Vigiling in the Rain

The weekly peace vigil in Eagle Rock, which has only missed two weeks since it started in November 2002, has never been interrupted by weather. Yet, in past years, turnout on rainy days has ranged from one to three. Yesterday our presence peaked at six. Much of the time we vigiled in a bus shelter. One of us was recovering from the flu but came out anyway.

Some of us stayed outside the bus shelter with umbrellas, especially when there were people waiting to catch the bus.

Besides the ongoing wars, signs addressed the continued militarization of our society vis-a-vis war toys, repealing Proposition 8, and universal health care.

Even though fewer people noticed us due to the weather, there was ample positive response.

Personally, I was tempted to stay home (and dry), but when I thought about what the civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are going through, the rain didn't seem so daunting.

Speaking for myself, I don't see the wars ending in the foreseeable future--unless many more American cities get shut down a la San Francisco in March 2003:

Maybe a day will come when enough Americans will be disgusted enough with "this demented slaughterhouse of a world"* to partake in such widespread civil disobedience. In any case, the weekly peace vigils are and will continue to remind people that "it's not a mall world after all [sic]."

(The Eagle Rock peace vigil occurs every Saturday from 2-4pm (winter hours) at the corner of Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards.)

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*Words of Peter Finch in the movie Network.