Read more: Local, Health Care, Protest, War, Iraq, Afghanistan, Us Troops, Soldiers, Mcallen, Archer Park, Rio Grande Valley
With chants of "Peace now!" more than a hundred Valley residents took to the streets of McAllen calling for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the troops’ safe return home.
"I love him very, very much and I just want him home,” Martha Julieta Campos said. “That's all I want."
She attended the rally to show solidarity and in hopes that her husband will be brought back home. Campos married her soldier husband 17 months ago, but for twelve of those months, he's been away for two different tours of Iraq.
"I've spent 4 months under the same roof with him," she said.
Along with Campos, the protesters marched from Archer Park to the federal courthouse in Downtown McAllen. The rally was part of a larger movement nationwide. Similar events took place in over 30 cities across the country.
"We want the soldiers home and we want them now," said Dr. Samuel Freeman. He is a Vietnam War veteran and a political science professor at UTPA.
He said he felt it was important to voice his opinion in hopes that the outcome will be the same as with Vietnam. He also said the money from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be put to better use.
"We have a trillion dollars to spend to get a national health care system set up."
That sentiment was echoed by many of the other protesters at the rally. They carried posters with phrases such as “healthcare not warfare” and “bring the troops home.”
Campos said she hopes their message gets across to the nation's leaders, for the sake of her family, or a lack there of.
"When we were thinking of starting a family we were scared because we knew they were gonna send him back."
