A widow's plea:

By Tim Wheeler

People's Weekly World

NEW YORK - Judy Keane, whose husband Richard died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, has added her voice to the millions speaking out against war as an answer to the tragedy that claimed more than 7,000 lives.

"My whole focus is that my children are at risk of being drafted and might have to go to war to avenge my husband's death," she told the World in a telephone interview from her home in Wethersfield, Connecticut. "I think we should use restraint and thought before we plunge into a world war."

Keane helped organize a prayer service in her town to mourn those who died in the Sept. 11 attack. More than 5,000 people attended. She warned against a cycle of reprisal that could cost even more innocent lives and risks a downward spiral into full-scale war. The attack on the World Trade Center, she said, "was in retaliation for something and that was in retaliation for something else. Are we going to continue this in perpetuity? We have to say at some point: OK, let's find another way to do this.'"