Memorial Day Weekend Sunday 2007

I worshiped with my community this morning and learned that at the Eyes Wide Open Exhibit this afternoon an ecumenical service for peace would be held.

Sorry I tried to get the boots, got this blue and can't get rid of it.

				O

I spent a couple of hours at the condo packing up my office, really throwing papers away today. Dow wants me out of the condo by June 10, Lisa's birthday. I thought "That is a weird day to choose." My lawyer asked, "What is June 10?" I said, "My daughter's birthday." He asked me about 5 times, I was getting somewhat annoyed. I think he was trying to get me to say his answer: "It has no basis in any thing connected to the divorce process." I don't have to be out prior to the divorce being final and that will definitely not be by June 10 as they meet with the judge June 5. The way the lawyer is talking it is going to take some time now. He was going to call Dow's lawyer and try to find out if we met with Dow and his lawyer if progress could be made on a settlement. He also stated that he would like Dow to begin making maintenance payments as I have been paying for the apartment since 1/1/07 and am now living here. He was talking about strategy for the divorce. I honestly don't see any strategy as I think it all depends on what the judge will tell us.

Dow is visiting a friend that now lives in Mississippi. He was Dow's first PHD graduate student at Virginia Tech and they are the same age. He will be in Mississippi till Thursday. I was planning to clean out the office but that is not going to happen as I have been spending time with Eyes Wide Open. Tomorrow I will attend the closing service and then help break down the exhibit into the 50 states. They have groups in 45 states that will accept the boots and be their caretakers.

A couple of the condo neighbors stopped me as I was carrying items to the car to say, "We are sorry we are loosing you. You were a nice neighbor." I responded, "Thank you" that is all I can say. Our 6 flat will now have 4 apartments owned by single men (2 divorced), the other has 3 of the original owners.

I quit packing and headed downtown to attend the service. A Jewish rabbi, a Baptist minister, Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Non-Violence(nominated by the American Friends for the Nobel Peace Prize), a Buddhist (American don't think he was a monk), Mike McConnell who initiated the exhibit was MC. The most poignant part of the service was after we added 7 more pairs of boots to the exhibit, 3452 soldiers have now died in Iraq and the count grows on.

Kathy Kelly and two others singers began to sing the names of Iraqi civilians who have died. We responded, "We remember" While they were singing anyone who wanted to could come to a bucket of red carnations and take one to the Dreams and Nightmares photo exhibit in the center of the boots. On the outside are photos of Iraqis, in the insides what is happening statistically in Iraq and what it would be like if the USA was Iraq-comparison in size and numbers of those affected. Around the base of Dreams and Nightmares are shoes with names and identification of Iraqis who have been killed in this occupation.

We laid the carnations gently on the shoes of children, men and women. I laid one down and begin to cry, I returned for another carnation and began the solemn procession once again. This time I really broke down. One of the 8th day Center's Tuesday vigil regulars saw me and came to me as I was returning. She hugged me as I continued to cry "I have to hold them all-all those whom Jason and his men killed." I cry as I type this, my heart breaks for the innocent civilians of Iraq, first Saddam then us.

Jason left for Iraq out of Ft. Stewart Georgia in January 2005. I stayed in denial, Jason would not enter into combat. In June of 2005, I wrote this poem after an article by an embedded reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle told of Jason giving the order to fire after his Humvee was cut off by a pick up truck.

A POEM of SORROW
A mother waits

A messenger comes to her door.

The sun stops in its course across the sky

And plunges her world into night.

Sorrow so deep

Her wail so strong

It broke my heart

Here in Chicago this day.

Joined together forever are we

One son gave an order

One son died

We are one in our tears.

“I am sorry our cultures say, “War is the answer.”

“I am sorry my son says, “Fire”

I hold your son in my arms

And pray for your healing

And may the world be reconciled

To understand we are one.

John Hopkins did a door to door survey in 2006, now over 650,000 Iraqis have died since the occupation began. American soldiers die at the rate of 100 a month, 3 a day. Iraqi suffers the loss in human life of our 9/11/01 every month.

Ann Wright who gave up her Ambassadorship to Afghanistan to protest the war wrote this after the vote last week which gave Bush more money for more loss of life. Ann was a career military officer before her appointment.

What Congress Really Approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies By Ann Wright t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor Saturday 26 May 2007 On Thursday, May 24, the US Congress voted to continue the war in Iraq. The members called it "supporting the troops." I call it stealing Iraq's oil - the second largest reserves in the world. The "benchmark," or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq's oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds. This threat could not be clearer. If the Iraqi Parliament refuses to pass the privatization legislation, Congress will withhold US reconstruction funds that were promised to the Iraqis to rebuild what the United States has destroyed there. The privatization law, written by American oil company consultants hired by the Bush administration, would leave control with the Iraq National Oil Company for only 17 of the 80 known oil fields. The remainder (two-thirds) of known oil fields, and all yet undiscovered ones, would be up for grabs by the private oil companies of the world (but guess how many would go to United States firms - given to them by the compliant Iraqi government.) No other nation in the Middle East has privatized its oil. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iran give only limited usage contracts to international oil companies for one or two years. The $12 billion dollar "Support the Troops" legislation passed by Congress requires Iraq, in order to get reconstruction funds from the United States, to privatize its oil resources and put them up for long term (20- to 30-year) contracts. What does this "Support the Troops" legislation mean for the United States military? Supporting our troops has nothing to do with this bill, other than keeping them there for another 30 years to protect US oil interests. It means that every military service member will need Arabic language training. It means that every soldier and Marine would spend most of his or her career in Iraq. It means that the fourteen permanent bases will get new Taco Bells and Burger Kings! Why? Because the US military will be protecting the US corporate oilfields leased to US companies by the compliant Iraqi government. Our troops will be the guardians of US corporate interests in Iraq for the life of the contracts - for the next thirty years. With the Bush administration's "Support the Troops" bill and its benchmarks, primarily Benchmark No. 1, we finally have the reason for the US invasion of Iraq: to get easily accessible, cheap, high-grade Iraq oil for US corporations. Now the choice is for US military personnel and their families to decide whether they want their loved ones to be physically and emotionally injured to protect not our national security, but the financial security of the biggest corporate barons left in our country - the oil companies. It's a choice for only our military families, because most non-military Americans do not really care whether our volunteer military spends its time protecting corporate oil to fuel our one-person cars. Of course, when a tornado, hurricane, flood or other natural disaster hits in our hometown, we want our National Guard unit back. But on a normal day, who remembers the 180,000 US military or the 150,000 US private contractors in Iraq? Since the "Surge" began in January, over 500 Americans and 15,000 Iraqis have been killed. By the time September 2007 rolls around for the administration's review of the "surge" plan, another 400 Americans will be dead, as well as another 12,000 Iraqis. How much more can our military and their families take? Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army and US Army Reserves and retired as a colonel. She served 16 years in the US diplomatic corps in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Micronesia and Mongolia. She resigned from the US Department of State in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq.