil between the hours of seven and nine p.m. They want the troops to come home now, even though that decision does not rest with them. They say that they want those who have paid a terrific price for their country to be kept close to their (Code Pinks) hearts and minds.
Code Pink also maintains that from talking to the soldiers inside the hospital the importance of the bonds that have developed with other soldiers in the field, so that is why the protest group wants the troops home again.
So, in order for the protest group to “honor” that bond between soldiers, and whether or not the soldiers agree with the group’s philosophy, Code Pink says that “we try to prove it with the consistency of our little vigil outside the main gate of Walter Reed. You (the troops) have proven your commitment to your brothers and sisters in arms and to your country. We (Code Pink) stand by the main gate each Friday to prove to the soldiers that we will not forget them.”
There are others however which do not approve of, or agree with, the position of this anti-war group, and they hold their vigil across the street from the Code Pink crowd. The small anti-war group who gathers across the street from the hospital also says that those who are unsure of their position on the war feel they can’t tolerate Code Pink’s presence in front of the hospital.
These are the people who wave the American flag and say God Bless the Troops and try to silence the opposing anti-war crowd because in the mind of the protest group, those who wave the American flag don’t understand what the troops are fighting, and have fought for.
This same anti-war crowd is now asking for help with its numbers. They say “please help us if you believe we have a right to our simple vigil, if you can trust us not to ever do any harm to any of our veterans. Please join us sometime between seven and nine p.m. any Friday evening and show the world you don’t believe in the lies told about us and that you believe in our right to have our vigil for our soldiers.”
From what I know, Code Pink has already done harm to the soldiers in the hospital by its sheer presence across the street from soldiers who have given so much so that these anti-war and anti-Americans can protest the soldiers who are in the hospital.
The knowledge that the soldiers have of this group’s presence in its protest of the war is enough to do harm to the soldiers mentally and emotionally. The group however, can only see what they want to see, and also want others to validate their presence across the street by coming to join them in protest.
Members of Code Pink believe that they are thinking about the soldiers, but they are in reality only thinking of themselves and their blatant anti-war/anti-America message that this nation is not worth fighting for.
Ask any soldier in the hospital how they feel about this protest group and you will get the same answer I did when I asked one of my fellow soldiers how he felt about this group. Leroy Scott, who was recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq, said that they needed to shut up.
The damage that Code Pink is saying it won’t do has already been done.
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