In San Francisco activists commemorate Veterans Day by protesting war and warmongers

Veterans Day
November 11, 2007
San Francisco

At about noon today, about a dozen CodePink activists dressed in pink and carrying peace signs and banners met halfway across the Golden Gate Bridge to attract attention to their messages from passing motorists. The group composed mostly of women were accompanied by a similar number of largely tolerant policemen from the California Highway Patrol who walked alongside, or puttered behind on motorcycles. No one was arrested or harassed, and no accidents or disturbances took place.

Besides trying to encourage the steady stream of passing motorists to "Honk for Peace", the CodePink activists gathered to read names of U.S. soldiers who have been recently killed in Iraq and observe a moment of silence for all those who have suffered or died in war. All of this took place amidst largely incurious tourists snapping photos and just generally enjoying a sunny day, oblivious that any holiday was taking place.

Asked why they bothered despite being mostly ignored, all the activists admitted great discouragement. After all, weren't all those passing SUVs just one big bad finger saying, "Forget it! Who Cares? We'll keep paying for the oil-- and we don't care how we get it! We don't care how many people die-- it won't slow us down one bit!"

And how about all those moms and dads pushing strollers-- what do foreign wars mean to them? Their kids are not "over there". Not yet anyway. But why should that ever happen anyway-- people who volunteer to fight in Bush's or some other president's colonial wars are just unlucky or stupid suckers. Not like their own kids who will grow up to becoming "successes"-- like the "Millennials" which CBS 60 Minutes informed us about this evening in its weekly hour of propaganda (already studded with Christmas commercials to get us shopping early). http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml

Despite the activists' discouragement (one said she felt like she was eternally climbing a mountain with no end in sight, another that she had been depressed by events for months, another that he doubted that he had changed many minds in these last years despite all the protests he had attended)-- they all nevertheless expressed resolve to continue their struggles for peace.

All had very personal reasons for participating today-- maybe they had lost family members or friends to war, or they had once had their own lives turned inside out by war. All truly and deeply felt compassion and sorrow for all those who our government leaders euphemistically and regularly describe as "being put in harm's way". People who have needlessly perished, been maimed, or had their dreams of opportunity and happy family life destroyed. For all the activists, the best way they could think of to commemorate the valor and sacrifice of our veterans is to declare that all war must end, especially the wars built on lies like the ones that told us that our service people are fighting for freedom when they are really fighting for corporations and greedy interests. http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/proc2007.asp

After concluding their protest at the Golden Gate Bridge, the activists left and reassembled downtown in San Francisco in front of the War Memorial Building on Van Ness Avenue across from City Hall.

There they used colored chalk to outline the bodies and names of the U.S. troops killed since Congress passed the last Iraq/Afghanistan funding bill in March.

Again largely ignored, the activists deliberately worked away for much of the rest of the afternoon, and hardly completing their task-- there have just been so many killed since that time.

They managed to cover the sidewalk in front of the building and farther up into the next block with messages and outlines, carefully writing in names and ages. With time pressing, they went a few blocks over to the Federal Building on Golden Gate Avenue where Nancy Pelosi keeps her district office-- and there attempted to complete their task, further writing messages of protest up the walkway leading to her building. Exhausted, they rested awhile and took stock to leave, wondering if some unlucky custodial crew would wash their messages away before office workers could ever have a chance to read them.