Video from the Instant Vigil

Here is a wonderful video from the contra costa times of Monday's Vigil to commemorate the now 4000 troops who have died. Sound and some clips of the wonderful song written about our memorial, "Memorial Day," written and performed by Laura Zucker.

abc7news covers 5th anniversary of war vigil

abc news covered the vigil held wednesday night for the 5th anniversary of the war. they report that only 20 volunteers could make it. there post contains the video from the wednesday night broadcast. click watch video in the flash player at the top of the post to see it.

Here's a part of the transcript from the video that we should all reflect on:

John Jensen from Kennsington came to honor his nephew, a casualty of war, after he returned home.

"When he returned he killed himself," said Jensen.

Jensen says American soldiers were attacked by suicide bombers and while trying to protect themselves they also killed innocent people.

"And so they tell them to stay back, don't come any closer, they don't understand English, so they would just kill them," said Jensen.

He wonders how many American soldiers are facing the same moral struggle his nephew faced.

"We all have a mindset of who we are and what our values are and the military tries to change that so that you can do what they need you to do, and it doesn't change forever. People flashback and they want to be who they were when they left," said Jensen.

url: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=6031212

Award Winning Multimedia

On Sunday March 16th the San Jose Mercury News announced that several of its pieces won awards in the 65th Annual Pictures of the Year International Competition including first place for the multimedia news story, Hillside display of crosses: A war of emotions by the talented photo journalist Pauline Lubens .

Created in May, the peace is a wonderful collage of video, photos, and voice over interviews with people for and against the war and the hillside memorial. It does a good job of recounting the beginings of the memorial, early vandalism, the pro-war rallies held against the memorial and contains many voices supporting or deriding the memorial. It truly is one of the best pieces I've seen and I recommend everyone watch it:
www.mercurynewsphoto.com/blog/2007/05/28/a-hillside-display-of-crosses-a-war-of-emotions/


On a tangential note, I would like to point out one voice who's derision does not deride from her feelings about the war. Rather she thinks the crosses representing death have no public place in a wholesome community like Lafayette. This harks back to one of my interests when starting this blog, what does the presence of the memorial mean for and about an affluent suburban community?

Sign Ordinance?

A interesting little slice of lafayette from spring '07 when a few people tried to make the city council take down our memorial by saying they violated sign ordinances that prevented businesses from putting up to many ads. i like the discussion of lafayette's history of "protecting" its hillsides, i am not sure if it stems from land slides or property owners wanting to keep things scenic.

Presidents Day Vigil 02/18/08

KTVU has a segment on last nights vigil.

I unfortunately was not there but Janine de la Vega of KTVU reports there were roughly 70 people there. They reminds us to remember the war and its fallen even when we are distracted by the economy and presidential elections. 3961 military men and woman have died since the war began. Another vigil is being planned when the number of casualties reaches 4000.

Watch video on ktvu.com

On Mar 4th A Cross for Every Fallen Soldier

3,170 crosses now stand at the Lafayette Hillside Memorial, one for every soldier who has died in Iraq. While the number of crosses will continue to meet the ever increasing number of war dead the site will now shift from a community art project in production to a space for gatherings and reflection. ABC Channel 7 News covered the event on Sunday. Link to Video. SF Gate also published a better video with voice overs of activist interviews. Link to SF Gate Video.

An article in the SF Chronicle followed on Monday. The blog eschew obfuscation has also posted about it.

Podcast from KCBS news

Doug Sovern reports on a podcast from kcbs news. Includes brief interviews with organizer Jeff Heaton an a Marine Corp vet. To download podcast click here.

Feb 12 City & Activists Make Deal: TV News Coverage

On Febuary 12th The Mayor, City Council and Memorial activists signed a Mutual Agreement of Understanding on to reduce the size of the Lafayette memorial's sign by half. Also, they agreed not to have candles at the base of each cross during future vigils. KTVU Channel 2 News reports on both what activists have to say at the Febuary 11th work day and the city council meeting itself. NBC 11 also reports.

Background: In November, when the memorial project began with 300 crosses, contreversy arose with in the east Bay Area suburbs. Peace activists and others quickly shouted there support while some condemned the project as a desecration to our troops and country. The contreversy hightened when a vandal knocked down the memorials sign that reads the number of war-dead. The city got ivolved when some people demanded it be taken down because the sign was larger than the sign ordinance allowed. A city council meeting was held on November 27th where people passionatley debated over the memoial's merits. I linked to a video of the 11/27/06 city counil meeting here video here.

11/27 Town Hall Meeting

NBC 11's coverage of the November 27th Town Hall meeting where that drew "supporters, opponents of Lafayette Cross display." Link to Video.

Coverage of Sun 1/7/07: Goldstarmothers

ABC Channel 7 reports on Sunday, when 3 Goldstar Mothers came to the Lafayette Crosses memorial site. Scroll down a bit to find the video at this link.



NBC 11 as well as KRON channel 4 were there as well but I am still trying to find their videos.

A Christmas Mystery

On Christmas eve an anonymous person tied red ribbons to many of the crosses. With such actions, and their inverse of vandalism, the power of anonymity appears. A christmas miracle will always make the evening news. KTVU channel 2 reports.

2 more news clips on youtube

Zombietimedotcom has posted two news clips to youtube. One from abc and another from nbc. Conservative and liberal view points are voiced in both videos.

KTVU Reports On Candle Light Vigil

On December 31, 2006 more than 80 people gathered for a candle light vigil to commemorate the surpassing of 3000 US soldiers killed in Iraq. KTVU Chanel 2 news reported. link to video