Vigils in September 2013

[Brian]

Zari was back again at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, arriving around 6:30 and asking for a sign to hold. Anni offered a peace symbol, but Zari said she needed something stronger. After picking one from the sign bag, she stayed until the end of the vigil. Total attendance this week was 12 participants.

Montrose Peace Vigil protested the last six full years of the Iraq occupation. And we're not waiting for U.S. troops to come home from Afghanistan -- will it just be another 16 months, or will thousands remain? -- we want them all leaving now. For the past two weeks, it's Syria. Clearly, we need some new signs.

Since October 2011, we have displayed all of the Defense Department's news releases announcing the deaths of military personnel, usually in Afghanistan, during our weekly vigils. In the past seven days, two deaths were reported. You can register on this message board and log in to download a PDF of our post:

Attachments:

[Sharon W]

While the 12 of you were vigiling Friday evening we were at the Glendale Beautiful annual dinner as was Roberta and her family. Elizabeth provided beautiful music which the crowd really enjoyed. A special treat for us was having Catherine Yesayan and her husband at our table. I mentioned that her essay on the peace vigils has been recently shared on this board and she was very pleased. I invited her to join us so she may visit the corner again soon.

On the Syrian peace front, I joined Glendale Peace Vigiler Irena Varjabedian and Burbank peace stalwart, Anna May Nelson, along with other concerned residents of the 28th Congressional district for a visit to Adam Schiff's staff yesterday. We spoke for about 20 minutes with Ann Peifer, Schiff's District Director, and explained our objection to any military action against Syria. Several of those in attendance are from Syria and they are very concerned for relatives still living there, particularly ethnic Armenians. They feel Assad is protecting Christians despite his brutality. We then spent another hour or so demonstrating in front of the office.

[Roberta]

Our Lizzie's beautiful voice is amazing, if I do say so myself!

Waiting to whiz her back up to Glendale for the dinner after her class yesterday afternoon, I noticed a woman with a sign on a shady corner in front of CSULB's "big blue pyramid." She was there for a meeting on the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" and distributing leaflets beforehand from this group:

www.exposethetpp.org/

So she didn't have to stand alone and I got some street time on Friday!

[anni]

Yes, Roberta...you know it ain't braggin' if it's the truth.

Here's a fine picture of September's first Vigil. Fine folks, too...even the photographer (not shown, Brian):

[Sharon W]

We went to McCabe's last night for a tribute concert for John Stewart (in the 2nd iteration of the Kingston Trio) who died in 2008. During one song by Buffy Ford, his widow, she changed lyrics to 'the people in Syria' you can't go anywhere these days without a protest over our potential military involvement there.

[Jeanne]

I can report to you on tonight's vigil in Sierra Madre. There were so many to choose from. I had never seen any vigils or activism there in my 22 years of working up the street from Kirsting Court, where they met tonight. So I donned my MPV shirt and went to see who the peaceniks are in that sleepy little village. There were about 30 people and a few of them were friends of Creative Arts Group. Ross Heckman was there with his wife and I brought him up to date on our corner. Most passers by were friendly, are against bombing Syria, and took a pamphlet with information about contacting Rep. Chu.

There was a little entertainment for us while we held signs or candles. There was some dramatic lightning off to the East. And the Sierra Madre Police force was out in full strength. The had three cars parked at various corners of the intersection. One officer stood behind a tree to observe us. They stood and stared for most of the hour that I was there. We guessed that maybe they were there for our protection incase an angry warmonger attacked us. I can confidently conclude that Sierra Madre does not have vigils frequently enough.

[Brian]

Sometimes when Roberta arrives on the corner at 5:30, she's alone for a few minutes. For this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, she enlisted three middle school age boys named Joe, Andrew and Kethan to stay with her and hold signs until another regular showed up, thereby raising our attendance to 13.

