At precisely noon on Saturday, Jan. 6, the wailings of a lone trumpeter will sound “Taps” as Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square is briefly transformed into a memorial ground as hundreds of people lay on the ground in various states of mock-death to protest the 3,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
The “Die-In,” which spotlights the alarming fact that the number of soldiers killed in Iraq now outnumbers the death toll from the 9/11 attacks, will be a “short and quiet event” with “no speeches and no costumes” according to organizer Marianne Barisonek. And void of any information tables or banners as the grassroots effort could not afford permit fees.
The countdown has been on since late summer when Barisonek first thought of the idea to mark the fact that the number of dead U.S. personnel in Iraq exceeds those killed on 9/11.
Barisonek told WWire that the goal of the Die-In is to “present a visually shocking picture that represents the devastation” in Iraq. She says the idea for the demonstration has been well-received so far, except for one emailer who wondered if the demonstrators would be lying in the street so that he could be sure to drive his truck downtown that day.
The organizers remain convinced that the Die-In will remain peaceful, however.
If you are interested in participating, contact the organizers at memorial3k@yahoo.com.
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Portland has families with children living under bridges. Those peaceniks have a severe case of misplaced priorities. Worrying about problems that are safely far away and very abstract — such as in Iraq and intractably difficult to solve with local and dramatic action such as this quote, die-in, unquote, are always much easier and more fashionable to worry about.
I’ve been under bridges with children for decades….I’ve never seen you here, Fanny. All though, I have been seeing several Army recruiters as of late..very abstract and dramatic. Nah, dont worry about us, we will soon be eatin MRE’s and drinking Halliburton treated water! Very fashionable.
Foodstamp has a point. People who expend such massive amounts of energy worrying about Iraq (we all know one or two of ‘em) are pretty useless overall. Much more would be done if they spent time harassing our elected officials about Iraq or otherwise and focusing more on local issues such as homelessness, mental illness, police force, development..etc etc.