dedication

I'm going to brag on my parents for a second.

They've spent energy passing on so many lessons:

- Integrity, honesty and honor are things you don't sacrifice. It makes up your core and there are no replacements for them.

- Don't accept negative situations by giving up or giving in.

- Follow your dreams. No, really. Do it.

- Express yourself and don't be afraid to be a little silly sometimes.

- Don't worry about what people think. My father used to say, "You've made it years without worrying about what this person thinks of you. You can make it another day."

- Give back to the world. Pick something you believe in and put some time/ energy/ money into it.

The list goes on and on. They didn't teach through just verbal suggestions- they *showed* it to me in their everyday life, in ways that proved this was at the center of their beings. As different as they are from each other, they both have this strong inner core. And every time they say they are proud of me, my eyes well a little because it is coming from someone I truly respect and it means something.

So, this weekend, today actually, they are enacting another strong value. Stand up for what you believe in and make your voice heard. It is connected with the last value of giving back.

Since my parents moved up to Alpine from the National Park, they have been protesting the war. Alpine is a town of 4,000 people, so not that big, but every Friday they go down to the busiest blinking light and hold signs asking people to honk if they support bringing the troops home (or for impeachment). They get a lot of honks, but they also get the finger (mostly from ladies in big SUVs). There's a group of about 11 Alpinites that do this and they call themselves Veterans for Peace. This group has decided to create the only permanent "Arlington" in the United States- modeled after Arlington National Cemetary, with a headstone for every Texan troop lost in Iraq. They have been creating and painting papercrete tomestones in this little patch of desert off the highway.



And today they are dedicating it. My mom is joining a group of readers who will voice the names of each solider who has died, giving just a second for them to pass through the thoughts of those present. Then Taps will be played. And that's it. The chance then, to sit silently and contemplate the cost of war.



I've pasted the newpaper article below, as they tell it better than I can.

I am so proud of my parents and honored to be in family with two people so strong. Best of luck to them today. I hope it's a huge turnout, with peaceful remembrance.

"This is how we really support the troops; we respect them."




Arlington Southwest honors Texas soldiers who have died in Iraq.

Veterans for Peace memorial
dedication is Sunday

By MEGAN WILDE

ALPINE - Just east of Alpine off Highway 90, hundreds of white
tombstones now cast small shadows onto a grass-covered hill.

This memorial, called Arlington Southwest and fashioned after
Arlington National Cemetery, was created by the Big Bend
Veterans for Peace chapter as a reminder of the human cost of
the Iraq war. Other Veterans for Peace chapters have created
similar memorials in California, Massachusetts, Washington,
Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Florida, but the Alpine installation
is the only permanent one. The 11-member Big Bend chapter
invites the public to a dedication ceremony at 2 p.m. on Sunday
at the memorial site, on the north side of Highway 90 four miles
east of Alpine.

"Out here it can be very peaceful. It can be very scenic and
beautiful," said Paul Schaefer, a Vietnam War veteran and
Veterans for Peace member from Alpine. "We wanted to work
with that, but also to bring home to people that the war affects
this beauty as well. We're not trying to throw anything into
peoples' faces, but it is a memorial. It is a remembrance. We
do want people to remember the sacrifices that have
been made both by American military and by Iraqi citizens."

The tombstones at Arlington Southwest represent the number
of Texas troops killed in the Iraq war; their names will be read
and Taps will be played during the Veterans Day dedication
ceremony. Last Thursday there were 354 tombstones, another
was added this week, and more will be installed if other Texans
die in Iraq, according to chapter member Eve Trook of Alpine.

"Hopefully this occupation will end and we can stop," Schaefer
said.

While Veterans for Peace supports ending the Iraq war, Schaefer
said Arlington Southwest is not intended to be an anti-war
statement.

"The people that have helped in building this memorial have
a wide range of political understanding," he said. "And since
it is a kind of a spiritual, artistic experience, each person I'm
sure perceives it in a slightly different way. That's what we
would like to be possible for everybody."

The group welcomes anyone, regardless of their political
views, to remember, honor and grieve for those lost in war
at the memorial, he explained.

Offering a place to grieve and feel sadness is especially
important, according to chapter members, because the
American government, by banning photographs of soldiers'
bodies being returned to the U.S., has made it harder to remember
the lives lost in the Iraq war. That's one reason why Brian Kokernot
said he and his family decided to offer their land for Arlington
Southwest.

"We felt it important to memorialize the deaths that war always
causes, its inevitable consequences," Kokernot said on behalf
of his family. "This tribute is not just in honor of the Texas deaths
but for all the deaths of this war. We need to be very thoughtful
about these awful losses."

Aside from Texan casualties, Schaefer said Arlington Southwest
is also meant to be a remembrance of all the thousands of
Americans and Iraqis who have died or been wounded in the Iraq
war. According to Department of Defense estimates, more than
3,850 American troops have died and 28, 450 Americans have been
injured. One study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health estimated last fall as many as 654,965 Iraqis had died
in the war.

That sentiment was echoed by another Veterans for Peace member,
Tom Curry of Alpine. "The reason for making Arlington Southwest,
to me, is to show in a clear, dramatic way the cost and consequences
of an unnecessary and illegal war started by leaders who have never
seen military combat," Curry, a Vietnam War veteran, said in a
statement. "If we could havemade tombstones to represent all the
U.S. troops lost and all the Iraqi civilians lost, it would probably cover
most of the Kokernot ranch."

Curry and Mark Battista, another Alpine artist-builder and chapter
member, suggested using papercrete for the memorial. Since June,
about 55 Veterans for Peace chapter members, family, friends and
supporters have spent two to three hours, two to three times a week,
making the tombstones.

For Schaefer, making and installing the papercrete tombstones was a
very personal and tactile reminder of the cost of war. "It's a beautiful
spot, particularly when the sun is setting," he said.

"Making the tombstones, painting them, putting them up so they
won't blow over with the wind, really brings it home, the ultimate
sacrifice that these people have made."

"In our lives, we often tend to forget our own preciousness, as well
as that of others," he continued. "When you're doing something like
the memorial, one is reminded that these people, most of them
young, don't have a future. They are gone."