Next week, the group decided to do something different. We will be on the corner from 5:30 to 7 p.m. as we have been every Friday since January 2006, but we won't hold signs. The liaison from the shopping park association approached us last week to tell us that there will be an observance next to the Vietnam War Memorial from 5 to 7 p.m. for National POW/MIA Recognition Day. He asked Montrose Peace Vigil to act deferentially at our customary spot between two trees near the curb, 30 feet away, and we agreed.

Attached below is the PDF that we posted of the deaths recently announced by the Defense Department:

Attachments:

[Brian]

Mike began the Montrose Peace Vigil tradition of posting the Defense Department's troop death announcements two years ago, back in the midst of the shopping park association's years long practice of removing the American flag on Fridays during our vigils. He had engineered a portable, telescoping half-mast flagpole bearing another American flag to replace the missing one, which we would temporarily string onto the flagpole at the Vietnam War Memorial. Mike felt that we needed more justification for our half-mast flagpole, so he printed the Pentagon's news releases and taped them to the pole. After a couple of weeks, Anni and I assumed the responsibilities of compiling the announcements and posting them on the corner. When the association stopped taking down the flag, we started to display the releases on the light pole.

It's been our solemn duty, and the weekly task has affected me deeply. I don't remember the names of the hundreds of men and few women that I've copied and pasted, but it hurts to read their ages, hometowns and brief circumstances of their deaths almost every week and know that more are coming through 2014, if not longer. So I can't stop reporting.

In case anyone is paying attention, I did not post the August 30 military deaths PDF on the message board as I usually do after the vigil because ProBoards or my computer had some glitch that night loading the attachment. The paper printout was taped to the light pole, of course -- now I'm attaching it below to complete the record. I also point out the death announcement that week of Sgt. 1st Class Ricardo D. Young dated August 29. I did not notice when I compiled the September 6 military deaths that Sgt. Young's announcement was released again on September 1 with him killed in a different province in Afghanistan. When I put together the September 13 military deaths, the Pentagon had replaced Sgt. Young with Staff Sgt. Joshua J. Bowden in the September 1 slot, both of which were strangely in a different font than every other death announcement in the past two years. I just copy and paste. Now we're up to date.

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[Brian]

Fifteen people participated in this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil. Because of the National POW/MIA Recognition Day observance by several veterans standing with flags in formation around the Vietnam War Memorial, we stayed off the center patch of grass on the corner, so the folks in vehicles headed east on Honolulu Avenue probably didn't see us. We mostly congregated on the northern patch instead, some of us wearing Montrose Peace Vigil t-shirts, flashing peace signs and waving to those driving by on Ocean View Boulevard. I stood between Nancy, the only participant holding signs, and Jim with his big American flag. We received honks, positive gestures and words of encouragement just like every week.

We also displayed the weekly compilation of Defense Department death announcements, as always. For the first time I remember, both of the soldiers died from an illness and what sounds like an accident, with no deaths from combat reported in the past seven days. Next to that, we posted the second page in the PDF attached below, the Pentagon's press release explaining POW/MIA Recognition Day:

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[Brian]

It was a good week for peace. That's what we heard and saw confirmed by many of the folks walking and driving by the corner at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil. The vibes are getting better from Iran, Syria and even Russia, if not Afghanistan. Yet our government is being held hostage, on the brink of shutting down.

Here's the tally of people who participated in September's vigils:

• Sept. 6 - 12
  
• Sept. 13 - 13
  
• Sept. 20 - 15
  
• Sept. 27 - 12
  

Montrose Peace Vigil averaged 13 participants per week this month, compared to 11 in August, 15 in both July and June, 11 in May, 13 in April and 12 each in March, February and January this year. In September 2012, the corner averaged 10 demonstrators per vigil, and in September 2011, it was 15.

I can't remember the last week that I did not have Pentagon death announcements to pass along, copied and pasted on a PDF like the one that's attached below. Well, I could look it up. Anni taped a printout on the light pole during Friday's vigil. This was one of the worst weeks this year, with seven deaths reported:

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