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Iraq War protesters to gather outside Sunrise Mall

BY RHODA AMON | rhoda.amon@newsday.com

May 3, 2008

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Long Island peace activists are set to gather in front of the Westfield Sunrise Mall in Massapequa at 2 p.m. Saturday to call for an end to the Iraq War, honor the fallen and continue their protest of the arrest in March of an 80-year-old activist.

The protesters will be wearing white T-shirts that read "4000 Troops 1 million Iraqis dead," on the front and "Enough!" on the back.

Donald Zirkel, of Bethpage, a member of Pax Christi Long Island, the Catholic peace movement, was wearing the same anti-war T-shirt when he was arrested in the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove March 29, after security officers asked him to take off the shirt or leave. Zirkel, a church deacon, was removed in a wheelchair by Suffolk Police.

Mall management charged Zirkel with handing out leaflets in the food court, a charge he has denied. Nancy Dwyer, 74, of Valley Stream, one of three other Pax Christi seniors with Zirkel in the mall, testified recently before the public safety committee of the Suffolk Legislature that "at no time did any one of the four of us hand out or have in our possession any leaflets." The four were eating and chatting when they were surrounded by security officers, Dwyer said.

Zirkel is due to be arraigned on the matter May 22 in District Court in Central Islip.

Janet Egan of Huntington, a member of the Suffolk Peace Network, said the count of Iraqi war dead is now at 4065, including 33 from Long Island. During the protest, members will display photos of Long Islanders killed in Iraq, Egan said. "People need to be reminded of the human cost of this war."

The demonstration, jointly sponsored by two coalitions of local peace groups, the Suffolk Peace Network and the Nassau-based Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, will convene on Sunrise Highway and Carmans Road outside Wal-Mart at the Westfield Sunrise Mall entrance.

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