Peace activists, including those found guilty on Thursday, May 25, in the Concord District Court of criminal trespass at Sen. Judd Gregg’s Concord office, are planning demonstrations at all 14 New Hampshire congressional offices on Wednesday May 31.

New Hampshire Peace Action is coordinating a day of  “read-ins” at the offices of Senators John Sununu and Judd Gregg and Representatives Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley. Participants will read the names of the 2,463 U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq and some of the Iraqis who have been killed since 2003.

They will also deliver letters requesting an open debate on the floor of the House regarding the Iraq war.

“The message, statewide, is, ‘Not one more death, not one more dollar,’” says Jamilla El-Shafei of Seacoast Peace Response. El-Shafei says the organization also wants constituents to know that their elected officeholders are refusing to meet with the group.

“Why not have a public meeting?,” she asks. “Senator Gregg says he can’t have it because he disagrees with us and he’s not going to allow us to change his mind. Isn’t he listening to polls that people in New Hampshire want us out of Iraq?”

Sixty percent of Americans think the United States should set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, according to a CBS News/New York Times Poll conducted May 4-8.

El-Shafei was among the group of eight men and women convicted on Thursday for staying past closing at U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg’s Concord office on Dec. 5, 2005. The group defended their action under articles 8 and 10 of the N.H. State Constitution, which state, in part, that “The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.”

Defendants were Rev. David Van Strien, 80, of Peterborough; Guy Chichester, 70, of Rye; Rev. Keta Jones, 63, of Concord; Jamilla El-Shafei, 52, of Kennebunk, Maine; William Thomas, 62, of Auburn; Ann Isenberg, 55, of Bow; John Bopp, 53, of Henniker; and Michael Franklin, 48, of Warner. Each was fined $500, which the judge suspended, predicated on “good behavior” for one year.

The group says this was their eighth attempt to secure a public meeting with the Senator to discuss exit strategies from Iraq. In February, another group of six activists were convicted on similar charges for a sit-in at Gregg’s Concord office on June 2, 2005. At their trial, they testified to having made approximately a dozen requests for a meeting and collecting hundreds of signatures in support of a meeting to discuss the Iraq war.

Locally, Seacoast Peace Response will gather on Wednesday, May 31, at the office of Sen. Gregg, 16 Pease Boulevard in Newington at 11 a.m. At 11:30 a.m. They’ll be at the office of Senator Sununu at One New Hampshire Avenue, and at 12:30 p.m., they will gather at the office of Congressman Bradley at 104 Washington St. in Dover. Their plans include vigils outside and readings of the names of U.S. and Iraqi victims inside the offices. At 5 p.m. some of the Seacoast Peace Response group say they will remain in Bradley’s office until he indicates that he will work for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, either immediately or at least by the end of the this calendar year.

If Gregg continues to refuse to meet with the group, they may decide to sue him in federal court in order to procure a meeting. “We got the idea to do that from the state’s attorney in our trial. He asked us why we did civil disobedience, why we just didn’t sue Sen. Gregg,” El-Shafei says. “I think a lightbulb went on for everybody.”