FARMINGTON – UMF English and women’s studies professor Lee Sharkey and student Matthew Chapdelaine commemorated Veterans Day by reading the names of people who have died in the Iraq war.

The recitation took one hour – from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. – and was held on the green in front of the UMF student center. About 20 members of organizations, including Women in Black, the Western Mountain Peace Action Workshop, the Social and Environmental Action Committee (SEAChange), and the League of Pissed Off Voters stood in rows, silently holding placards naming the dead. Some were crying.

The idea for a memorial honoring U.S., Iraqi and coalition soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed in the war came up at a party held by the Western Mountain Peace Action Workshop a few days after the election. It was organized primarily by three UMF student members of the League of Pissed Off Voters. Fifteen to 20 passers-by joined in the ceremony, some for up to an hour.

“Shamia Abdel Karim. Charles Joseph Webb. Hadi Fadi. Ronald W. Baker. Sabiha Aref.” The names continued on for an hour, and when it was time for the memorial to end, Sharkey and Chapdelaine had only gotten through a small portion of the thousands on their list.

At one point during the reading, Chapdelaine became so choked up he had to stop momentarily. He said later that he faltered while speaking the name of a soldier who had been in his platoon during one of his two tours of duty in Iraq.