TS Fwd: Memorial Day Vigil

[The Touchstone]

Ray White and others in the Brazos County Veterans for Peace are planning 
on holding a vigil on either next Sunday evening or on Memorial Day.  I've 
placed the tentative plans below.  They need volunteers to help out and, of 
course, people to attend.  If you'd like to help out, please contact Ray or 
me.  (Please excuse the incompleteness of these plans at this time -- we 
only started discussing this on Saturday and time is very short for 
organizing this.)

                 Danny

>From: "Doc White" <docwhite at cox-internet.com>
>
>Subject: Memorial Day Vigil
>Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 18:04:26 -0500
>
>Judy, Doug, Danny, Lisa and I got together today to update the 
>Wall.  Unfortunately it has grown by 6 panels since the last time it was 
>displayed.  The casualty numbers have grown dramatically with no sign of 
>an end to the killing and dying in sight.  Terry Anderson’s words at the 
>October rally come to mind
how many more will die?  Current casualty 
>numbers are: U.S. 1631 and total coalition 1811.   No one is counting the 
>Iraq deaths but as we’ve heard many times the numbers are in the 10’s of 
>thousands.  See 
><http://www.mykeru.com/bodycount.html>http://www.mykeru.com/bodycount.html 
>for a visualization.
>
>We talked about holding a vigil on Memorial Day, or the Sunday evening, at 
>Veterans Park.  I thought we might set up the Wall and speak every name 
>listed.  At a rate of 10 per minute this will take about 182 minutes or 3 
>hours.  I thought we could also set up the shoes in memory of the 
>thousands of Iraq dead.  No signs, no speeches.  Only names being called 
>and perhaps soft music in the background and/or a bell to be rung in some 
>significant manner.  That’s as far as I’ve gotten in my thinking.
>
>Of course this can’t happen without member involvement.  Please let me 
>know if you are willing to help.  If we get enough folks who are willing 
>to participate we can divide the work and pull this off.  Since we are 
>only a week away from Memorial Day I will need to get feedback quickly in 
>order to put this together.   I hope we can get together on this.  For me 
>Memorial Day isn’t a holiday
it isn’t a day to glorify war or to put a 
>positive spin on those who died in war
it’s a day to contemplate the 
>insanity of war by remembering the horrors it brings.
>
>Ray

Danny Yeager
The Touchstone
P.O. Box 2711
College Station, TX 77841-2711

www.rtis.com/touchstone/

When a nation's young men are conservative its funeral bell is already rung.
             -- H. W. Beecher