Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 146

this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters

cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.

image and poem below the fold

Carlos Arredondo, of Boston, left, and Rose Gonzalez, of Somerville, Mass., who is holding her son Marcos, listen during a news conference after leaving a meeting with Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and military families at the Statehouse in Boston on Monday Oct. 17, 2005. Arredondo, who burned the van of military officials in Florida after learning that his son Alexander was killed in action during 2004, and other military families met with Romney to urge him to seek the withdrawal of the Massachusetts National Guard from Iraq. Gonzalez’s mother is currently serving in Iraq.
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

from Under Milk Wood
by Dylan Thomas

Look. It is night, dumbly, royally winding through the Coronation cherry trees;
going through the graveyard of Bethesda with winds gloved and folded, and dew
doffed; tumbling by the Sailors Arms.

Time passes. Listen. Time passes.

Come closer now.

Only you can hear the houses sleeping in the streets in the slow deep salt and
silent black, bandaged night. Only you can see, in the blinded bedrooms, the
combs and petticoats over the chairs, the jugs and basins, the glasses of teeth,
Thou Shalt Not on the wall, and the yellowing dickybird-watching pictures of the
dead. Only you can hear and see, behind the eyes of the sleepers, the movements
and countries and mazes and colours and dismays and rainbows and tunes and
wishes and flight and fall and despairs and big seas of their dreams.

From where you are, you can hear their dreams…

– – –
view the pbs newshour silent honor roll (with thanks to jimstaro at booman.)

support veterans for peace
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
remember the fallen
support Gold Star Families for Peace
support the fallen
support the troops
support the troops and the Iraqi people
read This is what John Kerry did today, the diary by lawnorder that prompted this series
read Riverbend’s Bagdhad Burning
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
read Today in Iraq
witness every day

Many thanks for your expressions of understanding and support in yesterday’s diary. I’m grateful, and not surprised.

6 Comments

RubDMC on October 18, 2005 at 10:29 am

Not for mojo – it’s just a way for you to leave a small mark after taking this moment.

ubikkibu on October 18, 2005 at 11:54 am

I’m glad you’re still posting. Please do take some time off if you need to, and rest assured your work is appreciated by many.

DuctapeFatwa on October 18, 2005 at 10:37 am

In his article “Adventure Capitalism,” Greg Palast exposes the contents of a secret plan for “imposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq’s banks and bridges–in fact, `ALL state enterprises’–to foreign operators.” This economy makeover plan, he claims, “goes boldly where no invasion plan has gone before.”

This highly detailed program, which began years before the tanks rolled, outlines the small print of doing business under occupation. One of the goals is to impose intellectual property laws favorable to multinationals. Palast calls this “history’s first military assault plan appended to a program for toughening the target nation’s copyright laws.”

It also turns out that those of us who may have thought it was all about the oil were mostly right. “The plan makes it clear that–even if we didn’t go in for the oil–we certainly won’t leave without it.”

nerdified link

Damnit Janet on October 18, 2005 at 12:42 pm

Normally I remark on the photos or the support of others in here…

That poem.. has me stunned. Again, thank you Rub

BrendaStewart on October 18, 2005 at 4:00 pm

:o(….all is to be told in our history, someday. Sad…….hugs and hugs again.

jimstaro on October 18, 2005 at 8:40 pm

THE GRANNY BRIGADE

By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
—-

October 18, 2005 — Eighteen gray-haired grandmothers protesting the war in Iraq were arrested for disorderly conduct yesterday after they shuffled to the entrance of the Times Square military recruiting center — and tried to enlist.
“We wanted to sign up. Instead of our kids dying, we wanted to take their place. We’ve already lived our lives,” said granny of five Joan Wile, 74.

“We tried to ring the bell at the booth, but no one answered. I saw a head poke up from behind the counter every once in a while and then duck back down. I don’t know what they were afraid of,” said the director of Grandmothers against the War. “Maybe they don’t know how to deal with a bunch of grannies.”

The women, whose ages ranged from 49 to 90, then sat down in front of the recruitment station and chanted, “We insist, we want to enlist.”

Brooklynite Carol Houston, who has two grandkids said, “I protested against the Vietnam War. I just hope we don’t have to wait as long as it took to end that one.”

Cops quickly arrested the elderly protesters.

“The police were absolute dolls. They called us sweetie. A lot of us couldn’t get off the ground with our hip replacement and arthritis,” Wile said. “I think they got instructions to treat us nicely,” she said, adding that the oldest protester was Marie Runyon, who is 90 and blind.

