I'd wanted to live highway blog today, http://crosses4peace.blogspot.com/...
but my son has baseball practice and my husband's at the Giants game, so I opted for driveby freeway blogging while my kids (11, 9 & 8) were in school. (New to freeway blogging? http://www.freewayblogger.com/...
My newest good buddy, Shesh, joined me on a freeway blogging trek to the Crosses of Lafayette. We hung two banners facing southbound 680 just before the 24 west turnoff. The skyway we used has a view of Walnut Creek BART station. The first banner said "2 Wars $339 billion" (photo at http://crosses4peace.blogspot.com/ I don't know how to upload them here)
The second banner, just next to it said: "US and Iraqi kids priceless". Then we headed toward the Crosses of Lafayette.
The Mt. Diablo and Lamorinda Peace Centers' memorial has been widely covered in the media. Before we got there, we stumbled upon a student demonstration -- in Lafayette -- where the Upper Happy Valley looks down upon the Lower Happy Valley!! Students from the local high school walked out to claim peace. See Katherine Tam's coverage (nice job!) in the Contra Costa Times http://www.contracostatimes.com/... Now, we were not freeway blogging on behalf of www.Crosses4Peace.org. We were asserting our right to free speech as individuals -- certainly more critical to democracy than a billboard's right to speak near a freeway. Anyway, as the article mentioned, we happened to join the demonstration because we were in the neighborhood with an extra banner asking, "More War? call your Rep 1-202-224-3121" We held it at the corner w/ 2 crosses while the police broke up the scuffle, but before the media left. My appreciation to Katherine Tam for including us -- even the website! And can I add how encouraged I am every time I see high school kids speaking out against this war. It is they, after all, who'll likely be drafted if we don't drastically and decisively change course.
We hung another banner over eastbound 24. This was the first time anyone ever said anything to us. As we were walking onto the pass over, she asked if we knew it was illegal. Shesh asked, "walking?" We ignored her, kept walking, and finally hung the banner. It's modeled after the MoveOn bumper sticker which says, effectively "END THIS WAR" (it says"ENDLESS WAR", but LESS is replaced with "THIS")
We finally made it to the Crosses of Lafayette memorial. Shesh cried, too, just like I did the first two times I saw it.
We added two more crosses.
To our pleasant surprise, even after we took the time to stop for driveby food before heading home, the "END THIS WAR" sign was still there.
I hope this gives you some ideas. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.