Crosses of Lafayette

The "Crosses of Lafayette" project was started back on Veterans Day in 2006. Veterans Day is an American holiday honoring military veterans. Both a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states, it is celebrated on the same day as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, falling on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)

Here is a picture from December 1, 2006 when the number of troops killed in Iraq was 2,885.

December 1, 2006

Now the number is higher by more than 1,000 heroes.

November 11, 2007

In Lafayette, California, we are trying to make a difference. And we owe a debt of gratitude to Louise Clark.

Louise Clark

Crosses of Lafayette: Gold Star Moms and Vandalism

Photo by John Eaton

This photo is an event honoring Gold Star Mothers at the Crosses of Lafayette on Sunday, September 23, 2007.

Later that night vandals struck the memorial. This from Tuesday's Contra Costa Times:

Vandals attacked the memorial crosses in Lafayette on Sunday night or Monday morning, leaving pieces of broken, jagged wood lying haphazardly at the bases of those left standing.

Of the 3,623 crosses lining the hillside as a memorial for American troops killed in Iraq, between 150 and 300 of the crosses have been knocked down or destroyed, said Chris Donton, a site organizer.

Crosses of Lafayette

Photo by John Eaton

The sign at the Crosses of Lafayette memorial was changed briefly from the number of US Troops killed in Iraq to the number of Iraqis who have died during Bush's distastrous misadventure.

The sign simply said: 800,000

Crosses of Lafayette: Tribute to Johnson Clark

Photo by Brant Ward, 11/27/2006

Yesterday at the Crosses of Lafayette, there was a memorial service for Johnson Clark who together with his wife Louise and Jeff Heaton, conceived and promoted the Crosses of Lafayette project to protest the war in Iraq and pay tribute to our fallen heroes. The first crosses were planted the weekend of Veterans Day, November 11, 2006 and my first post was on November 14, 2006.

What began as a small local effort to bring our troops home has generated worldwide attention and support. The latest convert is the Los Angeles Times. We can all be proud of Johnson Clark.

Yesterday's LA Times featured this editorial:

Bring them home
Iraqis need political reconciliation, not occupation; and U.S. troops shouldn't referee a civil war.
May 6, 2007

WHATEVER THE future holds, the United States has not "lost" and cannot "lose" Iraq. It was never ours in the first place. And however history will judge the war, some key U.S. goals have been accomplished: Saddam Hussein has been ousted, tried and executed; Iraqis have held three elections, adopted a constitution and established a rudimentary democracy.

But what now? After four years of war, more than $350 billion spent and 3,363 U.S. soldiers killed and 24,310 wounded, it seems increasingly obvious that an Iraqi political settlement cannot be achieved in the shadow of an indefinite foreign occupation. The U.S. military presence — opposed by more than three-quarters of Iraqis — inflames terrorism and delays what should be the primary and most pressing goal: meaningful reconciliation among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

This newspaper reluctantly endorsed the U.S. troop surge as the last, best hope for stabilizing conditions so that the elected Iraqi government could assume full responsibility for its affairs. But we also warned that the troops should not be used to referee a civil war. That, regrettably, is what has happened.

The mire deepens against a backdrop of domestic U.S. politics in which support for the ill-defined mission wanes by the week. Better to begin planning a careful, strategic withdrawal from Iraq now, based on the strategies laid out by the Iraq Study Group, than allow for the 2008 campaign season to create a precipitous pullout.

With four out of five additional battalions now in place, there is no reason to believe that the surge will help bring about an end to what is, in fact, a multifaceted civil war.

Crosses of Lafayette: The Image of our Discontent

Getty Images / Justin Sullivan

This week's Economist has a feature article about how the Iraq War has damaged the Republican party. The image picked by the Economist to represent everything that has gone wrong features the Crosses of Lafayette.

Collateral damage
Mar 22nd 2007 | WASHINGTON, DC
The Republican Party is among the war's victims

FOUR years ago, as American troops rolled across Iraq, the Republican Party was on a roll too. Republicans not only controlled the whole of Washington (seven of the nine Supreme Court justices had been appointed by Republican presidents). They controlled the majority of governorships as well—including those of mega-states such as Florida and New York—and they were winning the war of ideas, thanks to a division of conservative think-tanks.

