The sun was still above the horizon when the ceremony began, at 7 p.m. The weather was pleasant, with little wind, so we lit a dozen candles at the base of the lists.

This is approxiimately what I would have said to the gathering, but I became too angry to continue.

Morality, "family values," if you will, is best taught by example. Not just by behaving in a manner that is exemplary, but by exercising one's moral authority to condemn behavior that is immoral or unjust, or that violates the standards we wish to see upheld.

It is not sufficient for a parent never to tease or torture pets, or never to harm other people's children. Parents must actively condemn such behavior in their children when it occurs -- and it does occur in almost all children at some time. It is not sufficient for a parent never to tell a sexist joke or make a derogatory comment about another's race or religion in public or before our children. To be a good parent, to be a good citizen, and to teach our children to be good parents and citizens, we must publicly condemn such speech and behavior whenever it is uttered in our presence. In private and in public. Every time. Without exception.

Private condemnation is not sufficient. That response only teaches that moral issues do not require a public stand.

Without moral leadership by example, children may never find a moral compass of their own, and may grow to recognize no law but their own interests and desires. This kind of immorality in adults is characterized by a willingness to achieve one's goals regardless of the cost to others, and no matter how great that cost. It is an illness that no society can tolerate without itself becoming immoral and unjust.

Our president has declared his right to attack any nation, using any weapons, at any time he pleases, for any reason that he can bring himself to believe or even imagine. Our president ignores and disregards international courts and treaties meant to deal with injustice and provide security. Our president sanctions the removal of the rights of citizenship, indeed he sanctions removal of the rights of any citizen of any country, by his own fiat. Our president approves of the indeterminate imprisonment, without appeal, of anyone he declares an enemy. This is his example of moral behavior.

When the results of his leadership are brought to light, our president cannot express his personal sense of shame and sorrow, because he obviously does not feel these things. Only after overwhelming pressure does he make a stiff apology and express grudging regrets, in much the same way that a stubborn child might express regret at being caught. This is how our president takes responsibility.

Ordinary Americans, caught up in our president's war, try to serve their county as best they can. But is it any wonder that, given his leadership, many of them have lost their way? Their casual disregard for human rights of non-combatants, in and out of prisons, has long been known. Their systematic abuse of civilians is not the invention of a few guards, it is what they were trained and ordered to do. And now a few casually taken snapshots have made their and our shame known to the world.

It is not enough for our president to say "we're not all like that," especially when he is exactly like that. With his example reverberating down the chain of command, our soldiers become what they must to survive when they are put in dangerous situations for which they are ill equiped and unprepared.

Any civilized nation would expect its president and cabinet to resign. Our president, who mistakes unfettered crony capitalism for civilization, clearly does not understand what the fuss is about.

Must we wait until November to express our outrage at his moral ignorance, and to bring our young men and women home?

We then read the names of the 131 Coalition soldiers who lost their lives since we last gathered, remembering as we read them that many more Iraqi non-combatant civilians also lost their lives this month.

I then said, "There is one additional name that should be read, the only Iraqi name that we have of this month's dead. Salem Hassan was stopped at a U.S. traffic check point. When he refused to remove a political poster from his window, he was dragged from his car and kicked to death by American soldiers. We know his name only because a French newspaper reported the story."

The ceremony concluded with Grant Remington, President of Veterans for Peace, Chapter 72, leading the group in the song "Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream."

=Eric Bagai