[Peace] New demonstration project this Saturday at P4P

[Randall Cotton]

This Saturday (the 12th) is a key worldwide anti-war demonstration date.
Major demonstrations are scheduled for DC, Chicago, San Francisco, L.A and
hundreds of cities worldwide (see www.stopwar.org.uk for a partial listing).
Attendance at P4P (AWARE's weekly "Prospect for Peace" anti-war
demonstration) is especially important this week, so please consider joining
us on Prospect at Marketview (just north of I-74), 2 to 4 PM as usual, to
mark this crucial day (remember, don't park at either "Lowe's" or "Tires
Plus" as they aggressively tow demonstrators - no problems have been
reported elsewhere yet).

NOTE: though I'm an active member of AWARE and other AWARE folks are
participating, the following project is not sponsored by AWARE - it's my own
personal effort.

This week at P4P I'm coordinating a display of large posters depicting
casualties of this war (both U.S. and Iraqi) and I'm calling for
participants. If you're interested, please respond to me via e-mail
(preferable) or just show up at P4P this Saturday.

Full details follow:

This display is intended to give pause to those who support the war, but who
have at some point harbored some doubt about whether it was "right" or
"just" to go ahead with it. Mainstream US media downplays or ignores the
greatest cost of Bush's grand experiment - the lives lost and the suffering
of injured survivors. This project counters that collective repression with
the aim of fostering the growth of (or at least planting) the seed of doubt
regarding this war in the minds of people who support it, but only
conditionally. I believe that, as world events unfold regarding Iraq, many
of our President's claimed justifications for this war will be discredited
and doubts will grow. Emphasizing the true cost of this war now will help
that along.

 In summary, I intend to coordinate a continuous, stationary, orderly,
silent line of people (wearing all black, if possible) who will each hold a
large (30" x 40") foamboard poster portraying a war casualty. The idea is
that the projected mood would be quiet, mournful, somber and respectful.
This would take place at the northeast corner of Marketview and Prospect
(this is the intersection we normally use for P4P) and would thus be offset
from the rest of P4P (which generally uses the other three corners of that
intersection). I intend to repeat this display (and build on it) every week
so long as there's continuing interest.

There will be an equal number of US and Iraqi casualty images available (15
each this week).

The US casualty images are just the same ones used by news outlets
worldwide, but cropped and zoomed to focus on faces for greater impact. The
posters are fairly neutral - they have no slogans and stick to facts that
unambiguously identify them as US casualties of war - name, hometown, date
and location killed. (For instance - "Michael Curtin/Howell, New
Jersey/Killed March 29, 2003/Central Iraq"). In and of themselves, they are
respectful, mournful and intended to memorialize.

The Iraqi casualty portrayals are of the killed, injured, grieving or
refugee victims of this war. They are almost exclusively children. Visible
physical injuries are limited to scratches, cuts, bandages (sometimes
extensive) and in one case, a small stitched wound. No visible open wounds
or amputations - nothing that would traumatize children or sensitive adults.
Again, these also feature no slogan and stick to contextual facts (e.g.
"Child Casualty/April 2, 2003/Al Hillah, Iraq").

Again, though I am an active member of AWARE and I have presented and
discussed this project (and received guidance and feedback) from AWARE at
the past two Sunday meetings (as well as via the peace-discuss mailing
list), this is solely my own personal project.

I have already received some definite confirmations of participation from
active AWARE members, but I still have more posters than confirmed
participants. Again, if you're interested, please reply to me by e-mail
(remember not to include this mailing list) or just come out on Saturday,
have a look, and see if you'd like to join us =8-)

Thanks
R