Vigils in April 2022

[Brian]

Anni, Roberta and Rosalind at the Montrose Peace Vigil on March 18, 2022.

Blue and yellow have become the primary colors on the northwest corner of Ocean View Boulevard and Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, CA 91020 on Fridays between 5:30 and 7 p.m. -- including Anni's peace symbol above and Jim's big Ukrainian flag -- as we continue to stand for peace and disarmament everywhere. As in recent weeks, we've received nothing but goodwill from passersby at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, where a driver waiting for the green light pulled out a Ukrainian flag to wave at us.

Only seven regulars participated, far fewer than the 12 peaceniks last week and our weekly average of 10 in March. In order of appearance: Jim, Roberta, Anni, me, Jeanne, Bruce and Nancy.

Since October 2011, we have printed and displayed every Defense Department news release announcing the deaths of soldiers, Marines, sailors and Airmen in our many ongoing military operations around the world.  The Pentagon reported no uniformed U.S. casualties in the previous seven days.

[Brian]

My favorite moment at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil was when a young girl got up from the bench where she'd been eating frozen yogurt with her mother to tell us that "we wouldn't have war if people would just have real discussions with each other."  Temperature was 91 degrees at the start of the vigil and while there were plenty of pedestrians, vehicle traffic was down.

Nine regulars and longtime irregulars came to the corner.  In order of appearance:  Anni, me, Roberta, Jeanne, Bruce, Jim, Nancy, John Q. and John the Realtor.

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.

[Roberta]

So, last night I saw the Glendale parking enforcement guy with his evil little ticket gyzmo walking west on Honolulu as we ate outdoors at Star Cafe, opened 2 days ago for in-person. Of course I hadn’t fed my meter on Ocean View just north of the corner, and even if I had there is only 30 min. parking there, long expired. Good food always distracts me, but as we walked to the car, I vowed to drive an extra 50 feet into the free lot right there from now on. I guess he didn’t feel like walking uphill a few steps because no ticket:))!

Apr 8, 2022 23:03:07 GMT -8 Brian said:

My favorite moment at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil was when a young girl got up from the bench where she'd been eating frozen yogurt with her mother to tell us that "we wouldn't have war if people would just have real discussions with each other."  Temperature was 91 degrees at the start of the vigil and while there were plenty of pedestrians, vehicle traffic was down.

Nine regulars and longtime irregulars came to the corner.  In order of appearance:  Anni, me, Roberta, Jeanne, Bruce, Jim, Nancy, John Q. and John the Realtor.

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]

Road traffic was light throughout this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil as it always is on Good Friday -- and this was our 17th.  Just after we arrived at 5:25, a woman turning the wide corner in front of us stopped and rolled down the passenger window to tell us, "I just wanted to say that I'm so happy to see you here every Friday.  You give me hope!"  Later, a pedestrian named Olga, who emigrated from Ukraine years ago, took time to thank individual demonstrators and share her feelings.

Eight people participated -- in order of appearance:  Anni, me, Russell, Jim, Jeanne, John B., Nancy and for the first time Dr. Suzie Abajian, a candidate for Glendale City Clerk.  Everybody enjoyed talking with Suzie.  Unfortunately for her campaign, only one of the seven vigil regulars on the corner this week is a Glendale resident.  Suzie posed holding a peace sign with the group for a photo taken by her husband while he held their beautiful baby girl.  Here's the link to Suzie's campaign website:

www.suzieabajian.com/

The Department of Defense reported no uniformed casualties in the previous seven days.

[Brian]

For many years, I held a sign modeled on Yoko Ono and John Lennon's 1969 billboard campaign -- "War Is Over If You Want It" -- with both phrases in equally large block letters.  I put it away after U.S. troops finally left Afghanistan last August, but Nancy still held one just like it at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil.  That's why a young couple stopped to ask us, "What war?"  Pedestrians have been asking us that question for a long time, especially teenagers who weren't born when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001.  I told them about the 3,500 U.S. troops still under missile fire in Iraq and Syria along with untold thousands more in active military operations in the Mideast and Africa.  Then I thanked them for asking -- one of the reasons we demonstrate every week is to remind fellow citizens of the ongoing wars we're all still tacitly supporting.  Sometimes I wonder if we could have stopped the occupation of Iraq if cellphone video was prevalent when we bombed and invaded them in 2003 as it is today in Ukraine.

Nine regulars came to the corner:  Anni, me, Russell, Jeanne, Terry, Bruce, Jim, Nancy and Frannie, in order of appearance.

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

[Brian]

On a warm evening with plenty of pedestrians, Anni and I enjoyably spent the first half hour of this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil before the other regulars showed up talking with Dennis, an 82 year old Montrose resident who looks 62 and has seen us there for years.  Our concerns were many -- among them climate change, the war in Ukraine, threats to American democracy and Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex when we all were very young -- and as we talked we realized how so many problems were intertwined.  But we weren't giving up on making change.  Hopefully, Dennis will stop by again!  After he left, another man whose name we didn't get started making Hawaiian hang loose hand gestures at passing vehicles next to us and getting lots of honks.  He was a hoot.  Already, I'd have to count him as a vigil participant because he was demonstrating with us. But soon he was spinning Anni's two-sided "Know Justice/Know Peace" sign until his friend showed up for their rendezvous.

This week's roster, in order of appearance:  Anni, me, Jeanne, the shaka sign guy, Russell, Bruce, Jim and Nancy.  We formed a solid contingent of sign holders for the last hour -- actually, we lost track of the time and stayed after 7 p.m. I counted a total of 16 different names at vigils throughout April, including six participants who came to the corner every week.  Here are the weekly attendance figures:

• Apr. 1 - 7
• Apr. 8 - 9
• Apr. 15 - 8
• Apr. 22 - 9
• Apr. 29 - 8

This month's weekly average rounds down to 8 participants, after averaging 10 in March, 9 in February, 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 and 10 in April 2021. Twelve peaceniks was our average attendance for many years before the pandemic.

For the ninth week in a row, the Pentagon reported no U.S. casualties.