The 100,000 Rings Action in Evanston, Illinois reminded people from the North Shore how devastating their support of the war is to the Iraqi people. We vigiled at Fountain Square in downtown Evanston, where auto and pedestrian traffic converges from three sides, so we reached thousands of people. We read names and rang the bell for five days from 4:00 to 7:00 and over 100 people were active participants--ringing the bell, reading the names, handing out explanatory flyers, holding pictures of mourning Iraqis, and fighting the wind with a large banner that said " Operation Iraqi Freedom, 100,000 dead! When will it ever end?" Six of the volunteers joined us on the spot after they saw what we were doing and several read or rang for three hours or more.

On Tuesday evening, Robert Tredway, a volunteer from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, brought a huge gong, compliments of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Its sound reverberated throughout the downtown, fueled by a megaphone. On Wednesday, when we had an electronic sound system in preparation for the large vigil held for the 2000th U.S. soldier killed. As vigilers assembled with their candles, they stood silently while an Iraqi woman read Iraqi names and an African-American man read the names of the US soldiers. At one point, both of them broke down and couldn't continue reading and most of the audience were in tears, as well.

I have heard from several people that they continue to be impacted by hearing the Iraqi names, and those who did the actual reading were especially moved to consider becoming more active in anti-war activities. In fact, I think their increased participation is one of the unexpected benefits of this most successful action. Response from both pedestrian and vehicular traffic was quite positive, but I was amazed at the number of young people who wouldn't even take our flyer. Although the police asked us to turn our sound down on Wednesday, they were cooperative and only a few people harassed us.