On New Year’s Eve, from 6 to 7 pm, dozens of Toledoans will mark the terrible total of U.S. deaths in Iraq by silently holding 3,000 lights on Summit St., between Jefferson and Madison.

"We hold three thousand lights to give that number a visual impact but how can anyone visualize tens of thousands of wounded and the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis?" asked Mary Anthony, a Toledo member of Military Families Speak Out.  Her son will return to Iraq in February for his second deployment.

Anthony added that "This New Year, the NW Ohio Peace Coalition and peace activists all over the country resolve to escalate our demands on Congress to end the occupation of Iraq and bring the troops home now.  And that means Congress must cut off funding for this war."

When Representative Marcy Kaptur’s returns to her Toledo office, members of NWOPC will take the 3,000 lights to her asking that she take them to Washington with this message: "This is what 3,000 looks like.  Bring our troops home.  Stop the deaths.  Stop the funding!"

The NW Ohio Peace Coalition has been holding demonstrations against war since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.  They currently sponsor an anti-war billboard on I-75 at the Washington Street exit and sponsor the Arlington Midwest project, a display of tombstones representing every military death in the Afghanistan and Iraq occupations.