Students gathered in the Library Quad to voice their concerns and beliefs about a possible war against Iraq Monday.

The meeting was the second in an ongoing attempt to inform students and staff about peaceful means of solving international problems and to draw the strength of peace-minded people.

The group of about 20 people, consisting of mostly students and some staff members, focused much of this week’s meeting on fear and the media.

“The media has a tendency to indoctrinate us and make us feel we have to live in fear,” Sean Barth, a former Eastern student, said.

“Fear paralyzes us, and it pushes us to a side where we are uncomfortable,” he said.

Barth encouraged people to find their own truth and to not be frightened by the media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. It’s important to be mindful and examine assumptions, he said. People should find their own truths, and Barth encouraged participants to stand for human life and justice, concepts a war in Iraq do not support. Robert Barford, a former philosophy professor, said a war against Iraq only will produce more fear, so military action does not make sense. War will recreate the same fear President Bush says he is trying to extinguish by taking Iraqi President Saddam Hussein out of power, he said.

Ryan McClure, a junior art major, considered this week’s peace vigil a success, but hopes, if tensions continue to rise in the Middle East, more people will start to gather.

“I’d like to see more campus involvement in the things that govern our country,” Missy Shanley, a junior psychology major who attended the peace vigil, said. “I think this is a good way to inform people about what’s going on right now.”

A vigil will be held at 5 p.m. every Monday in the Library Quad as an opportunity for students, staff and community members to voice their concerns, opinions and thoughts about the possibility of war.