Vigils in February 2022

[Brian]

Foot and wheel traffic was robust at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil compared to January.  A pick up truck stalled on westbound Honolulu Avenue for half an hour -- creating a back up and giving us a captive audience for our signs -- something that qualifies as the most exciting event on the corner in the past five months.  Roberta talked to passersby and passed out flyers about the rally at Glendale City Hall on Sunday afternoon to stop the proposed Grayson Repowering Project that would burn more natural gas for Glendale's electricity.

For weeks I've been listing the names of every vigil attendee so that the regulars who have been staying home during the latest Covid surge can see who's been showing up.  Eight stalwarts participated this week, fewer than last month's average of ten peaceniks and our pre-pandemic average of a dozen per week.  In order of appearance:  Anni, me, Roberta, Jeanne, Bruce, Jim, Russell and Nancy.

Since October 2011, we have displayed every Defense Department news release announcing the deaths of soldiers, sailors and airmen in our many ongoing worldwide military operations. Anni taped a large-type printout of Friday's Pentagon news release, which is linked below, on the utility pole not far from the Vietnam War memorial. The soldier died "as a result of a non-combat related incident" in northeastern Syria two days before the well publicized raid in northwestern Syria by U.S. forces that ended when the leader of ISIS killed himself and his family.

www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2923283/dod-identifies-army-casualty/

Spc. Alex J. Ram, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga

[Sharon W]

Very sad to lose this young man.

Thanks to all who are demonstrating, we're with you in spirit.

[Brian]

The temperature at the start of this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil was 74 degrees, as it was when we left at 7 p.m. -- this week the thermometer has been near 90 degrees mid-day during an official heat advisory that expires Sunday evening.  More remarkable to me were the numbers of people who stopped to ask about us and what we were demonstrating for.  The preponderance of signs this week included the words peace and justice, so it was my chance to add that we've been on the corner every week since January 2006 wanting our troops to come home from Iraq.  Most people are surprised to hear that some 3,500 soldiers remain there, sitting ducks for missile attacks like one just last week.  (Luckily, no one was hurt.)  I can't remember having as much engagement with passersby since the pandemic began two years ago.

A young woman named Takara came back after one such conversation and asked if we would pose with her for a photo taken by her friend.  Since Takara held a sign, she joined vigil regulars Roberta, Jeanne, Terry, Nancy, Russell, Jim, Frannie, Anni and me to total ten participants.

In the previous seven days, the Department of Defense reported no military deaths in Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria or in any of the other named U.S. operations underway around the world.

[Brian]

For whatever reasons, traffic was lighter during this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil.  The weather was cooler than last week, but at 65 degrees it wasn't really chilly.  Vehicles waiting for the light to change on eastbound Honolulu Avenue backed up in front of the banks occasionally, but for most of our 90 minutes we saw just a few vehicles at a time pass us in all directions.

Only six vigil regulars participated -- Roberta, Jeanne, Jim, Nancy, Anni and me.  It's safe to say that each of those stalwarts have attended at least 600 vigils since Roberta and Nancy started everything in January 2006.

No U. S. military deaths were reported in the previous seven days.

[Brian]

The best news this week is still ongoing -- massive demonstrations for peace worldwide, most impressively in Russia where people are being arrested for just showing up.  It gives me hope during the largest invasion of a European nation since 1939.  But our message remains timeless.  Among the signs displayed at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil:  "Peace Listens," "Power to the Peaceful," "Know Justice Know Peace," "Disarm," "Peace and Justice" and the all time classic poster, "War is not healthy for children and other living things."

We also stood in honor of the passing of an American service member for the second time this month.  It was another tragic reminder that the U.S. still conducts operations in Africa.  We posted a large-type printout of this Pentagon news release about the death of an airman in an unexplained non-combat related incident in Niger, where four soldiers died in an ambush in 2017:

www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2941482/dod-identifies-air-force-casualty/

After a slow start, we had our best weekly turnout since last October. Attending were Roberta, Frannie, Russell, Jeanne, Jim, Sharon, Bill, Bruce, Nancy, Mary, Anni, me and Zari, who first joined us in 2012 and was last seen in 2019.  It's such a rare treat to hang out with Zari on the corner because of her work schedule.  Here's my weekly headcount of the total participants:

• Feb. 4 - 8
• Feb. 11 - 10
• Feb. 18 - 6
• Feb. 25 - 13

This month's weekly average rounds down to 9 participants, after averaging 10 in January, 9 in December, 10 in November, 12 in October, 22 in September and 30 in August (when we were joined by anti-recall demonstrators), 11 in July, 17 in June, 11 in May, 10 in April, 9 in March and 8 in February 2021. Twelve peaceniks was our average attendance for many years before the pandemic.