Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,778
|
Post by Brian on Oct 19, 2008 22:12:40 GMT -8
If we're interested, this is a thread to record and recount the history of the Montrose Peace Vigil.
I posted about our unique gathering last March 19 on another message board. Here it is in its entirety:
Tonight our little peace group, which averages 15 to 20 every week on a local street corner, attracted more than 120 people to a vigil observing the fifth anniversary of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
We registered with MoveOn.org last week to plug into their nationwide gathering at sunset. I'd attended one of their vigils last March 19 where the host had us read testimonials the website had sent out. This time, we told our own stories and hopes while holding candles, flags and signs. Then we sang, accompanied on acoustic guitar. In between, we were silent.
Many had seen us for the past two years driving by, but it was their computers that got them to park their cars.
It made me feel better. Hell, I'm still high.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,778
|
Post by Brian on Oct 19, 2008 22:19:44 GMT -8
I had a great conversation with a 35-year-old guy in Portugal about the differences between protests here and in Europe, but none of the Americans were interested in doing anything. Finally, I posted this on May 2:
What the hell.
I've avoided writing here about the flag controversy during our peace vigil because it would have required multi-hundreds of words to explain. It began with my Feb. 29 letter to the editor of the local (Times-owned) newspaper, where my wife used to work, asking who was taking down the American flag over the Vietnam veterans memorial. Scott Gold is a better writer and a nice guy. Here's his column from today's Los Angeles Times:
Flag wrapped up in dispute over Montrose antiwar protests
The keeper of the memorial where the vigils are held takes Old Glory down beforehand, to demonstrators' consternation.
By Scott Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
When Roberta Medford retired after 38 years as a UCLA librarian, she decided to devote much of her time to ending the Iraq war.
She'd fought against Vietnam too -- another senseless and costly war, in her opinion. Never again, she said, did she think she would see a White House use war as a first resort, as an instrument of foreign policy, and sell it to the public with lies. "How could everyone forget so soon?" she asked.
When Bill Dodson retired after 31 years with the Glendale Fire Department, he decided to devote much of his time to taking care of a local war memorial, ringed with snapdragons and affixed with the names of 19 local servicemen killed during Vietnam.
He'd fought in World War II, firing so many shells from a Navy carrier that he still can't hear well out of one ear. Never again, he said, did he think he would see protesters dishonoring dead American soldiers.
"Unless you've been there," he said, "you can't understand that."
Medford, 60, and Dodson, 83, live in the same little village, Montrose. They are not as unalike as they think -- she says she is no pacifist; he says he is no hawk -- but they have never met. This evening, their lives will intersect, as they do every Friday.
As shadows creep through the folds of the nearby Verdugo Mountains, Medford will arrive at the main intersection in town, carrying a bag of signs -- one that says "STOP THE WAR NOW," another that says "WAR," with a red line through it.
She'll distribute them to 15 or 20 or so people who have held weekly peace vigils at Honolulu Avenue and Ocean View Boulevard for two years. Then she'll assume her spot, on the corner, flashing a peace sign when passing drivers honk their support.
Dodson will already have come and gone.
Every week, he stages a silent protest of his own, lowering the American flag that flies the rest of the time from a 45-foot flagpole that serves as the centerpiece of the little memorial at that same intersection. He folds the flag up, drives it home and then -- after the protesters have gone -- returns and puts it back up.
So who is right?
Maybe Medford, who believes she and the other organizers of the vigil are performing an act of patriotism by lobbying to bring troops home from an unjust war.
Maybe Dodson, who believes he is performing an act of patriotism by protecting a memorial that he views as sacred ground -- not a grave, he says, but close enough.
Or maybe things haven't changed a bit since 1968. That's when the memorial went up. In Vietnam, the Tet offensive was raging. In California, radios were blaring with a Buffalo Springfield song that seemed to address the divisiveness of war. "Nobody's right," the song said, "if everybody's wrong."
In the fall of 2005, Medford got an e-mail from an organization called Progressive Democrats of America, urging its members to start peace vigils to mark a grim milestone: the death of the 2,000th American service member in Iraq. Medford picked the corner with the war memorial, and she picked it on purpose.
"I truly meant no disrespect," she said. "I truly think that the best way to support the troops is to not send them -- again -- on a futile mission."
Montrose has long been rock-ribbed conservative and, perhaps as a result, the vigil instantly became a source of great fascination -- and consternation.
