Brian
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Post by Brian on May 3, 2019 23:48:04 GMT -8
Every Friday since January 2006, we've stood for peace, love and understanding from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on the wide northwest corner of Ocean View Boulevard and Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, CA 91020, not far from the Vietnam War Memorial. Twelve people held signs at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil. Since October 2011, we have displayed every Defense Department news release announcing the deaths of soldiers, sailors and airmen in our unconstitutional wars during the vigils. Anni taped a printout of Monday's Pentagon news release, which is linked below, on the utility pole. I searched, but I could not find any more information about the latest non-combat casualty. dod.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1829614/dod-identifies-army-casualty/The ceremony for the remains of Pfc. Michael Thomason at Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on May 10, 2019 23:48:39 GMT -8
Despite the weather forecasts throughout the week, it was dry for this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil. Yet traffic on the sidewalks and streets was sparse. Thirteen vigil regulars came to the corner. For the third week in a row, we posted at least one Pentagon press release about a non-combat casualty during the vigil. I couldn't find any further information about the cause of this week's death in Afghanistan on the Web. dod.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1841030/dod-identifies-army-casualty/The Dignified Transfer of Spc. Miguel L. Holmes at Dover Air Force base on Thursday.
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anni
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Post by anni on May 11, 2019 15:56:24 GMT -8
Proof that Roberta is a master multi-tasker! Just before she was due at Dodger Stadium, she stopped by the corner to make her presence official:
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Brian
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Post by Brian on May 18, 2019 0:19:41 GMT -8
Katherine Terrien was back with her guitar and ukulele, singing great cover tunes and her own wonderful songs, on the corner beside this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil. She missed two weeks because of the threat of rain and a gig she had elsewhere. Katherine, who has been coming to Montrose from Redondo Beach for a year and a half, has built a local following through her performances -- and she gained a lot more fans this week.
Soon after the vigil started, a group of young girls and their parents left a birthday party at the dance studio nearby and convened on the corner to have some frozen yogurt. The girls became enraptured by Katherine, who soon had them singing along. Later, four of them asked if they could hold signs. They chose their signs from the bag Anni brings every week -- like the one that just says PEACE in soft colors that we keep in the sign bag for kids -- and they stood facing traffic with us for five or ten minutes.
All told, 17 peaceful human beings demonstrated at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil. The last time that many people held signs on the corner was February 16, 2018, after a school shooting.
In the previous seven days, the Department of Defense reported no military deaths in Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan, Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria or in any of the other U.S. operations underway around the world.
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anni
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Post by anni on May 20, 2019 8:17:32 GMT -8
Pictures of girls joining Katherine and the vigil, adorable!
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Brian
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Post by Brian on May 24, 2019 23:32:31 GMT -8
I remember traffic being very light every Memorial Day weekend at the intersection of Ocean View Boulevard and Honolulu Avenue until last year, so either I'm mixing up this holiday with the others after 13 years of standing on the corner or things have changed. At this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, the sidewalks were teeming with relaxed pedestrians, and we enjoyed lots of honks, waves and peace signs from the passing vehicles. The temperature hovered around 70 degrees.
Turnout has been great this month -- 15 regulars demonstrated this week.
The Pentagon announced no U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or anywhere else in the previous seven days.
The shopping park association and the chamber of commerce promise a brief ceremony at the annual public Memorial Day observance on the corner, beside the Vietnam War memorial. They're starting half an hour earlier, 7:30 a.m. on Monday, to accommodate two ceremonies that follow in Glendale. Montrose Peace Vigil regular Bruce has attended the ceremony at Ocean View and Honolulu for something like 20 years, since he moved to Montrose. His father was an Air Force pilot in Vietnam. Bruce brings a pot of flowers to place in tribute at the memorial and comes back to tend to them. When the blooms have died, Bruce plants the flowers somewhere else. He, Roberta and Jeanne have represented our vigil at the ceremony for more than a decade every Memorial Day. This year, Jeanne did the artwork and lettering on the card that will be attached to the flower pot: "Remembering and Hoping, Montrose Peace Vigil."
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Brian
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Post by Brian on May 31, 2019 23:11:06 GMT -8
Unlike last week, traffic on the streets and sidewalks was light at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, and only nine regulars were able to come. But we enjoyed the additional participation by relatives of Roberta's husband John. Sol arrived at the corner, pulling his sons Kai and Rhys in a red wagon. They stopped for a while to visit and wound up holding a little sign -- in the wagon. And Jeanne's grandson Simon was back -- I should count him among the regulars now. He flipped Anni's fortified sign, which says "Know Justice" on one side and "Know Peace" on the other, across the wide, empty sidewalk, which might be the most effective demonstration I've seen at a vigil. So seven people born in this decade participated in a Montrose Peace Vigil this month, including the four girls two weeks ago. Here are my tallies of the sign holders each week: - May 3 - 12
- May 10 - 13
- May 17 - 17
- May 24 - 15
- May 31 - 12
The weekly average rounds up to 14 participants, after averaging 11 in April and 12 each month in March, February, January and December. We had 13 weekly demonstrators last November and October, 10 in September, 13 in August, 11 in July and 14 in June 2018. Last May, the vigils averaged 13 participants per week. No U.S. military deaths were announced by the Pentagon in the previous seven days.
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Post by anni on Jun 2, 2019 10:19:20 GMT -8
The shopping park association and the chamber of commerce promise a brief ceremony at the annual public Memorial Day observance on the corner, beside the Vietnam War memorial...Montrose Peace Vigil regular Bruce has attended the ceremony at Ocean View and Honolulu for something like 20 years, since he moved to Montrose. His father was an Air Force pilot in Vietnam. Bruce brings a pot of flowers to place in tribute at the memorial and comes back to tend to them. When the blooms have died, Bruce plants the flowers somewhere else. He, Roberta and Jeanne have represented our vigil at the ceremony for more than a decade every Memorial Day. This year, Jeanne did the artwork and lettering on the card that will be attached to the basket: "Remembering and Hoping, Montrose Peace Vigil." Last Monday, the first new video in a year appeared on Katherine Terrien's You Tube channel -- and it's the first clip not posted by her. Vazgen Khankaldyyan captured a minute of Katherine singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" on the corner in the dark, after a Montrose Peace Vigil, and added a montage of shots of the Vietnam War memorial and the flowers that were placed there at the ceremony. When Brian found it, the video had only 7 views. Look for a close up of Bruce's basket at 0:25.
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