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A report from the Vigil for 2000 at Wilshire Blvd and Veteran Ave
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LOS ANGELES, October 26, 2005--Drawn together by the unimaginable nightmare of unending war, more than a hundred protestors somberly lifted candles and signs at the northwest and northeast corners of Wilshire and Veteran Avenues this evening. The site of the Spanish-American Veterans War Memorial was one of more than two dozen vigils in Los Angeles and over 1300 nationwide called by MoveOn on the occasion of the 2000th U.S. soldier’s death.
Quiet renditions of “We Shall Overcome” and “Peace, Salom, Shalom” haunted the busy intersection in the twilight, punctuated by nearly non-stop auto horns supporting the protestors. Mainstream television stations took advantage of the few photo opportunities, including a Marine in dress uniform bugling “Taps,” and protestors dressed in the orange jumpsuits of Iraqi prisoners and hooded to remind the world of the torture victims.
Code Pink, which hosted the event, hung crosses on the wall of the adjoining cemetery and used the monument as an altar for candles and memorials. These veterans, of four years of protests against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, had little left to say to each other. The 2000 U.S. troops in Iraq, the 200 other Coalition forces, the 5920 Iraqi police and military, the 276 contractors, the 246 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the more than 100 journalists, and the untold tens of thousands of civilians who have died seemed to haunt the protestors, who, by 8:30, had disappeared into the night, except for the twinkling candles.
MoveOn.org reports over 100,000 people participated in vigils nationwide.
(I don’t know how the photos below will come out here. My apologies if they’re too dark to be seen.)