Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 3, 2022 23:00:29 GMT -8
The gas price proves that this photo was taken at a vigil last month. The Eagle Rock vigil started by the North East Los Angeles Radical Neighbors for Peace through Justice, or NELA Rad, continues in its 20th year on the southwest corner of Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards. During the months of Daylight Saving Time, the vigil time is 5 to 6 p.m. most Saturdays. The NELA Rad Facebook page has been inactive for six months, so if anyone has any questions about the vigil, please feel free to post a reply here and somebody will respond soon.
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Oss Rae
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Post by Oss Rae on Nov 11, 2022 10:19:54 GMT -8
The Eagle Rock Peace Vigil has made it to 20 years. It started the first Saturday of November 2002 to protest the coming invasion of Iraq. That abomination came and eventually went (sort of), but so many other horrors followed. We've been in the thick of "interesting times" ever since. Still, we finally got significant climate crisis legislation in 2022--even if 20 years later than it should have been--and there have been massive social improvements with the legalization of gay marriage and improvements for the lives of trans people who happen to be living in relatively safe places. Some Native Americans have gotten land returned, and Columbus Day has become increasingly scarce. And there are indications that the Democratic Party may finally be moving away from Neo-liberalism. The Republican party has become increasingly desperate to stay in power via election rigging, media control, and colossal amounts of money. But there are signs of strife in the party and that trump may be losing his grip.
The vigil started at Eagle Rock Blvd. and El Paso in front of a Shell (whose manager threatened us) and moved to its current location of Colorado Blvd and Eagle Rock Blvd. on the vigil's one-year anniversary.
Here are memories of the vigil founder Bob Squires about the very beginning: “In early October [2002], I had attended a Neighbors for Peace and Justice protest in Silverlake. It seemed to make better sense to me that I protest in my own neighborhood. While I only knew one other activist in Mt. Washington, I suspected that many others in the community felt as I did and that organizing a protest group would not be so difficult. It seemed crucial to get out on the streets to counter the lies upon lies to which the public was being subjected.
“We held our first protest on the first weekend in November 2002. The weather was not cooperative for the first few Saturdays. We were rained upon and the lettering on our signs bled. Still, we had a diehard group. We first got to know each other better by going to Swork for coffee after one of our early protests. We started the Neighbors for Peace and Justice Educational Exchange Yahoo group where we post and exchange ideas and valuable information. . . .
“Vigiling offers an opportunity to be spat upon, cursed, yelled at, and threatened. It also serves as an effective way for us to inform our communities that all they see on television is not all that there is to know. We help people move beyond their fear and question their attitudes and viewpoints.”
For the vigil on Halloween, three people wore costumes.
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anni
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Post by anni on Dec 3, 2022 16:00:45 GMT -8
Thanks Ross! So well said...and interesting portrait...too long in the making. "When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?"
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Dec 23, 2022 0:00:21 GMT -8
With Daylight Saving Time no longer in effect, the Eagle Rock vigil -- which marked its 20th anniversary last month -- takes place an hour earlier from 4 to 5 p.m. on some Saturdays at the southwest corner of Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards. There will be no vigil next Saturday, December 24.
One of the things I appreciate the most about the vigils in Eagle Rock is talking to people I'd never meet at the Montrose Peace Vigil. Last week, I was holding my orange day-glo "Power to the Peaceful" sign when a passenger in a car stopped at a red light called out to me, "I got beat up by the cops for protesting peacefully fifty years ago!" The Chicano Moratorium was one of the key protests in my early adolescence so I asked him, "Did you go to Garfield High?" He laughed as the car took off, "You got it!"
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Post by Sharon W on Dec 23, 2022 7:45:05 GMT -8
Great story Brian!
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Oss Rae
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Post by Oss Rae on Dec 23, 2022 17:39:09 GMT -8
[snip]
One of the things I appreciate the most about the vigils in Eagle Rock is talking to people I'd never meet at the Montrose Peace Vigil. Last week, I was holding my orange day-glo "Power to the Peaceful" sign when a passenger in a car stopped at a red light called out to me, "I got beat up by the cops for protesting peacefully fifty years ago!" The Chicano Moratorium was one of the key protests in my early adolescence so I asked him, "Did you go to Garfield High?" He laughed as the car took off, "You got it!" Are you familiar with the 2006 HBO movie Walkout? Edward James Olmos directed it. I got to visit the set when they were filming at Roosevelt High (among other campuses). It was really neat walking through a crowd of people dressed in 1968 attire and with the location dressed to reflect that year (often even in subtle ways).
HBO showed it again a few months ago. YouTube only has clips of it online.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Mar 23, 2023 23:00:14 GMT -8
The next vigil in Eagle Rock is Saturday, March 25, from 4 to 5 p.m. at the usual spot on the southwest corner of Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards. For the past 20 years, the vigil start time always changed to 5 p.m. with Daylight Saving Time, but the regulars decided to keep 4 p.m., at least for this week.
There were no vigils for the past four weeks because of rain or lack of a quorum. When I started going to the Eagle Rock vigils nine years ago, there were at least a dozen familiar faces attending regularly. Now only six regulars remain. Kathy, an animal rights activist who drove from Pomona, passed away last month after a long illness. In recent years, we've also lost Flo, Norm and Vera, longtime vigil stalwarts whose pictures still appear in this thread and others.
The remaining regulars communicate each week via e-mail (and sometimes texts and phone calls) to set the next gathering. We will post news of the next vigil here -- with 5,571 views to date, this is one of the most popular threads on the Montrose Peace Vigil message board. Besides our own company, we enjoy the friendly encounters and conversations with the wonderful people of Eagle Rock strolling by on a Saturday afternoon along with the honks and waves from passing vehicles.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 7, 2023 23:00:29 GMT -8
At the Eagle Rock vigil two weeks ago, we had to stand across the street next to the other gas station on Colorado Boulevard at Eagle Rock Boulevard because our usual corner was entirely roped off -- a busted water main had to be replaced, according to Nina who had driven by previously, and the sidewalk was still being restored.
We expect fresh concrete for the next vigil tomorrow, April 8, from 4 to 5 p.m. If you can make it, please come. The events of the past week at the Tennessee statehouse proved the necessity of peaceful protest in trying to save lives, don't you think? A new generation got the message.
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