Photo by James Durand.
Socorro has about 9,000 people and is the market town for about 20,000. There’s a science-oriented university, New Mexico Tech, with a cosmopolitan faculty and students so focused on their studies that many of them are politically inert. There are old Hispanic families from long before the United States was here. There are old “Anglo” families who immigrated after the United States took control in the 1800s. There are Navajos on a reservation nearby. There are people who work at a subsidiary of the university testing explosives, at a branch of the military contractor Aerojet, and at White Sands Missile Range nearby. Mostly the town is so poor that Wal-Mart jobs look good.
When we started our weekly vigil here shortly after the United States invaded Afghanistan, we did so because we couldn’t remain silent. There were a few of us then. As the consequences of the PATRIOT Act became clearer and as an invasion of Iraq seemed more likely, our numbers grew until there were nearly 50 of us at the vigils. We managed to get the city council to pass a motion opposing the PATRIOT Act. We’ve continued to vigil every Friday on the plaza opposite the post office from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. for more than eight years now.
After the United States invaded Iraq, fewer people showed up at the vigil, and many folks driving by were angry at us. But we persevered. We were always there, every week, until now we seem a normal part of the life of the town. At the supermarket or around town, people stop and tell us that we encourage them, that they support us. More and more folks wave and greet us on the plaza, as they learn that we aren’t against the troops but for peace. Little by little we’ve convinced folks in the town that it makes sense and is respectable to be opposed to war.
When the university wanted to create a drop zone, an area for the Air Force to practice dropping pallets and parachutists, close to town as a prelude to creating an air-to-ground gunnery range, we were the folks people came to. We helped organize a group against it, and it appears we’ve stopped those plans—for now.
Two years ago, we started a counter-recruitment campaign in the high school. The first year, two of our group who are Vietnam vets talked to the seniors in their classes. Last year we were joined by the president of the Albuquerque chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War. We’ve petitioned the school board to establish clear policy on military recruiting.
We’ve let people know both by our presence and by letters in the newspapers that not everyone agrees that the military serves us, that the military keeps us free, that the military is a good job option. We’ve let people know that there is another way to peace than through war. We’re here when there is a new threat of militarization to the town, when folks need to talk or organize. Not many of us, but we’re here, and that’s a lot.
-- Richard L. “Arf ” Epstein
Arf Epstein has been active in peace work since the 1960s. He writes books on critical thinking in the hope that clear thinking will lead people to more peaceful ways. He lives on a small ranch in New Mexico where he raises sheep.