"I started getting phone calls from merchants saying: 'What's going on?' " said Glendale Mayor John Drayman, also a dues-paying member of the local business association because he owns a nearby photo conservation and restoration shop. Montrose is part unincorporated Los Angeles County and part city of Glendale. The memorial is in Glendale.
"It was kind of a shock to the body of consciousness up there," Drayman said.
Bill Dodson wasn't going to stand for it.
Twenty years ago, the memorial's volunteer caretaker was getting old and frail and asked Dodson to take over. Ever since, Dodson has helped ensure that the flowers remain fresh, that the flag is replaced when it frays in the wind.
Dodson had served four years in the Navy, sailing off Guam, the Philippines and the Marshall and Gilbert islands. Some of his buddies died at the hands of kamikaze pilots. That's all he has to say about that, he said. Both his sons were in Vietnam, one an Air Force pilot, the other a heavy-artillery officer.
He seems conflicted about the war in Iraq.
"We're there," he said, "and we've got to finish what we started."
But that's not the point, he said; his beef is with the protesters' choice of venue.
"These people have the right to protest. I don't dispute that," he said. "But they picked the wrong corner. . . . This flag is here to honor the names of these men. Yes, the flag belongs to everyone. But it basically belongs to the names on that memorial."
He began taking down the flag not long after the vigil began.
"You can't reason with these people," he said.
Last fall, a Northridge resident named Carrie Watson stopped by one Friday with her two children, not to join the vigil but to protest it. She stood on the other side of the intersection holding a sign that said "I SUPPORT MY MARINE'S MISSION IN IRAQ." Her husband, Mike Watson, 38, an LAPD officer and a reserve Marine, was serving his third tour in Iraq at the time; he recently returned to California.
Soon, members of local American Legion and VFW posts heard that Carrie Watson, 35, was standing out there alone, and they began to join her each week, most bringing large American flags. The antiwar protesters started hearing the insults they thought they had left behind: "socialists," "communists," even "baby killers." Someone threw water balloons at them.
Eventually, they decided enough was enough. They wanted the flag back.
"We do love our country," said Paige Eaves, 45, a protester and the pastor of Crescenta Valley United Methodist Church. "That's why we want the flag."
Earlier this year, the protesters appealed to Glendale City Hall.
According to Drayman, the memorial and the flag are in a public right-of-way -- between the sidewalk and the curb -- but were not built using public money and are not owned by the city.
The decision about the flag, he said, is up to the Montrose Shopping Park Assn., which was given control over the administration of the memorial years ago.
And the association, the mayor said, has decided that the flag should not fly during any public demonstration, unless it's related to Vietnam or veterans. "The issue is not a constitutional one," Drayman said. "It's a jurisdictional one."
The antiwar protesters don't agree, but for now that's how it's going to be: The flag will go down, the vigil will go on and then the flag will go back up.
And if you think that's that, you weren't there last week, when, about an hour into the vigil, a teenager walked by, cleared his sinuses and spat mucus at the protesters.
Zach Fuhr, 17, a junior at La Salle High School in Pasadena, was on a date and was holding hands with a girl. He said his family had a long history of serving in the military and that he would enlist soon.
"They are inappreciative and unsupportive and ungrateful," he said. "You have no right to say anything unless you're a veteran."
To that I can only add that two of us protestors are veterans, another has a daughter serving in the Air Force and one man, whose father served in Vietnam, attends every Memorial Day ceremony on that corner.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,778
|
Post by Brian on Oct 19, 2008 22:26:10 GMT -8
This post ran on June 7:
I was surprised how many of our friends and Anni's elementary school students recognized her photo on the front page of the second section of that Los Angeles Times, more than saw it on the website, which also had a video with a shot of me holding my "War Is Over If You Want It" sign. Bodes well for newspapers.
We've gained new regulars every Friday on the corner since, averaging more than 20, with positive reactions from motorists and pedestrians stronger than ever. Except for one windy evening, I've left my sign in the trunk and stood beneath the empty flagpole with a helium-balloon American flag to replace the one removed to protest us.
