The Benton County Courthouse Vigil

Ed Epley, an 82-year-old peace activist from Corvallis, Oregon, stands in front of the Benton County Courthouse every day from five to six PM with his 1961 VW bus, which he bought brand new back in the day. Epley joined this vigil a week after it was created in 2001. The vigil's first meeting, which began on October 7, 2001, in accordance to the first US bombing of Afghanistan, took place in front of the courthouse with about 50 people. Now, Ed is one of the few people who still stand out in front of Courthouse every night, helping the vigil reach its name of being the longest lasting daily anti-war peaceful protest in the United States. Most of the people who were part of the original group are gone: some grew too old, some can’t come down due to the cold weather, and some have moved away. Ed, however, continues to stand despite the challenges.

Ed Epley, on December fourth, told me he protests in hopes to “keep the issue current to the people here that we still have troops fighting.” Every once in a while, Ed will change what signs he places in front of his van in hopes to keep multiple problems in the minds of those who pass by: “The thing that’s really going to affect more lives than war is going to be climate change,” Ed says. “The money we [the country] spend on war should go toward helping the climate and climate change. We have one home.” 

Ed’s daughter used to come down to protest with him when she lived in Oregon. Now, he says, she lives in New Zealand with her husband and daughter, where they join demonstrations every once in a while. When Ed visits her, they all stand together at these demonstrations. Ed is used to joining demonstrations outside of Corvallis: “My first protest was at the Nuclear Weapons Testing Site in Nevada. Three thousand people nationwide came to protest the weapons testing.”

Ed Epley’s van is full of signs and equipment he uses every night. “We have sign making parties every once in a while,” Ed says. “I keep the signs in my van. It’s easier that way since I’m here every day. I go through the signs probably every one or two years. The signs at the bottom are ten to fifteen years old.” The van, which he bought brand new in 1961, has some broken windows and dents. “It’s fitting it will have its last days at a peace demonstration,” Ed says.

The vigil outside the Benton County Courthouse upsets quite a few people. “About six months ago I was getting some fingers from passing cars,” Ed says. But this is not the most extreme action he has faced from people with opposing views. Once, he says, there were about twenty-five stickers placed all over the van while he was at a friend’s house. They pictured a World War II pilot sitting in a cockpit with an expletive comment. “They would have had to follow me home to know which van to do that to,” he says. Although this seems extreme, the most intense flack he has received would be the screw contraption pictured above. “One morning, I came out of my house and these were under each of my tires. Luckily, I saw them before I drove anywhere,” Ed says.

Jolene Broich, another member of the Courthouse vigil, tries to join Ed three times a week for half an hour. “I just want to stand for peace,” Jolene explains. “I’m not trying to stop wars. I just stand for peace. I couldn’t stand down here until I knew exactly what I was standing for.” Jolene, a close friend of Ed’s, has protested beside Ed since the Nuclear War Testing Protest in Nevada in the 80s. During this protest, she was arrested for trespassing. “The cops were taking groups of people in plastic handcuffs and putting them in the bus. It was a non-violent, peaceful protest, but we were illegally trespassing,” she says. Jolene is also very concerned about climate change: “Climate change is the biggest issue,” she claims. “I love Greta Thunberg [a sixteen-year-old international climate and environment activist from Sweden]. How dare we ruin her future.” Mostly, she’s concerned with what will happen to the vigil once Ed is unable to attend: “He’s getting older, you know. If anything happened to Ed, I don’t know what would happen to this. He’s the heart of it.”