Letters

I’m a member of the East End for Peace and Justice group, who organize the vigil in front of the windmill in Sag Harbor Village every Sunday at 3 p.m. I have managed to be there most Sundays, for some months now, and I want to comment on last week’s article [“On Sag Harbor’s Wharf, Weekly Vigils Reflect Global Strife and Local Anguish,” 27east.com, August 21].

I grew up with parents who were against the war in Vietnam and went to march in the city with thousands of others who thought that war was sheer madness, a big, powerful country beating up a smaller one in the name of vanquishing communism. Not a fair fight.

Now, the U.S. is involved in another battle, to “save” Israel. Again, not a fair fight.

I empathize with those Israelis suffering over the October 7 attack and the hostages still being held by Hamas, and who feel threatened. But the wholesale decimation of Palestine, the 186,000 dead, the withholding of food and medical aid, and the tactic of starving children to death is absolutely unconscionable, and our tax dollars are paying for it.

Since our government seems to be mostly unresponsive on this issue, I felt the only way to voice my opinion is by attending this vigil. It seems that more and more people feel this way, as the vigil is growing in size every week.

I’d like to emphasize that our vigil is highly scripted and contained, and this is one of the things I like about it. The objective and the philosophy is nonviolent protest. I repeat, nonviolent protest. That means we don’t engage. We don’t cross the street to the other side and get in their faces. We don’t yell at them and heckle them. And we most assuredly do not spit on them.

I’m sure this was a difficult article for your reporter to write, and I sympathize. But I wanted to make clear that though our group has taken quite a bit of aggression, we have not given it back — to the other side or to passersby in cars or on the street. Our protest is nonviolent and will stay that way.

Thank you for the opportunity to write.

Rue Matthiessen

Sag Harbor