Meanwhile, only six to eight have gathered on the opposite corner the past two weeks. We talk to them and, despite their visceral, 1968 feeling about us, they don't really like Bush and his war. And they're troubled by the karma and carnage -- the nation and world they're leaving for their grandchildren to suffer.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,778
|
Post by Brian on Oct 19, 2008 22:38:25 GMT -8
I continued my ruminations later that evening while listening to this album, starting by quoting some lyrics:Do you think that you believe in yours More than they do theirs somehow When you see the flags of freedom flyin'?I had to listen to this album tonight and wound up playing the "Raw" version too. It's been two years already since those CD's were released but only time will tell which mix is better -- and whether Neil's lyrical stance is dated or prescient: Walkin' among our people There's someone who's straight and strong To lead us from desolation And a broken world gone wrong Someone walks among us And I hope he heeds the call And maybe it's a woman Or a black man after all
Maybe it's Obama But he thinks that he's too young Maybe it's Colin Powell To right what he's done wrong America has a leader But he's not in the house He's walkin' here among us And we have to seek him outNeil's really singing about a roots up change. I misread him in 2006 as messianic, but Barack clearly heard the call and, at the end, Hillary too. What a presidential race it would have been, Obama versus Powell, but Republicans would never have gone for that.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,778
|
Post by Brian on Oct 19, 2008 22:44:02 GMT -8
This is the last of what I saved from the old message board, from July 31:I never heard of something called JPG Magazine until this evening, when one of our fellow protestors e-mailed me this link to a photo of our group taken last autumn: www.jpgmag.com/photos/892695Can someone more technologically adept than me post the photo here?
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,778
|
Post by Brian on Oct 19, 2009 23:01:28 GMT -8
This was one of the first threads on this message board one year ago tonight, archiving some reports of Montrose Peace Vigil activities early in 2008, including Scott Gold's column in the Los Angeles Times about the flag controversy. I'd be remiss on this anniversary if I didn't also reproduce Veronica Rocha's excellent story in the Glendale News Press last March about our tribute to John and Yoko's first Bed-In. At this date, the webpage with all three photos is still up: www.glendalenewspress.com/articles/2009/03/28/news/gnp-peace28.txtTwo months later, Yoko's website pasted the story and photos on the official Bed-In page -- scroll down about halfway. Near the bottom are comments by Nancy and me about both Montrose Peace Vigil tributes: imaginepeace.com/news/archives/5782For all I know, ProBoards may outlast both of those links -- and our newsprint copies. For posterity: A message reimaginedAntiwar activists invoke John Lennon, Yoko Ono’s peace message of 40 years ago.By Veronica Rocha Published: Last Updated Friday, March 27, 2009 10:12 PM PDT Demonstrators took turns lying on an inflatable mattress at the corner of Honolulu Avenue and Ocean View Boulevard on Friday while others passed out daisies and sang songs of peace in commemoration of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 40th anniversary Bed-In for peace.
Lennon and Ono staged a bed-in in 1969 at a hotel during their honeymoon and allowed cameras to photograph them in bed while they promoted peace and protested the Vietnam War.
Forty years later, the members of the Montrose Peace Vigil tried to re-create the couple’s demonstration, but they decided to take it to the streets of their town for a couple of hours.
“We are all committed to peace,” group member Roberta Medford said. “This is a campaign for peace.”
The group members began protesting the Iraq war and promoting peace in January 2005, and have met every Friday at the same corner in Montrose since they started, she said. The number of people from La Crescenta, Montrose and Tujunga who participate in the group’s weekly demonstration fluctuates, but they manage to get 18 activists to attend every week, Medford said.
“Most people want peace . . . but they might not think it’s possible,” she said.
Motorists driving by the group on Friday honked their horns while demonstrators held signs saying “Give Peace a Chance Bed-In,” “Hair Peace,” “Bed-In 1969 — 2009,” “Support Our Troops” and “War is over, if you want it.”
Group member Nancy Hutchins lay on the inflatable mattress as a bed frame stood in the foreground and she held a sign that said “John and Yoko.”
She and member Jeanne Lavieri later sang and played “Give Peace a Chance” on their guitars.
Most people support Hutchins and the other group participants’ demonstrations since the group is peaceful, she said.
But while Hutchins doesn’t believe in war, she said some group members have different opinions than hers about going to war and believe war is needed when it is necessary.
“I am a pacifist,” she said. “I am against going to war, period.”
Pasadena resident Nick Mosaquites is not against peace, he said.
“I don’t think anything is wrong with demonstrating for peace,” he said. “I just don’t think it should be at the expense of people who are fighting for peace.”
Lennon and Ono’s message of peace was important for their generation because it demonstrated nonviolence, group member Kaitlyn Fritts said.
“Violence doesn’t solve anything,” she said. “It’s better to come together and solve something than being violent.”
