3-19-08, 10:33 am

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: BILL CHRISTOFFERSON 414/486-9651

NOTE: For events in your community, check the website,

Iraq Moratorium, Good Friday coincide

The convergence of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war on March 19 and the monthly Iraq Moratorium observance on March 21 has sparked hundreds of antiwar actions across the country this week.

The Iraq Moratorium, which encourages local grassroots action on the third Friday of every month, coincides with the Christian observance of Good Friday, March 21, so some actions will include a religious theme.

The Pike's Peak Justice Coalition will take part in Pax Christi's Way of the Cross/Way of Justice procession in downtown Colorado Springs.

A Hartford, CT 'Lamentation and Protest' will begin with an interfaith prayer service, followed by a silent procession to the federal building, where marchers will pile stones bearing the names of victims of the Iraq war. Church bells will ring in a number of communities in Massachusetts to mark Moratorium observances.

In Cincinnati, candlelight vigils will be held in eight neighborhoods, and dozens of street corner vigils are planned across the country. Most vigils take place every month, and some have been going since the war began.

In a session called 'Write Some Wrongs,' people in Cornwall, CT will meet at the public library to write their Congressman about 'what is in your heart about the Iraq war and what you want him to do about it.'

The Iraq Moratorium encourage local organizers to 'do their own thing' on the third Friday of the month – but to do something, whatever it is, to end the war. It is all a loosely-knit national grassroots effort operating under the Iraq Moratorium umbrella. Friday is the seventh monthly Moratorium, and more than 800 events have been listed on the group's website, , with reports, photos and videos.