TUCSON VIGIL PRESS COVERAGE

Our two papers provided pretty good coverage. Here are some excerpts.

Hundreds of Tucsonans protest Iraq war
BLAKE MORLOCK and HEIDI ROWLEY
Tucson Citizen
Thursday, August 18, 2005

The liberal group MoveOn.Org planned vigils across the country to support Sheehan. In Tucson, more than 500 people were expected to rally around town last night.
About 200 - double what was expected - gathered last night on a sidewalk at North Oracle and West Wetmore roads holding candles.
Salette Latas said her son Jesse, 20, serves in the U.S. Army Reserve and left for Iraq in July. Her husband went to Iraq five times in 10 years, starting in 1991 with Operation Desert Storm, she said. She protested neither war until last night. "There's a big difference sending your child versus your dad or your husband," Latas said.
At East Kolb Road and North Speedway Boulevard, about 60 protesters rallied last night for peace but disagreed on when troops should leave. Cheryl Harms, who was at that rally, didn't oppose the war when it started. Family members serving in Iraq returned and told her the country was a mess and that changed her mind, she said. "We were led to believe we would rescue the world from terrorists who were coming after us with weapons of mass destruction," she said. "That turned out to be a lie."
Besides those who gathered at Oracle and Wetmore, and Speedway and Kolb, protesters gathered last night at El Tiradito shrine in downtown Tucson, the Benedictine Monastery on North Country Club Road, and in Green Valley and Marana.

Tucson-area vigils support mother's protest in Texas
By Alexis Huicochea
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
08.18.2005

About 200 people attended a vigil in Downtown Tucson on Wednesday night in support of the grieving mother who is camped outside President Bush's ranch in opposition to the Iraq war. The vigil was one of seven held in the Tucson area and one of hundreds scheduled across the country.
Neil Saunders, a father of two who attended the candlelight vigil, said while he can't completely understand what Sheehan is going through, he can empathize with her. "Because of her tragedy, she's brought to light a lot of things," he said. "If our government thinks it is right to be at war, the administration should spend some time there to see what is going on before sending all of our kids there."
Hannah Glasston, who has two sons, 16 and 19, said she admires Sheehan's courage. "She wants to know why her child died and what he died for," Glasston said. "But (Bush) is holed up in that ranch and won't speak to her. She represents all mothers, fathers and people."

BOTH papers interviewed the same anti-protest person:

Elena Zurheide, 22, lost her husband, *Marine Lance Cpl. Robert P. Zurheide Jr., when he was killed in combat in Iraq last year.
"What (Cindy Sheehan) is doing is slapping my husband, her son and everyone who has died while fighting the war right in the face," Zurheide, who was not at the vigil, said in a phone interview. "I understand she's hurt but I am too and there is nothing she can do to change any of it.
"We gotta finish this war because if we pull out, my husband will have died for nothing and I don't like that idea. I want his death to be meaningful. I want the United States to be safe."

*Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Zurheide Jr., 20, whose wife was nine-months pregnant at his funeral, died April 12, 2004.