Republican strategists were consumed by heady visions of power without end. The “war on terror”, which was dividing the Democrats, was encouraging Republican factions to bury their differences. Karl Rove, George Bush's chief strategist, liked to compare his boss to William McKinley, the late-19th-century president who had ushered in an age of Republican dominance. Grover Norquist, an anti-tax crusader, dubbed Mr Bush “Reagan's son”.

snip

There are plenty of reasons for the party's agonies. The Republicans fell victim to all the diseases of incumbency—from spending like drunken sailors to corruption to cronyism—and the Bush administration made a hash of responding to Hurricane Katrina. But the Iraq war lies at the heart of the party's problems. The war has deprived Mr Bush of the oxygen of popularity. A recent CBS News/New York Times poll found that only 39% of Americans now think that invading Iraq was the right thing to do, compared with 55% who think it was a mistake. It has also provided the Democrats with a huge stick with which to beat the opposition.

snip

Stephen Bainbridge, a conservative academic at the University of California, Los Angeles, has argued that Mr Bush's decision to go to war has “pissed away the conservative moment by pursuing a war of choice via policies that border on the criminally incompetent.” William Buckley, the pope of the conservative movement, says that if Mr Bush were the leader of a parliamentary system, “it would be expected that he would retire or resign”. Richard Viguerie, another conservative veteran, says that “I've never seen conservatives so downright fed-up as they are today.”

The war has eviscerated the administration's reputation for competence—and with it the idea that the Republicans have an inherent advantage as the “Daddy” party. An administration that once boasted about its clutch of CEOs will forever be remembered for phrases such as “slam dunk” (of WMD intelligence) and “Mission Accomplished”, or for disasters such as the failure to prepare Walter Reed and other military hospitals to deal with casualties. The same CBS News/New York Times poll found that only 28% of people approved of Mr Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq.

snip

But the Iraq war has destroyed the Republicans' advantage of decades. The party is losing support even among the once solid armed services. Today only 46% of servicemen describe themselves as Republican, compared with 60% in 2004—and only 35% of them approve of the handling of the war. Voters are now much more willing to listen to the Democrats on war and peace. Barack Obama's statement in 2002—“I'm not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars”—is a perfect refrain for a resurgent party.

snip

At the same time, the war has taken a huge toll on the administration's domestic policies. After the 2004 election Mr Bush sketched out an ambitious agenda for avoiding the fate of previous second-term presidents and moving the country in a more Republican direction: reforming immigration and Social Security, simplifying taxes and lifting regulations. That agenda has come to almost nothing. Senior figures have been constantly distracted by dealing with the fallout from Iraq. (One reason the administration was so tardy in dealing with Katrina was that Karl Rove was worried he might become a victim of the Plame affair.) In late 2005 the administration concluded that it was impossible to push through big initiatives, such as Social Security reform, in a time of war.

The man who will pay the biggest political price for Iraq will ultimately be Mr Bush. It is hardly surprising that liberal historians debate whether he is the worst president ever. But now conservatives are beginning to play the same game. A recent poll of hard-core conservative activists found that only 3% described themselves as George Bush Republicans, compared with 79% who regarded themselves as Ronald Reagan Republicans. But the damage will not be limited to the party leader. For years to come, the Republicans will be paying a collective price for the “stuff” that happened in Iraq.

Crosses of Lafayette: "Thanks For Doing This"

Click to enlarge

This photo was taken Sunday, March 25, 2007. In addition to this group paying their respects to the fallen, I met a soldier wearing a Notre Dame cap who is returning to Iraq in two weeks. We chatted briefly after I finished planting 6 new crosses. He said that he had heard about the memorial and wanted to come see the crosses. Then he added, "thanks for doing this. We appreciate it." I was speechless.

Crosses of Lafayette: Sky Pilot

On the morning of March 19, 2008, the fourth anniversary of the War in Iraq, this cross was seen in the sky in Lafayette at about 7:30 in the morning.

Photo by John Eaton

Twelve hours later there was a candlelight vigil marking this tragic anniversary.

Photo by John Eaton

Crosses of Lafayette: Sense of Scale

Photo by John Eaton

This shot taken from the far side of Highway 24 with Bart in the foreground provides some scale of the Crosses of Lafayette project.

Crosses of Lafayette: Blossoms and Crosses

Photo by John Eaton

Spring blossoms on March 14, 2007 partially obscure the hillside of crosses just before sunset.

Photo by John Eaton

Crosses of Lafayette: 3188

Photo by John Eaton

Today, Melanie Morgan brought her Move America Forward caravan to Lafayette to demonstrate in front of the hillside crosses together with the "Lafayette Flag Brigade's" Never Forget 911.

Photo by John Eaton

While everyone at the gathering in Lafayette today supports the troops, the caravan believes that it is also necessary to support the war to support the troops. Furthermore, many in the caravan also believe that the troops "can win."

