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Joe Colgan, Change Agent.
Photo by Adam Hyla |
“God have mercy on us.”
Those were the words Joe Colgan
remembers saying to his son, Ben,
upon hearing that air strikes on Baghdad
had begun.
Seven months later, Lt. Ben Colgan was
dead: killed by a roadside bomb in a trap
set by a duplicitous Iraqi translator. He left
behind a pregnant wife and two children.
A Catholic brought up to forgive, after
about a week, “My wife and I forgave the fellow
responsible for Ben,” he says. Forgiving
the president took a year. Disappointment,
not anger, is what he feels: with politicians
and an American public that isn’t acting on
its expressed opposition to the continued
occupation.
Every week, Colgan stands outside
the Federal Building offering postcards to
passersby that ask Congress to de-fund the
war. A dozen people join him: people of
all faiths or none, fellow veterans, another
father with two children in Iraq, people
united by a basic sentiment: “We all care
about humanity.”
In numbers and impact, the weekly vigils
are “a pretty insignificant thing, but still, I
think it makes a difference,” he says. |
