SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — For nearly four years, an obscure silent man has stood in front of the wall at McMurran Hall holding up his anti-war sign, a Sunday morning fixture in the middle of downtown.
He was there Sunday morning.
“I’m out here because I wonder why the United States is invoking itself in foreign conflicts in which it has no vital interest,” said Howard Fezell, 59, of Shepherdstown, a Frederick, Md., attorney.
He began his weekly vigil in November 2007, and has rarely missed a Sunday, standing with his sign between 9 and 10 a.m. like a mailman, never deterred by the weather.
“I’ve been here when it’s been 10 degrees with the wind blowing at 25 mph,” he said. “When it rains, I bring my umbrella.”
His sign carries two messages: “Whom do we attack next?” and “War is not the answer.”
Asked how he believes his one-man protest will stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Fezell said, “I don’t know if I’ll have any impact in our foreign policy. I’m just one American citizen expressing his opinion, hoping another American citizen will take heed of it.”
