While the Oak Grove community itself is mostly residential and quiet, there is a lot of traffic up and down McLoughlin. There are some major intersections, one of them at Oak Grove Boulevard where the big Fred Meyer store is located. There are lots of other businesses around too. On Saturdays the McLoughlin-Oak Grove intersection is very busy with shoppers and travelers ... there's a bus stop right there too.
So on May 20, about 20 people showed up for a peace vigil sponsored by the Clackamas County Democratic Party, House District 40. Signs were brought out, also one participant brought an armload of beautiful yellow roses from her garden. We demonstrated for about one hour, from 12 noon to 1 pm. It was a spirited and high-energy event, and attracted a lot of attention.
One man mentioned that people don't expect to see peace vigil out here in the strip malls, so the presence of even a small number of people has a big impact. From all the honking and hollering from passing cars and interest of pedestrians, I could see that it was so. While we won't stop the war tomorrow, anymore that the millions of people around the world who demonstrated before the war, it is nevertheless very important to keep the travesty and disaster of the war at the front of our awareness. Public awareness and protest was the only reason that the Vietnam war ended when it did. Bush continually tries to distract us from discussions about his illegal and immoral behavior, now it's with "undocumented immigrants." If that was so important, why didn't he do something about it five years ago? Instead of being concerned about how he has screwed this country up with his stupid war and economic policies, thanks to Bush many of us are thinking about "illegal aliens," turning on our sister and brother workers, thinking that they are the enemy and not this evil Bush administration.
I hope you will join us in Oak Grove for a peace vigil this summer, every 1st and 3rd Saturday, except for the July 4 weekend. McLoughlin and Oak Grove Boulevards, 12 pm to 1 pm, for info call 503-653-5179.
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