A group of thirty people read simultaneously the names of all of the members of our armed forces who have died in the Iraq war. We walked along the waterfront, and stopped and repeated the reading five or six times, then ended back at the Midway. Our memorial and protest was followed by a meditation for the Iraqi war dead by an interfaith peace activist group.
This is a very powerful event, and though I have participated in reading the names of our fallen many times in the course of my involvement in the peace movement, I cannot help but be moved every time. The human cost of this war, not just of our own casualties, but of all of the fallen in this war, for me cuts through the politics and the B.S.
What always gets me is the human connection, and understanding that each name is a life, a family, with all the precious mundane details that go with that. Each of these names was person who was an avid churchgoer, or a baseball player, or a knitting enthusiast, or someone's big brother. Each person is mourned by many, and matters, and is deserving of remembrance.
In this spirit, I list only a few names here, but with some details to help connect to the real human cost of this war.
Pfc. Amy A. Duerksen, died in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 11, 2006. I did a little research on this, apparently she died of a gunshot wound that she received three days previously from a non-hostile weapons discharge. The army has not provided any further details.
She was from Maryland, she loved her family and her God, and she was 19 years old.
Barbara Heald, 60, of Stamford, Conn., died January 29, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq, when the Republic National Palace was hit by a mortar round.
She was a retired Air Force Captain, and volunteered to work in Iraq as a civilian in support of our armed forces there. She was a "ferocious knitter", and posed in front of this famous statue in Iraq with a copy of Knitter's Magazine.
Sgt. Cheyenne Willey, 36. Sgt. Willey grew up in Macomb, Illinois. He had a paper route as a young boy, that his little sister Stacy used to help him with. After high school, he moved with his family to Fremont, California, then enlisted in the army in 1995. He was very highly respected in his unit and by civilian contractors in Iraq, and was considered a key member of his reconstruction battalion. He has been recommended for a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
Cheyenne was killed December 23rd, 2005 by a roadside bomb.
Lance Cpl. Saeed "J.R." Jafarkhani-Torshizi Jr., 24. He was a baseball player, loved to go to the movies, and loved being in the Marine Corps.
J.R. was killed in a helicopter crash on January 27, 2005.
There are 3,052 stories like this, as of this morning, just for Americans. There are over 600,000 stories like this for Iraqis.
How many have to die?
Peace
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