[Peace-discuss] San Francisco demo on Oct. 27

[Barbara kessel]

This was an e-mail Barbara Kessel received this morning from a 35-year
old nephew who lives with his wife in Oakland, Ca. He went to the San
Francisco demonstration yesterday. This describes his experience and
contains an idea that we might want to think about for one of our
future demonstrations.



Dear Friends & Family,

    Greetings and salutations.  Yesterday, Saturday, October 27th
Lauren and I went to San Francisco to participate in an anti-war
march.  I sat down afterwards and wrote down some of my thoughts.  I
imagined sending these thoughts to "everyone" but I generally feel a
little presumptuous about this act, and in this case specifically I
don't think all of my friends and family would really appreciate
hearing about this experience.  So after much hemming and hawing, I've
decided to only send it to a few of you.  I wish that I could make the
time to write more personally to each one of you, but alas Sunday is
too short.
    Be well. Love,
    --jeff (& Lauren)


DoD Identifies Army Casualty
    The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier
who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
    Spc. David L. Watson, 29, of Newport, Ark., died Sept. 22 in
Baqubah, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related
accident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry
Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat
Team), Fort Lewis, Wash.
    The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.
    For more information related to this release, the media may
contact the Fort Lewis public affairs office at (253) 967-0152, (253)
967-0147 or after hours at (253) 967-0015 (ask for the public affairs
officer on call).

DoD Identifies Army Casualty
    The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier
who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
    Capt. (Dr.) Roselle M. Hoffmaster, 32, of Cleveland, Ohio, died
Sept. 20 in Kirkuk, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat
related incident. She was assigned to the Headquarters and
Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division,
Fort Drum, N.Y.
    The circumstances surrounding the death are under investigation.
    For more information related to this release, the media may
contact the Fort Drum public affairs office at (315) 772-8286.



    We wish you could have been here today.  It was a clear, sunny day
in downtown San Francisco.  It was cool but not cold.  I had on a
jacket in the shade but in the sun I was too warm.  Lauren wore her
winter hat for awhile, but it wasn't really that cold.  She took it
off once we were walking.  Or marching, I guess is the appropriate
verb.
    It took awhile for the actual marching to commence.  We arrived a
bit early.  It was so easy to get there.  We took the BART and exited
at the same stop, Civic Center, where I get off for work.  We walked
around the corner, in front of City Hall, where we got married two
months ago.
    We sat and watched the people and read the signs for awhile.  I
didn't see any "No Blood for Oil" signs.  Those were the most common
signs I saw here 5 years ago when I came by myself to this very same
spot.  And, more or less, for the same reason.  Not because I couldn't
think of anything better to do on a beautiful, sunny Saturday.
Rather, to participate in something important.
    Five years ago when I came, I felt slightly galvanized.  I felt as
if all of us in the streets here in San Francisco and across the
United States and all across the world most surly were sending an
unequivocal message to the powers that be.  Surly our voice, the voice
of the People, would be heard, accounted for, and war would be
averted.
    Today felt different.  The signs were different, the idea was the
same, but something was different.  For one, there were more people
this time.  And maybe whereas last time there was a sense of urgency
to avoid an invasion of Iraq, this time there was more of a calm.  As
if to say, we were here 5 years ago, we are here today, so you see, we
are not going to forget or to go away.  We are here for the long haul.
 One sign we saw was a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  It said,
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that
matter."
    Other signs included: pictures of peaches (the fruit) with the
word "Im" before.  "Impeach".  One guy's shirt said "Unfuck the
world".  We took a picture of the back of a jacket which said, "Besos
not Bombs", besos meaning kisses in Spanish.  There were thousands of
"End the War Now" and "Iraq: Get Out; Iran: Stay Out; Bush/Cheney:
Drive Out" signs.
    How then did we come to know the names David L. Watson and Roselle
M. Hoffmaster?  While marching up Market Street, a grey haired
gentleman in front of us was passing out names of  US military and
Iraq civilians killed in the war.  He gave Lauren and I each a name
and a pin.  We pinned them to our sweaters and a few blocks later the
march organizers sounded the call to begin the scheduled 3 minute
Die-in.  Everyone in the march laid down in the street.
    The concrete was warm and the sky was blue with a few pale, wispy
white clouds.  When it was time to get up, it felt too soon.  It
wasn't exactly comfortable to be laying in the road with thousands of
other people but it did feel like we all just needed some more time
down there together.
    And so that's how we came to know the names of these two people
killed in the war.  David and Roselle.  You can google their names but
there's not much more information than what you read at the beginning
of the email.  For Lauren and I, we will always think of "David" and
"Roselle" when we are in San Francisco on Market Street between Van
Ness and Franklin.  It does seem kind of strange to think of a person
you don't even know but how can we not?



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com