PHILADELPHIA — In Love Plaza, about 75 people mingled in bright sunshine, chatting noisily while one speaker after another droned on at a campaign rally. Vendors hawked T-shirts, and children frolicked in a fountain opposite ornate City Hall.
Then Celeste Zappala stepped onstage. Standing between columns of red, white and blue balloons, she held up the Purple Heart awarded posthumously to her oldest son. The plaza fell silent.
In calm, measured tones, Zappala talked about her opposition to the war in Iraq. She spoke with pride and tenderness about her son, Sherwood Baker, who was killed in April in Baghdad.
"Sherwood was a patriot," Zappala said. "He was brave and faithful and loyal. He believed in America, and he believed in democracy. And I made an oath to him not to be quiet, not to be cynical in my grief."
Before her son left for Iraq early this year, Zappala, 57, joined a group of military families that supports the troops but opposes the war. Today, Military Families Speak Out has more than 1,700 member families across the country who participate in protests, appear on radio and television and confront public officials. By telling stories about their loved ones, they hope to sway hearts and minds and help bring an end to the war.
At Love Plaza, after Zappala finished a 15-minute speech that left many in the audience wiping their eyes, an Army veteran from the Vietnam era approached her.
"For those of us who have been in the service, I wish more parents would speak out," said Steve McCarter of Glenside, Pa. "This shows that not everyone connected to the military is united behind this war."
For centuries, soldiers have been trained to think as a group. With its uniforms and strict regulations, military culture fostered an us-versus-them mentality. The powerful sense of solidarity applied by extension to close family members. In military households, it was understood that speaking out violated the code of the clan and carried consequences.
Though numerous groups of military personnel and their families support the Iraq war, MFSO is the only organization formed by military families who are against it.
The organized expression of dissent is "a new and significant development," said Jeremi Suri, a University of Wisconsin history professor who is an expert on antiwar movements.
