Peace signs

Tuesday, Sept. 10 —A peace demonstration, fittingly named “A Vigil for Peace — Opposing U.S. Military Action in Syria,” will be held Wednesday in East Lansing. It will take place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the median on the corner of Abbot Road and Grand River Avenue in downtown East Lansing.

The demonstration was organized by the Lansing Area Ad Hoc Committee for Peace & Opposing U.S. Military Action in Syria, which put out a release on Sunday that read, in part: “The United States government must find ways to support the people of Syria that (does) not involve U.S. military action.”

President Barack Obama is scheduled to give a speech tonight on the Syrian conflict. Till now, military action has been widely opposed by the American public.

A resolution may yet come diplomatically, as the latest reports suggest that Syria might be open to a Russian plan to surrender its stockpile of chemical weapons to the international community.

Attendees of Wednesday’s rally are encouraged to make a sign and bring a cell phone.

A separate rally in Owosso is planned by a local chapter of the Traditionalist Youth Network, an anti-Islam group. Its anti-intervention rally is in support of minority Christians in Syria who members say are being protected by President Bashar Assad.

The group, whose website says it is empowering high school and college students to "speak as one voice against the united voices of decadence, individualism, Marxisim, and Modernity," has dropped plans to burn Qurans and pictures of the Prophet Muhammad to mark the anniversary of 9/11, one of the organizers, Matt Heimbach, said.

Pick up Wednesday’s City Pulse for more on local perspectives on the Syrian conflict.