Special to the Times/News

(Editor's note: Rhoda Stockwell, who participated in this local anti-war rally, provided the Times/News with a first-hand report.)

Highline-area anti-war protesters joined in a candlelight vigil at First Avenue South and Southwest 148th Street on Aug. 17 to show their support for Cindy Sheehan.

Some 120 persons who took part in the vigil also called for an end to the killing in Iraq.

The event was organized by Southend Standing for Peace, a neighborhood group affiliated with the Seattle S.N.O.W. (Sound Nonviolent Opponents to War).

Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in April 2004, attracted national attention when she began camping outside President Bush's ranch near Crawford, Texas earlier this month.

She is asking to speak with the president to get answers about why her son was killed.

Sheehan has since been joined by more than a hundred mothers and other relatives of service members, as well as other concerned persons.

Thousands of people attended more than 1,600 vigils - sparked by her action - on Aug. 17 to ask for answers about the Iraq war and when it will end.

Seahurst residents Rebecca Dare and her husband, Bill, organized the local vigil with little publicity or promotion apart from the Internet.

Yet even they were surprised by the crowd that gathered.

Participants ranged in age from octogenarians who had seen many such demonstrations before to a seven-year-old at his first vigil.

Many participants were mothers and grandmothers, all of whom said they felt sympathy for Sheehan's pain and praised her courage.

One of these mothers, Lee Dickison of Burien, lost a son in Iraq last month.

She said she would have been in Crawford with Sheehan but she was waiting for her son's belongings to be shipped home.

Her daughter, Rhonda, the twin sister of the late Christopher Dickison, who was killed by a roadside bomb on July 5, stood by her mother's side.

She said that by being at this vigil they hoped to support him and support all of the troops who had died in Iraq.

Stretched along the sidewalks at the busy intersection, demonstrators displayed signs reflecting their sentiments in addition to the burning candles.

Many motorists passing by responded with thumbs up, the honking of horns and shouts of support.

Up and down the line, people expressed the belief that Sheehan was doing an "honorable" and "heroic" thing with her vigil outside the president's ranch.

Many said they hoped their vigil would help hasten the end of the war and the return home of the U.S. troops, and that Sheehan"s personal step would be a spark to help re-ignite a movement to end the war.