MVVP will organize three activities to highlight the event.
1. We endorsed the national call for VIGILS THE DAY AFTER the 2000th death is acknowledged.
Here's an excerpt from the national announcement:
Soon we'll be reaching another horrific milestone in the war in Iraq - the death of the 2,000th U.S. service member. AFSC, Military Families Speak Out, and Gold Star Families for Peace are calling for people across the U.S. to stand up and say that the needless killing of U.S. troops and Iraqis must stop and that the resources funding this war are needed for other things.
Follow the link below to join our call for "Not One More Death, Not One
More Dollar."
http://www.afsc.org/2000/
[Note that the web site has trouble with browsers on some Macintosh
operating systems.]
On the day after the 2,000th reported U.S. military casualty, people will gather in communities across the U.S. to show that the country's pro-peace majority wants Congress to take action to stop the deaths in Iraq by stopping the dollars that are funding the war.
In Mountain View, Karen Meredith is hosting a vigil at El Camino Real and Castro Street, at 7 pm the day after the 2,000th official death. (Karen is Mountain View's own Gold Star Mother for Peace. Her son, Lt. Ken Ballard, died in Iraq last year. See http://www.ltkenballard.com.)
We're hoping someone from Sunnyvale will host an event there. Until someone forms a local Sunnyvale peace group, MVVP will continue to provide support for activities in Sunnyvale.
2. Mountain View Voices for Peace is organizing a MARCH DOWN EL CAMINO REAL the Saturday after the vigil. We will begin at 1:00 pm at the Sunnyvale City Hall on Olive near Pastoria, and we'll march along El Camino to Castro Street, ending up at the Mountain View City Hall at Mercy and Castro.
The route is 3 miles. We'll be organizing car pools to ferry participants back to the start.
At both events we will display our "Iraq War Memorial Wall," which displays the names of the official war dead.
3. Building up to these events, we will be LEAFLETING the Mountain View (Sunday mornings) and Sunnyvale (Saturday mornings) FARMERS' MARKETS, starting Sunday, October 16. Please let me know by reply e-mail if you can VOLUNTEER to hand out fliers announcing our plans.
Obviously, none of us know when the 2000 mark will be reached. We suggest you monitor the MVVP web site http://www.mvvp.org, not only for the count, but for announcements of activities.
Print and post the flyer for the events! Also available in Spanish.