About 25 anti-war protesters held a candlelight vigil for peace in Iraq in front of the Cla-Zel Theater Saturday evening, in an event planned by Democracy for Northwest Ohio – a local political activism group.

The vigil coincided with much larger protests which, according to The Associated Press, took place in Washington D.C., London and other cities in the U.S. and around the world.

“I wanted to have something local, because obviously everyone can’t go to Washington D.C.,” said Justin Zollars, member of Democracy for Northwest Ohio, who came up with the idea for the vigil.

“So, I figured having something in downtown Bowling Green would probably be more effective to show that the peace movement is made up of regular people from Ohio, not just radical liberals going to Washington D.C.”

The protesters assembled at dusk, around 7:30 p.m., and stood in a quiet protest of the war in Iraq, which they said is costly and unjustified.

“They have never found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which is the reason we went there in the first place” said James Offenhartz, senior. “What led us there was misinformation. We should bring our troops home.”

University students, city residents and people from as far away as Fostoria and Findlay made up the protest group, huddling to re-light each other’s candles as the occasional breeze blew through the crowd.

They held signs that said, “Support our troops, bring them home” and “Bring our troops home safe.”

University senior Amanda Dlugiewicz held a sign listing the names of her high school classmates who served in Iraq.

“I think it’s crazy that out of 49 people in my graduating class, we’ve had five people who were already in Iraq,” she said. “Not to mention the people who are in the military who just haven’t been over there yet.”

Dlugiewicz, who’s from rural Minnesota, said joining the military is sometimes the only option for recent high school graduates who need money.

“It kind of makes me sad that poor people from my town have no other option but to join the military, and then they have to put their life in danger for something that the majority of Americans don’t agree with,” she said.

Other protesters said the expensive nature of the war may lead to cuts in important governmental programs at home.

“If we don’t make some changes we’re going to be in some dire straights,” said Richard Hofmann, a Fostoria resident. “Where are we going to get all the money for this? What we’ll do, of course, is cut education and those kinds of enterprises. We’ll cut benefits for the people.”

What should be done with Iraq in the absence of U.S. troops is a point other protesters were unsure about.

“I’m not really sure what we should do at this point,” said Debbie Dalke, a BG resident, adding that she believes the U.S. has destroyed Iraq, and that more peaceful means should be devised to rehabilitate the country.

But in the end, the most effective thing people can do to hasten an end to the war, according to Dlugiewicz, is to vote.

“People should vote,” she said. “Because that’s the only way any of this is going to change.”

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