Some 100 supporters were on hand when the grandmothers were whisked away in police vans to the Midtown North precinct.

“The handcuffs were uncomfortable. I wonder how they felt doing this to 80- and 90-year-old women,” Wile said.

At the station house, it was two grannies to a cell.

“We spent four hours in jail. We were like any hardened criminal. It was one bed and a toilet.” Wile said.

The women, who received desk appearance tickets, were ordered back to court Nov. 15.
=

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= =

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Video ‘First week of October ’05’:
http://peacetakescourage.com/oneweek.html
*****************
Andy Rooney, 60mins:
http://www.ericblumrich.com/wmf/cbs_60min_andy_rooney_iraq_war_051002a.wmv
“Thanks Andy”
*******************
U.S. CASUALTY MAP;click on map for interaction site:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/photos/war_casualties/map/m10000.html

RubDMC on October 18, 2005 at 10:29 am

Not for mojo – it’s just a way for you to leave a small mark after taking this moment.
- ubikkibu on October 18, 2005 at 11:54 am
  
  I’m glad you’re still posting. Please do take some time off if you need to, and rest assured your work is appreciated by many.
DuctapeFatwa on October 18, 2005 at 10:37 am

In his article “Adventure Capitalism,” Greg Palast exposes the contents of a secret plan for “imposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq’s banks and bridges–in fact, `ALL state enterprises’–to foreign operators.” This economy makeover plan, he claims, “goes boldly where no invasion plan has gone before.”

This highly detailed program, which began years before the tanks rolled, outlines the small print of doing business under occupation. One of the goals is to impose intellectual property laws favorable to multinationals. Palast calls this “history’s first military assault plan appended to a program for toughening the target nation’s copyright laws.”

It also turns out that those of us who may have thought it was all about the oil were mostly right. “The plan makes it clear that–even if we didn’t go in for the oil–we certainly won’t leave without it.”

nerdified link
Damnit Janet on October 18, 2005 at 12:42 pm

Normally I remark on the photos or the support of others in here…

That poem.. has me stunned. Again, thank you Rub
BrendaStewart on October 18, 2005 at 4:00 pm

:o(….all is to be told in our history, someday. Sad…….hugs and hugs again.
jimstaro on October 18, 2005 at 8:40 pm

THE GRANNY BRIGADE

By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
—-

October 18, 2005 — Eighteen gray-haired grandmothers protesting the war in Iraq were arrested for disorderly conduct yesterday after they shuffled to the entrance of the Times Square military recruiting center — and tried to enlist.
“We wanted to sign up. Instead of our kids dying, we wanted to take their place. We’ve already lived our lives,” said granny of five Joan Wile, 74.

“We tried to ring the bell at the booth, but no one answered. I saw a head poke up from behind the counter every once in a while and then duck back down. I don’t know what they were afraid of,” said the director of Grandmothers against the War. “Maybe they don’t know how to deal with a bunch of grannies.”

The women, whose ages ranged from 49 to 90, then sat down in front of the recruitment station and chanted, “We insist, we want to enlist.”

Brooklynite Carol Houston, who has two grandkids said, “I protested against the Vietnam War. I just hope we don’t have to wait as long as it took to end that one.”

Cops quickly arrested the elderly protesters.

“The police were absolute dolls. They called us sweetie. A lot of us couldn’t get off the ground with our hip replacement and arthritis,” Wile said. “I think they got instructions to treat us nicely,” she said, adding that the oldest protester was Marie Runyon, who is 90 and blind.

Some 100 supporters were on hand when the grandmothers were whisked away in police vans to the Midtown North precinct.

“The handcuffs were uncomfortable. I wonder how they felt doing this to 80- and 90-year-old women,” Wile said.

At the station house, it was two grannies to a cell.

“We spent four hours in jail. We were like any hardened criminal. It was one bed and a toilet.” Wile said.

The women, who received desk appearance tickets, were ordered back to court Nov. 15.
=
=
=
= =
=
=
=

Video ‘First week of October ’05’:
http://peacetakescourage.com/oneweek.html
*****************
Andy Rooney, 60mins:
http://www.ericblumrich.com/wmf/cbs_60min_andy_rooney_iraq_war_051002a.wmv
“Thanks Andy”
*******************
U.S. CASUALTY MAP;click on map for interaction site:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/photos/war_casualties/map/m10000.html

Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 146

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RubDMC

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