Greenville vigil

Tonight, I went down to Greenville South Carolina with a couple of friends, to go to the Greenville Anti-war Society vigil. They have cups with the names of our deceased soldiers on them, and then they placed candles inside and lit them. They were quite beautiful.

But what I really wanted to see was the memorial to the Iraqis who have been killed in this illegal occupation. I took these photos - one of my hand holding the tiny beads that were strung on fishing line.... with about 1,000 beads on each strand. The beads are blue and clear. The second photo is of the structure itself. It was just beautiful with the lights inside. Now this structure is in my car and we are going to put it up on Tuesday at the Veteran's Peace Park. The local Veterans for Peace and the Iraq Veterans Against the War will be reading the names of people killed in this conflict. Well, I should say the plan is to put it up - if it is rainy or windy, then it will go inside my home instead. However,the rain and the wind is not due to Wednesday, so it should be good to go for Tuesday. I am going to make a sign that explains what the tiny beads represents.

While at this vigil, I was given a postcard with "The Pledge of Resistance" on it. I thought I would reprint it here:

We believe that as people living in the United States it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government, in our names

Not in our name will you wage endless war there can be no more deaths no more transfusions of blood for oil

Not in our name will you invade countries bomb civilians, kill more children
letting history take its course over the graves of the nameless

Not in our name will you erode the very freedoms you have claimed to fight for

Not by our hands will we supply weapons and funding for the annihilation of families
on foreign soil

Not by our mouths will we let fear silence us

Not by our hearts will we allow whole peoples or countries to be deemed evil

Not by our will and Not in our name

We pledge resistance

We pledge alliance with those who have come under attack for voicing opposition to the war or for their religion or ethnicity

We pledge to make common cause with the people of the world to bring about justice,
freedom and peace

Another world is possible and we pledge to make it real.