Groups stress peace on Memorial Day

BOSTON. Flowers floated in Boston Harbor, tears rolled down cheeks and the lives of those lost in wars overseas were honored. In a lot of ways, it was a traditional Memorial Day ceremony.

And in a lot of ways it wasn’t.

“This is a different kind of Memorial Day remembrance,” said Veterans for Peace organizer Nate Goldshlag, one of several anti-war vets to pack Christopher Columbus Park yesterday. “Others stress militarism, we stress peace.”

The event brought together many high-profile anti-war groups. While each spoke on the tragedies suffered in far off lands, there was an underlying theme of the effects those deaths have on the home front.

Joyce and Kevin Lucey lost their son, Jeffrey, in 2004 when he hanged himself in their basement soon after returning from war. Kevin Lucey’s description of cradling his 23-year-old son in his arms the night before Jeffrey died in an effort to comfort him, and again the night after to uncoil the garden hose wrapped around Jeffrey’s neck, stirred the masses.

“Before there is another Jeffrey, help us stop it,” Kevin Lucey said before a weeping crowd, citing a system he said failed his son when post-traumatic stress took over.

Gabriel Payan, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, talked about toeing the line between protest and honor.

“Some will say my words are a dishonor to our soldiers,” Payan said. “But we have a responsibility to honor them by speaking out against the war. ... It is not a mistake; it’s a crime.”