From the U.S.'s Iraq War, subsequently, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children were killed and many more were severely injured. Two million Iraqis fled their nation. Even today, Iraq is on the razor's edge of a Civil War as the killing continues.
4,488 U.S. soldiers lost their lives in this war, about 35,000 more were severely injured. In addition many more U.S. allies lost soldiers there as have some U.S. "contractors." In each case, their families are left to suffer in silence, invisible to Americans.
Meanwhile John continues his peace vigil. For as a Korean War veteran, he knows first hand about the brutality of war. On the U.S. Memorial Day, meant to honor its fallen soldiers, most Americans used the holiday to shop, go to the beach, the movies or enjoyed some other activity.
John, as he does each Friday and on many holidays, was alongside Pacific Coast Highway. His peace flag was flapping in the breeze, and his opposition to these wars, whether in Iraq or the tragedy still taking place in Afghanistan were addressed in his "War Is Not The Answer" sign, and a new additional sign in Spanish along with his military metals attached to one of these signs for all to see.
What follows are his words describing his Memorial Day peace vigil:
Guess what. I was on the corner this evening from 4:25 till 6, and it was great.
The response was about the same, maybe even a little bit lighter than usual, but the intensity/enthusiasm was greater than usual, absolutely. But one event stands out from all of the corners I've done, and it was wonderful.
A group of several people, about half kids and half adults, crossed PCH heading toward the beach. They gathered on my corner waiting for slow-pokes, and one little girl gave the "War Is Not the Answer' sign a good looking over.
Then she said something to me, gesturing energetically. I said, "Excuse me, I don't understand what you're saying. "She said that she thought it would be better if people would do 'rock, paper, scissors' when they are mad at each other, instead of doing a war.
I'm pretty fair at guessing my kids' ages, but that's as far as I go. But this was a little kid, and she comes up with a marvelous idea for resolving problems. I told her that if the people who got us into the mess we're in were half as smart as she was, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in. And off they all went to the beach.
About an hour later the group came up Knob Hill and gathered at the corner to cross PCH. The same young lady approached me and confided that she thought wrestling might be a good idea too. That suggested to me that this individual had been at the beach for about an hour, on a beautiful sunny day, and she had generated another damned good idea for settling disputes without killing men, women and children by the thousands.
Nothing compared with that breath-of-fresh-air reasoning, but something worth mentioning did happen. I had the sign displayed, saying in Spanish -"War Is A Racket" (La Guerra es una ESTAFA), that my grand-daughter Tess made for me. It turned heads in many cars and trucks of folks an ICE-man (immigration) would assume Hispanic. Smiles and waves and raised fists were plentiful, but one car full of 30-ish guys slowed way down as they passed, a couple leaning out windows and pointing back at the sign, and they were all cheering and laughing. They really GOT IT.
There were a couple of other better than average happenings, but they didn't come close to those two. But those two were more than enough.
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