Photo by John Eaton

The caravan pulled out before 11:00 AM but the crosses remained. All 3188.

Crosses of Lafayette: BART

Photo by John Eaton

At the San Francisco Chronicle, Jason B. Johnson posted this article today about the Crosses with video and photos by Carlos Avila Gonzalez:

A controversial Iraq war memorial in Lafayette reached an emotional milestone Sunday, when a group of volunteers added 290 new crosses to the site so there were enough symbols to represent each of the 3,170 American soldiers killed in Iraq since the start of the war. (The count by the Associated Press reached 3,173 late Sunday.)

About 50 people hammered nails, painted the crosses and planted them under a clear blue sky. In clothes flecked with white paint, many smiled and chatted while others worked quietly.

A group opposed to the war has expanded its stark display overlooking the Lafayette BART Station over the past several weeks -- gathering in cold weather and at times staging candlelight vigils. Several members said blanketing this green hillside with a sea of crosses, Stars of David and Muslim Crescents has reinvigorated their sense of civic activism.

Crosses of Lafayette: March 4, 2007

The Crosses of Lafayette memorial now has one cross for each soldier killed in Iraq.

Photo by John Eaton

Photo by John Eaton

Here is a photo taken at dusk on March 4, 2007.

Photo by John Eaton

Check out the full set of photos of the Crosses of Lafayette on Flickr.

Crosses of Lafayette: Morning Commute

Photo by John Eaton

Check videos!

Crosses of Lafayette: Shrinking the Sign, Not the War

Here is the AP report in today's International Herald Tribune:

California war memorial sign could shrink under pact between city and organizers
The Associated Press
February 13, 2007


LAFAYETTE, California: A large sign at a war memorial that tallies the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq will be shrunk to half its size after city officials and memorial organizers reached an agreement.

The current 64-square-foot (5.76-square-meter) sign is about twice the size the city allows without a permit on residential property. It will be reduced to 32 square feet ( 2.88 square meters).

The hillside memorial, which also includes 1,600 crosses, has stirred emotional debate in this upscale suburb east of San Francisco. The sign has been vandalized twice since it was raised on Veterans Day last year.

Memorial organizer Jeff Heaton also agreed Monday to restrictions on candlelight vigils at the site. No longer will candles be left unattended beneath the crosses, which spurred fire concerns from nearby residents.

Organizers said they planned to continue erecting crosses until they have one for every U.S. soldier killed in the war.

Here is a link to Catherine Tam's article in today's Contra Costa Times.

Crosses of Lafayette: January Sunset

Photo by John Eaton

Crosses of Lafayette: 3054

This photo was taken in late afternoon on January 21, 2007. Several hundred crosses were added today. The sign still reads 3019. Sadly, at least 25 troops were killed on Saturday, bringing the likely total at the end of the day on Sunday to 3,054.

Photo by John Eaton

Crosses of Lafayette: Embraced by Community

Here is the feature article posted today in Salon. You must watch a short ad before viewing the article if you are not a subscriber.

Peace movement at a crossroads

Three years ago, it was called "un-American." But now this moving antiwar protest in small-town America has been embraced by the community.

By Katharine Mieszkowski

Jan. 20, 2007 | On a brisk, clear Sunday morning, Paul Cavanaugh, a paralegal, and his 10-year-old son, Kevin, work on a steep green suburban hillside, dotted with more than 1,200 white wooden crosses. Armed with staple guns, father and son busily affix laminated pieces of paper to the crosses. Each slip of paper bears the name of an American serviceman or woman killed in Iraq. Other volunteers use shovels to dig holes in the ground and install new crosses. By mid-afternoon, there will be 1,400 crosses on the hill, and yet that's still less than half the number of American soldiers killed so far in Iraq.

The crosses were first erected by a local building contractor, Jeff Heaton, as a daily reminder to commuters of the tragic toll of the Iraq war. Cavanaugh and his wife, a lawyer, run a family law firm in nearby Concord. He says he supported the war in Afghanistan and adds, tartly, "That was a rat's nest we needed to clean out." But the recent escalation of the war spurred him and his son to get their hands dirty. "When Bush made the announcement that we're going to commit our reserves, 20,000 troops we don't have, we decided to get involved," Cavanaugh says. "After the election we just had, which was a referendum on the war, it's just outrageous."

Where's the outrage about putting tens of thousands of additional troops in harm's way in this dead-end war? It's here in a bedroom community in Northern California. Located 15 miles from Berkeley, Lafayette is made up mostly of low-slung ranch homes nestled in oak-covered foothills. Its population of 24,000 people is a mix of retired oldsters and a newer generation of wealthier professionals, who've migrated to the sprawling suburbs east of the San Francisco Bay to raise their families. Louise Clark, 81, who owns the private property where the crosses sit, has lived in Lafayette for 55 years. She describes it as "a suburban community that's not at the forefront of political action. It's a town that's concerned with potholes in the pavement."

When the crosses first started appearing last November, they prompted a contentious City Council meeting and stirred local debate. But as the memorial has grown, it's become a national symbol of opposition to the war, making news everywhere from National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" to the New York Times. Resistance has come to Middle America. According to a recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, more than three-fifths of Americans now believe the war is not worth fighting. And 60 percent of Americans, like Cavanaugh, don't support the president's plans to escalate the war by sending in another 21,500 troops.

Heaton, who started the memorial, is a soft-spoken, 53-year-old general contractor who has lived in Lafayette his whole life. In a black fleece vest, the bespectacled Heaton, trim and clean-shaven, looks like he'd be at home on Lafayette's hiking trails. In his younger days, the self-described pacifist marched against the Vietnam War, only to be chased by police mounted on horseback, wielding billy clubs. A conscientious objector, whose draft number never came up for Vietnam, Heaton has protested every war since then. Inspired by a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., he decided three years ago to oppose the Iraq war by erecting 20 crosses on this hillside. Vandals promptly tore them down. "Anyone who tried to do something like this three years ago was called un-American, unpatriotic, but now it's completely changed," he says.

The current memorial took shape after the November '06 election. The first few hundred crosses were planted by Heaton and volunteers from groups like Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center, Grandmothers for Peace, and Lamorinda Peace Group. But now the effort has expanded to include local neighbors like Cavanaugh. At weekly Sunday work sessions, the memorial is branching out at the rate of about 200 new crosses per week. The goal is to erect one cross for every American soldier lost.

A field of white crosses now covers a swath of the five-acre hillside. They are easily visible from both the BART commuter train platform across the road, and nearby state Route 24, a major artery that takes commuters on their weekday trek from suburban enclaves like Concord, Walnut Creek and Lafayette to San Francisco.

Many crosses have red ribbons tied around them in bows. Others boast flowers or American flags planted at their bases. One cross has a wooden Star of David affixed to it, while another bears a crescent moon, a symbol of Islam, a third a Chinese prayer wheel. Several are festooned with wreaths. All of the crosses fan out from a large sign that reads: "In memory of 3019 U.S. troops killed in Iraq." An American flag flanks the sign. The number on the sign changes as the death toll continues to grow.

While Heaton sees the memorial as a way to protest the war, he has taken pains to keep it from becoming overtly partisan. When someone planted a sign amid the crosses that read, "Bush Lied. Troops Died," he removed it. He sees the installation as having a different kind of impact than attending a march or a rally. "You can go out and hold a sign and get arrested, and get five seconds on the evening news, but this is something that is here every day that hundreds of thousands of people who commute to work see," he says.

On the hillside, one first-time volunteer, who gives her name only as Sandra, breaks down in tears at the sight, while Heaton places a hand on her back to comfort her. A retired Head Start teacher who lives in neighboring Concord, she says the son of a friend is about to be sent back to Iraq to serve for the fourth time. She admits that she was initially for the invasion, but only because she had been misled to believe that Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction. "I feel very strongly that our troops should come home," she says. "It's a civil war over there now."

Baika Pratt, 46, a hospice worker who drives past the site every weekday on her commute from Martinez to Oakland, says she was drawn to it by her grief and disillusionment about the war. "So many young people are dying and it's for nothing," she says. Now, in addition to attending the Sunday work groups, she stops by almost every day, checking in on her way to or from work, to pick up trash or to straighten crosses that may have been knocked down in the wind, or just to sit and look.

Candlelight vigils were held at the crosses on New Year's Eve and after Bush announced the commitment of 21,500 more troops. On Christmas Eve, the red ribbons on many of the crosses shimmered in the night, turning them into so many solemn Christmas presents. Heaton later heard that the ribbons were put up by some local high school grads. It's the informal, grass-roots nature of the project that the instigator says gives it its appeal. "People come by, and they don't have to belong to a certain group," he says. "They can participate and let it represent something for them. That's why I'm trying to keep it from becoming too politicized. It is a demonstration against the war, but I want to make sure it really stays a memorial."

Not everyone who lives in Lafayette is in favor of the highly visible display of the cost of the war. There's still a trace of black tar on top of the sign announcing the number of the dead. It's left over from the time a vandal painted over the whole sign to obscure the message. On another occasion, a furious motorist got out of her car to kick the large sign down. One Islamic crescent moon mysteriously disappeared in the night. And while the memorial is located on private property, the local City Council has taken up the issue of its legality, since the sign announcing the death toll is too large by city standards. Even now, as the volunteers, in their jeans and tennis shoes, work to expand the memorial, a driver in a white pickup passes by, honks his horn and yells out his window: "Thanks a lot for trashing our neighborhood!"

Louise Clark and her husband, Johnson Clark, 85, bought the land where the crosses sit decades ago in hopes of developing it into senior housing, given that it's so close to public transit. Heaton is the son of friends the Clarks have known for 50 years.

Clark says she's received about 100 phone calls about the memorial on her land, and so far only one has been from a person opposing it. She hopes the memorial will remind Americans that the real costs of the war are hidden from most of them. "Back in World War II, we had gas rationing, we had meat rationing, we had special taxes on just about any luxury, and that's not happening today," she says. "Today's war is on the shoulders of just the service people and their families. It's too big a sacrifice to ask of such a small segment of our large country. I want young people to realize that the country is at war, and there are people who are giving their lives for the rest of us."

That said, Clark would like to see the troops withdrawn right away. "I want the world to know that we support our service people and we want to bring them home, and we don't want them dying for reasons that are not obvious to most people in this country. They're not fighting a war against terrorism. That's in Afghanistan. Right now they're fighting a civil war for the Iraqi people, and we have no right to be there."

-- By Katharine Mieszkowski

Volunteers gather at the site every Sunday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM to add crosses.

Crosses of Lafayette: Names

Volunteers have begun putting the names of the fallen heroes on the Crosses of Lafayette.

Photo by John Eaton

Photo by John Eaton

Crosses of Lafayette: Protesting Bush's Escalation

Photo by John Eaton

Here is the post from Katherine Tam about tonight's protest of Bush's escalation held at the Crosses of Lafayette:

Protesters hold vigil at Lafayette war memorial
By Katherine Tam
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

LAFAYETTE - At least 300 anti-war protesters, fueled by President Bush's plan to dispatch more troops to Iraq, gathered Thursday night at a Lafayette memorial to call for an end to the war.

"The way to support them is to bring them home," said Lynda Robertson, a Pittsburg resident. Bush's plan "troubled me greatly. He's going backward from what we need."

The 1,200 crosses that blanket the privately-owned hillside across from the BART station have become a gathering spot for those opposed to the war. Members of the group MoveOn acted quickly to organize a candlelight vigil here the day after Bush unveiled his plan to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq and called for the Iraqi government to bolster forces as well.

The vigil was largely peaceful. One man hollered "filthy traitors" from a passing car, but most drivers honked in support or stared expressionless from behind the wheel.

Walnut Creek resident Jackie Pells, whose friend's grandson Alan Blohm died in Iraq, arrived with a lighter to light candles beside the crosses.

"Fifty-four years ago, we graduated from high school together," Pells said. "It was the Korean War at the time and what have we learned?"

Lafayette resident Karel Uehara's 5-year-old was a baby when Uehara helped organize a protest in Richmond. The turnout was much smaller then -- about 20 or 30 people -- and some passersby were less open to their message, he said. The response in Lafayette Thursday night was much more receptive, he added.

The display, which includes a handful of Jewish Stars of David and Islamic crescents, has grown substantially since it went up over Veteran's Day weekend. Organizers have added new crosses weekly, and plan to place 200 more every Sunday until there is one for each of the more than 3,000 dead U.S. soldiers, said organizer Jeff Heaton.

The crosses and the large sign stating the number of soldiers killed in Iraq ignited an emotional debate immediately after they were installed. An angry passerby tore down the sign on the second day. Organizers put it back up.

Then in late December, someone covered the sign with a black substance thought to be paint. Organizers replaced the sign on Christmas Eve and have since added an electric-powered neon sign with the number of dead soldiers that is visible at night.

Public debate has centered mostly on whether the display is an appropriate tribute to fallen troops, but the city has focused on whether the sign meets the law or is too big. The city attorney is reviewing the matter.

The display is organized by Heaton, the Lamorinda Peace Group and members of the Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center in Walnut Creek.

"It gives us a connection," Robertson said. "We stay isolated in our daily lives. It helps us grasp the immensity of it."

Crosses of Lafayette: Who Can Stop the Madness?

Photo by John Eaton