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Soldier's Mother Joins Ranks of Iraqi War Protesters
Published on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 by the North Andover Eagle Tribune (Massachusetts)
Soldier's Mother Joins Ranks of Iraqi War Protesters
by Jessica Benson
 
Anne Chay has spoken at a rally in Boston, and held a sign at a vigil in her hometown of Andover.

Last month, she stood on a stage in Washington, D.C., just feet from Jane Fonda, during a protest of the war in Iraq. She has been interviewed by journalists from around the world.

But Chay insists she is not a political activist - just a regular working mother with a son in Iraq.

"This is the first time I've ever gotten publicly involved in anything," she said. "This is not my regular MO."

Chay only recently signed on to speak out against the war in Iraq, and has already become one of the more vocal members of the Boston-based, anti-war group, Military Families Speak Out.

Though it was once considered taboo to publicly criticize a war your own son is fighting in, Chay is not alone. More family members of soldiers than ever are speaking out against the war, according to Nancy Lissen, cofounder of the anti-war group. Military Families Speak Out, which started out with two military families and now has more than 3,000 members, has seen a surge in membership, with about 300 new members, since President Bush announced plans to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq, Lissen said.

Democrats now in control of Congress after last November's elections are fighting the buildup saying plans should be made, instead, to bring troops home.

Bush's supporters say pulling out of Iraq too soon could further destabilize the region and encourage terrorists. They add that anti-war protests are giving the enemy the upper hand by destroying the morale of American troops.

At the Washington, D.C., rally, Chay said she saw many young soldiers who had served in Iraq and are now protesting the war.

Lissen attributes the numbers of protesters, in part, to an overall change in how the country views the war. That shift has allowed even those in the service or with loved ones in the military to break their silence.

"There is a code of silence in the military that extends to families. When the nation is at war, everyone is supposed to support the mission," Lissen said. "We support our loved ones. We support the troops. The most supportive thing we can do for them is to speak out against a war that shouldn't be happening."

Chay said "people are now coming out of the woodwork" to protest the war, and she is not afraid to be one of them.

Chay, a Lawrence High School math teacher, has never been completely comfortable with the war in Iraq, describing herself as a "pacifist at heart." However, at one time she considered the war a necessary response to the Sept. 11 attacks, and felt like she should give the benefit of the doubt to her elected leaders.

She started to put more thought into the war when her son told her he wanted to enlist. He made the decision when he was 17, but she refused to give him permission to sign up early.

Two weeks after turning 18, just after high school graduation, Jon Stras joined the Army. Chay was not thrilled.

"It was not my choice," she said. "I'm proud of him, but I still hate this."

Knowing she was upset, Stras simply told his mother: "Mom, I have to make my own mistakes." So she bit her tongue and did her best to support him, attending his boot camp graduation and welcoming him home for Christmas the first year.

Then, he was sent to Iraq, where he is a gunner in a mortar unit in Baghdad. And that's where he spent this past Christmas - inside a tank, with Iraqis throwing rocks at him, Chay said.

Hearing that Iraqis didn't even want him there - and the way they treated him on Christmas - was the turning point for Chay. She already belonged to the anti-war group, having joined to feel connected to other military families via their Web site. Now she was ready to take a more active role in the anti-war movement.

She visited the organization's headquarters in Jamaica Plain and offered to volunteer in their offices. That led her to participate in a rally in Boston on New Year's Day marking the 3,000th soldier killed in Iraq. She spoke at the rally and was quoted in USA Today and by Reuters news service.

Soon, Chay made protest signs and got her teenage daughters, Sally and Stephanie, involved. They joined vigils in downtown Andover before deciding to head for Washington, D.C.

Chay and her older daughter, Sally, stood on the stage in Washington while another member of Military Families Speak Out spoke to the crowd, estimated to be as large as 400,000 people. Chay came back with pictures of Jane Fonda taken from so close, she could have reached out and touched the actress and Vietnam War protester.

Chay had attended the rally with a group of 150 members of the anti-war group. Lissen said she was happy to have Chay join her organization, and admires her for being so outspoken. Though her own stepson has completed his service in Iraq, Lissen feels for the mothers whose sons are still serving, she said.

"Anne is an incredibly courageous mother," Lissen said. "I just have the greatest respect and admiration for Anne."

Jon Stras also admires his mother, telling her he was proud when he heard she was joining the protest in D.C., Chay said. But that's the most he's said about her involvement and he won't say anything negative about the war, according to Chay.

Chay has teamed up with another parent in Lawrence and is working on getting a more local Military Families Speak Out-inspired group organized.

"You've got to start small, and you've got to start in your neighborhood," she said.
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