Vigils in November 2022

[Brian]

This Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil marked our 17th annual farewell to Daylight Saving Time.  Next week, it will be dark half an hour before we start gathering.  We'll have lots of candles, and it helps that the city wrapped all of the trees with white LED lights and that a green spotlight shines down from a tree in the middle of the corner, where the shopping park association will mount a giant nutcracker statue as Christmas nears.

As a reminder, we stand on the northwest corner of Ocean View Boulevard and Honolulu Avenue near the Vietnam War memorial in Montrose, CA 91020 every Friday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. without regard to the weather or holidays -- we haven't missed a vigil since January 2006.  Please stop by sometime if you can.

Fourteen regulars came this week, our best turnout since July 8, when 16 peaceniks participated.  We covered two of the three dirt patches facing traffic along the wide corner and got lots of honks, waves and peace signs from the vehicles while also engaging in some good conversations with curious pedestrians.  In order of appearance:  Roberta, Anni, me, Dennis, Mary, Janice, Russell, Frannie, Jeanne, Bruce, Elaine, Mike, John Q. and Jim.

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]

This Friday's Montrose Peace vigil took place on Veterans Day, which I have always called Armistice Day even though the name was changed four years before I was born.  Instead of two national holidays dedicated to the military, why can't we have one that commemorates peace?

Anni brought her canvas bag of candles out of storage and lined them along the curb, which may also aid the drivers making the wide right turn from Ocean View Boulevard to Honolulu Avenue.  Despite the row of candles and the green spotlight, Jim only saw five dark silhouettes when he drove up Ocean View, and he couldn't read our signs.  This will have to be the year that I finally get a sign with LED lights spelling out PEACE.

Foot and wheel traffic was light.  Although just nine regulars made it this week, we spread out to all three patches of dirt on the corner.  Anni, Roberta and I arrived simultaneously at 5:30, soon followed by Russell, Dennis and Jim, then Jeanne, Bruce and Nancy, who are among the few vigil stalwarts still working.

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]

At times the 11 peaceniks at this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil outnumbered the pedestrians in sight -- in order of appearance: Anni, me, Roberta, Dennis, Mike, Frannie, Janice, Bruce, Justeen, John and Nancy.

Next week, however, we're bound to have lots of company when the shopping park association conducts its annual holiday tree lighting ceremony -- which can draw hundreds of people -- across the intersection from our corner on a block of Honolulu Avenue closed to vehicles. Here's the webpage for the event and other Christmas season activities in Montrose Shopping Park:

shopmontrose.com/montrose-shopping-park-wishes-everyone-a-safe-and-merry-holiday-season/

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

[Brian]

Before I report on this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, I want to mention our entry of the Peace Train for the 11th time in Montrose Christmas Parade.  We welcome everybody to march with us on Saturday, December 3, starting around 6 p.m.  You can find us after 5 p.m. with our custom hand painted Peace Train among the dozens of other entrants waiting in groups in the middle of Honolulu Avenue west of Rosemont Avenue in Montrose.  Or stop by the corner during next week's vigil to get the address nearby where we're meeting beforehand.  Here's the link to the thread on this message board devoted to this year's parade:

montrosepeacevigil.proboards.com/thread/1379/peace-train-montrose-christmas-parade

If not for the annual tree lighting ceremony already underway when the vigil started at 5:30, the corner would have been a lonely place with sparse vehicle traffic.  (The ceremony was canceled the day after Thanksgiving 2020 during the severe Covid spike and Montrose resembled a ghost town.)  We had some company as bands of later arrivals streamed by us to join a large crowd, many seated, listening to Christmas carols on the other side of the intersection, protected by a fire engine decorated with holiday lights.  They lit the big tree and left well before 7.

A solid contingent of regulars made it to the corner -- Roberta, Anni, me, Nancy, Russell, Jeanne, Frannie, Mike and Jim, in order of appearance.  My tallies of each week's peaceniks:

• Nov. 4 - 14
• Nov. 11 - 9
• Nov. 18 - 11
• Nov. 25 - 9

This month's weekly average rounds up to 11 participants, after averaging 12 in October, 9 in September, 10 in August, 11 in July, 10 in June, 11 in May, 8 in April, 10 in March, 9 in February, 10 in January, 9 in December and 10 in November 2021.

For the 39th week in a row, the Pentagon reported no U.S. casualties.