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,778
|
Post by Brian on Mar 30, 2010 23:00:11 GMT -8
The Crescenta Valley Weekly published the following column March 25 on newsprint before posting it at that link the next day. Since webpages -- but not ours! -- often disappear: The peaceful battle in MontroseBy Mike Lawler Each week, the battle is renewed.
At an appointed hour, the two armies array themselves in formation, their colors and banners waving fitfully in the slight breeze. The armies face each other solemnly across a river, each army on opposite banks, out of reach of the other. The front ranks of each side stare across the gap at their foes, and repeat to themselves the slogans that motivate them, occasionally shouting out a battle cry. The swiftly flowing river between them honks at each side of the opposing armies, the loud horns sharp and short like the staccato exchange of gunfire.
The river honks at them?
It sounds weird, but it does as this “river” is Honolulu Avenue as it crosses Ocean View Boulevard in the Montrose Shopping Park. The two armies are the Montrose Peace Vigil, who stand on the northwest corner, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who line up on the southeast corner. The cars that drive by beep their horns to show their support of one side or the other.
Every Friday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., the two groups gather on these opposite corners in the heart of this normally quiet shopping area to promote their philosophies about America’s military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. They face each other kitty-corner across the intersection, holding U.S. flags and hand-painted signs that proclaim their views. On the Peace Vigil side, 20 or 30 local residents hold signs that read, “Support Peace: Bring Our Troops Home” and “Peace Takes Courage Too,” among others. On the VFW side the display is largely of American flags, with a couple banners that read, “We Support Our Troops” and “Love Your Freedom? Thank A Vet!”
It’s a raucous atmosphere on either side, with interaction with passersby pro and con, the constant noise of cars honking their support for either side with the occasional shouted epithet.
So how did this little petri dish of national politics ever develop here in our quiet burg? It goes all the way back to 2002, before the invasion of Iraq, when a group of area residents opposing military intervention in Iraq began to demonstrate each Friday night in Glendale on the corner of Broadway and Brand Boulevard, where they still gather today. Inspired by that group, two locals brought the movement to Montrose, and they met at the flagpole one cold Friday night in January 2006. The numbers grew steadily, and they’ve been there ever since in varying numbers, vowing to stay until the U.S. leaves Iraq and Afghanistan.
A couple of years ago, a young lady married to a Marine serving in Iraq decided to mount a counter-protest. She was quickly joined by other supporters, many coming from the VFW post a few blocks down Honolulu Avenue. After trying different locations – a couple times even camping on the same corner as the Peace Vigil – they settled on the opposite corner, which seems to add a sense of visual pageantry to the weekly event.
This whole scene is so out of character for our little slice of Mayberry that one might think that it’s a bad thing for our community. Yet, commerce and social interaction thrive around the protest and counter-protest. I think some people go there specifically to watch the spectacle – this microcosm of free speech in action – and they buy a frozen yogurt or coffee while they’re there.
The two groups seem to generally respect each other. Their interactions have been amazingly peaceful, and the Glendale Police has been supportive of both sides.
As someone with the tunnel vision of a historian, I see this as local history in the making; I’ll be writing about this again in 20 years.
Drive by next Friday night and honk your agreement with whichever side you support. It’s kind of like a noisy form of voting. This is democracy in action.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,778
|
Post by Brian on Oct 19, 2010 23:00:33 GMT -8
The Montrose Peace Vigil began in January 2006, and we've gathered every Friday evening since at the northwest corner of Ocean View Boulevard and Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, California. Last Monday marked the two year anniversary of this message board. Although I've been counting participants for years, I didn't start compiling the weekly numbers until the Friday after Barack Obama was elected President. For the archives, here are the monthly averages: [/b] [li]November - 17 [/li][li]December - 14 2009[/li][li]January - 14 [/li][li]February - 15 [/li][li]March - 15 [/li][li]April - 12 [/li][li]May - 16 [/li][li]June - 15 [/li][li]July - 14 [/li][li]August - 12 [/li][li]September - 15 [/li][li]October - 12 [/li][li]November - 9 [/li][li]December - 14 2010[/li][li]January - 13 [/li][li]February - 13 [/li][li]March - 14 [/li][li]April - 11 [/li][li]May - 12 [/li][li]June - 10 [/li][li]July - 12 [/li][li]August - 13 [/li][li]September - 12 [/li][li]October - 17 [/li][/ul] Modified to add this month's average attendance, the best since the top of the list.
|
|