Vigils in May 2013

[Brian]

The 75-acre Glendale brush fire -- with its evacuations of homes in the nearby canyons and key road closures into the early evening -- surely had an impact on this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil. Vehicle traffic was light, except strangely for southbound Ocean View Boulevard, so the ten stalwarts who were able to make it to the corner received fewer honks and waves than usual. I wish I could count the pedestrians who stop to talk and express support as official participants.

Every week during the vigils since October 2011, we have posted compilations of the Defense Department's news releases of the deaths of military personnel in Afghanistan. In the past seven days, six more were reported. You can register on this message board and log in to download our PDF attachment:

Attachments:

[Brian]

If three more regulars had attended this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, we would have exceeded the number of troops whose deaths were reported by the Defense Department -- and compiled by us to post on the corner. Eleven participants is a good turnout. Posted on the light pole was our printout of the Pentagon's news releases, which announced 13 deaths in the past week.

It's springtime in Afghanistan. Long gone are those wonderful winter weeks when there were no American military deaths. Much of this week's tragic news was widely reported -- the two airmen and one airwoman in a plane crash, the five soldiers blown up in their vehicle and the two Marines shot by an Afghan soldier (the "incident under investigation" in the PDF attached below).

Attachments:

[Brian]

The weather was cooler and the traffic noticeably lighter at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, compared to previous weeks, and our official attendance was only eight participants.

It's been a long time since we had any spontaneous demonstrators join us on the corner. A couple of years ago, we had some almost every week. I wish I could count Norbert, who approached us this Friday asking, "Is this where the liberals hang out?" He wanted to talk about the ways we take action off the corner to end the war, but he didn't want to hold a sign.

The Department of Defense issued no death announcements in the seven days preceding this vigil, so we were relieved to have nothing to post this week. Next Friday, we will honor the four Army casualties that the DOD identified in its news releases this Friday. And, we hope, no more than them.

[anni]

Every weekly Montrose Peace Vigil through 2014 is listed here on the Support Network's website.

Over the past seven months, the regulars of Montrose Peace Vigil have met many other supporters of Bradley Manning on the corner, thanks to the Bradley Manning Support Network's website publicizing our weekly vigils. They saw "Montrose Peace Vigil Supports Bradley Manning" on the webpage linked above, then they clicked on that week's listing to get another page with a map and an opportunity to post a reply. Here are the links for the last two Fridays in May:

orders.bradleymanning.org/support_events/montrose-peace-vigil-supports-bradley-manning-2013-05-24

orders.bradleymanning.org/support_events/montrose-peace-vigil-supports-bradley-manning-2013-05-31

For the pedestrians, we have long been displaying a signboard about Pfc. Bradley Manning at our weekly vigils that highlights some of the ways our nation has benefited from the information he released to WikiLeaks, and we update the number of days he has been in custody without a trial (currently 1087). Since we added a three-by-five-foot FREE BRADLEY banner with his picture to reach out to those passing us in vehicles, we're getting a lot more honks and thumbs up.

The International Solidarity Week of Action starts June 1, and the Bradley Manning Support Network sent out a mass email last Wednesday that includes the link below for the June 7 Montrose Peace Vigil:

orders.bradleymanning.org/support_events/montrose-peace-vigil-supports-bradley-manning-2013-06-07

[Brian]

We had the best turnout of this month for this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, with 13 participants. I'm not including the man who honked as he drove by, found a parking space and walked back to the corner to thank us for being there every week. Or the guy who crossed the street because he saw the Free Bradley Manning banner to tell us Bradley is a genuine American hero -- he said he would come another Friday and hold a sign. Traffic was brisk and the weather beautiful at the start of this Memorial Day weekend.

May 17, 2013 23:43:04 GMT -8 Brian said:

The Department of Defense issued no death announcements in the seven days preceding this vigil, so we were relieved to have nothing to post this week. Next Friday, we will honor the four Army casualties that the DOD identified in its news releases this Friday. And, we hope, no more than them.

Well, the DOD added another name to one of those May 17 releases on May 20, the same day it announced that two more men died in another explosion. We posted a printout of the PDF attached below, reporting seven deaths in the past week along with the Army's combined March and April suicide data:

Attachments:

[Brian]

The continuing quest for peace and justice -- and the rising enthusiasm from passersby for speaking out and taking action that I witnessed again at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil -- can't be measured in numbers. Instead, I count each week's participants. Our attendance this month:

• May 3 - 10
  
• May 10 - 11
  
• May 17 - 8
  
• May 24 - 13
  
• May 31 - 12
  

Rounding to the nearest whole peacenik, the vigils averaged 11 participants per week in May, compared to 13 in April -- and 12 in March, February and January this year. In both May 2012 and May 2011, the corner averaged 12 demonstrators per vigil.

Attached below is the PDF we posted of the death that the Defense Department announced this week:

Attachments: