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Every Sunday from 12:00 to 1:00 on the Litchfield Green in Litchfield Connecticut, a small group of peace protestors hold a vigil and some signs. The number of casualties caused by the Iraq war is displayed weekly in black magic marker on a large white poster board – Iraqi civilians killed and American soldiers killed and wounded – and the amount of money spent.

One sign says – “Bush lied – they die.” Another sign reads “Bush bin lyin.’” “Stop the killing – bring them home.” Every Sunday for two and half years – sometimes two people show up – last Sunday sixteen. Cars drive by – people shake their heads – many beep and give a peace sign – others use only one of the fingers of the peace sign to express their disgust. Most of those come from people driving SUV’s, it has been observed.

At the same hour every day for two and half years an older man arrives in a truck with two large U.S. flags on poles strapped to the cab. He enters from his truck to a patch of lawn across the street from the Green. He wears a shirt flag, pants flag, and sneaker flags. He waves a big flag at the protestors. He taunts them. “Where is your flag?” He puts the flag over him like a shroud – and looks almost coquettish as he does. He sings “God Bless America” and calls out to the protestors – “Sing you Commie bastards.”

At the far end of the Green a marine holds his own quiet vigil with a Marine banner. He doesn’t stand with the flagman. One of the older protestors this past Sunday went to engage this quiet man, who said he opposed the war but had to express his solidarity with soldiers, he having been a soldier in the Viet Nam war.

On the section of the Green where the protestors stand are monuments to soldiers from the local area that were killed in other foreign wars. There is also a tall flagpole with a flag being waved, depending on the weather, by the wind.

People shop, come out of church, jog and walk their dogs as the flagman hollers and whoops, as horns beep and people gesture support or disdain. One Sunday a man driving by rolled down his car window to yell out to the group, “Get a job.”

At the beginning the protestors were evicted by a state trooper who claimed a permit needed to be obtained before the Green could be used in this way. There was an ordinance or a zoning law, he said. It turned out there was nothing that forbade the use of the Green to express a political position. But he gave it a good try.

The most loyal protestor, a white haired gentleman with a beatific smile, who is a bit hard of hearing was roughed up one Sunday by a group of indignant war supporters. But he came back the next Sunday.

A few Sundays ago a large white van from Tennessee with a flag and peace sign painted on it circled the vigil and then parked. A very big man got out and joined the group – amazed and puzzled by the human flag across the street. He told his tales of protest in Tennessee.

Bikers drive by. They are divided - a mix of middle fingers, raised fists and peace signs. The angry ones rev their engines like a growl. Truckers are mostly supportive of the protestors.

One recent Sunday a man came out of his house across from the protest and yelled across the street at the woman holding the “Bush bin lyin’” sign. “How can you even put those two names together? It is making me sick to my stomach to have to look at that sign. I’m not for the war but to put our president’s name with that name.” He lit his cigarette – the woman answered him through the whizzing cars but he was not swayed or calmed by anything she had to say. He smoked and paced and then went inside.

In snow and heat – like going to Mass – they show up and hundreds of passengers in cars pass by and have to make something of what they see. The flagman does his dance – some think he’s mad – he is certainly not inhibited. One Sunday a guest protestor yelled back at the flagman saying that he showed disrespect for the flag for wearing it like a clown costume. He was stunned only for a second – he yelled back one of his standard lines – “You – you peaceful people – what good do you do?"