Posted on 05/09/2005 10:48:48 AM PDT by MisterRepublican
Gloria Daviston helps with the crosses. Even with several people working, it takes hours to put them all up. Space has become a problem, too, because they stretch so far.
In short: There are too many now.
Each cross represents a U.S. soldier or Marine killed in Iraq. Daviston belongs to an organization, Veterans for Peace, that erects the crosses in different parts of San Diego County every few months.
The San Diego native and former Army drill sergeant is part of the nation's anti-war movement, a small, stubborn band of people who just can't let the war in Iraq go unquestioned.
Last summer, when she saw the display for the first time in Ocean Beach, there were 1,100 crosses.
In February, when Daviston helped put them up in Oceanside, there were nearly 1,500.
On May 21, when they go up in Ramona, they'll number at least 1,592.
Where's the rage, the collective anger, about all this loss? That's what people such as Daviston want to know.
As the conflict enters its third year, the national anti-war movement has yet to match the kind of fervor that erupted during the Vietnam War. The movement has been criticized for being disorganized and fractured and for offering no credible alternative to war. At times, it seems invisible, even though a February survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 47 percent of Americans believe the 2003 decision to go to war was wrong.
While a rally in March to mark the second anniversary of the war drew nearly 1,000 people to Balboa Park, many other local protests have drawn only a few dozen. Aside from gathering to recognize key dates, people seem to fade away.
(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
Ask the pro-life crowd, sweetheart.
That doesn't mean they relate to a bunch of d*mn hippies though.
these people need jobs for crying out loud
Peace weenies just protest for the sake of protesting and have no idea what issues really are
In February, when Daviston helped put them up in Oceanside, there were nearly 1,500.
On May 21, when they go up in Ramona, they'll number at least 1,592.
Where's the rage, the collective anger, about all this loss? That's what people such as Daviston want to know.
Where's the rage? The collective anger?
Indeed. It is not within you.
have these people ever even considered putting up a cross for every person killed on 9/11?
You know, if a 'right wing' group had done this, they'd be demonized because not everyone killed was a christian so they shouldn't have a cross mark their death. The media would find something to criticize and an activist group to echo their indignation.
I note that the writer takes pains to zero in on the veterans who are now peace activists. Though I bet they are a vanishingly small percentage (of both the protestors and the returning veterans), they are the only ones that can be innoculated against the wacko image most peace activists have.
Those who are against all wars (those utterly deluded complete pacifists) are relegated to a single sentence, even though they seem to make up a majority of peace protestors.
But talking to them wouldn't suit the purposes of making the peace activists look respectable, would it? They come across as out-of-touch fools, because that's what they are.
Lets see... approximately 3 Million a year going on 33 Years..... There isn't a group big enough to 100 MILLION innocents slaughtered by abortion.
And through War we have not lost as many warriors as we lost civilians on 9/11.... after 3.5 years of war.
These groups are not serious people.
"As the conflict enters its third year, the national anti-war movement has yet to match the kind of fervor that erupted during the Vietnam War."
Versus Vietnam 57 thousand killed.
And as big as the anti-war movement was during Vietnam, Nixon won really big in 1972.
The media distorts history.
I saw these white cross veterans in Huntington Beach, Calif.
Maybe they should try a different method, if the present method isn't working. Insanity: Doing the same thing, over and over, expecting different results.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
I guess that's their two minutes of fame -- which is the best they can hope for now. Their problem is that all the obnoxious assholes have driven off all the sane and responsible people. They've become synonymous with all the qualities one doesn't want to be associated with in people. About half the people showing up for those events are the mass media reporters who are waiting for people to show up since they broadcast the event on their reports. What, nobody is reading their newspapers?
If at least a few tens of thousands showed up, the newspaper editor agreed to be honorary chairman and lead speaker. Yeah, that guy in the distance -- pretending he has nothing to do with that motley gathering of losers, that he just happened to wander by randomly. That's him -- the voice of the free world!
John Hein, a retired Marine Corps captain turned crybaby war protester, may be on to something with these comments:
Hein remembers his first protest, the big one for the war's second anniversary in Balboa Park. He was energized by the turnout but stunned by some of the radical statements people made. Protesters involved in the socialist movement told him the Iraqi insurgents had every right to go at it against the Americans.
Another guy, Hein said, was all upset about Cuba.
"No wonder people don't pay attention. They think, 'What a bunch of wackos,' " Hein said. "I wish they were more disciplined and focused."
So he joins them? Whatever you do, "DON"T QUESTION THEIR PATRIOTISM!™".
"Anti-war" my a$$. They just thought we were fighting for the wrong side.
Liberals are whiny and lazy. You'd never hear a pro-life activist complaining about the hours they put in, fighting for their cause.
The BS oozes in this loving tribute to anti-American, hippie scum. How about this last part:
"When a display went up in Oceanside last October, a Marine came by and helped stick the crosses in the sand. He said he thought it was a nice gesture, to recognize the losses."
I can just imagine a Marine going up and thanking Mr. Hippie for using his fallen brothers for anti-war propaganda. Get real.
Two HUGE reasons. Number 1, 9/11, has already been mentioned. Number 2 is that the military is all volunteer. The protests during Vietnam were not so much anti-war as anti-draft.
These liberal bleeding hearts appear to have no sympathy for the hundreds of thousands of innocents slaughtered by the Saddam's govt and the Taliban, nor any appreciation of the millions that American soldiers have freed from oppression, fear, and the very real prospect of torture and death.
That's one of the several reasons their childlike, utopian protests go nowhere.
Go home, children. The adults are in charge now.
Beat me to it...undoubtedly some of the Americans killed were not Christians...if this had been a right-wing group, the press would have had about 50 articles pondering why no other symbols of faiths.
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