March 19 Procession and Rally in Cottage Grove

PLEASE CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR GROUP AND AS INDIVIDUALS: Stand for Peace of Cottage Grove would like to invite you to participate in a statewide event we are planning for the 2nd Anniversary of the Iraq Invasion- March 19th. Cottage Grove is the site of the National Guard Armory from which most of the Oregon National Guard now in Iraq are stationed out of. We plan on focusing this event on TWO statements : and 2) End the War in Iraq. We believe shifting the focus to small town Oregon will be potentially more effective than having marches only in all the familiar places(ie. Portland, Eugene). The small towns are where a lot of the soldiers are from- and 500 people(more?) in Cottage Grove (population ~8,000) will be more impressive than 20,000 in Portland. Hopefully, demonstrations will happen all over the state. What we hope is that you will decide to send some of your folks our way and participate in this groundbreaking event.

Our tentative schedule is:

Friday, March 18: 5- 6pm we will hold our regular weekly vigil in downtown Cottage Grove; If we get enough folks to come to town early we will spread the vigil out to other locations in town. Our regular vigil is on the same block as the armory. 7pm on we want to have an educational event for the entire community (maybe the presentation on "Health Effects of War" by Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility) and later there will be some music and entertainment possibilities at our co-op cafe, the Coffee Grove, as well as other possible sites.

Saturday. March 19: 10 am to Noon gather at Cottage Grove HighSchool parking lot for procession. We will start here as a symbol of our young that are being sacrificed in this War. We will then walk in a procession format, with drums, NO CHANTS, flags (PEACE, US, or UN flags only) and banners (SUPPORT OUR TROOPS- BRING THEM HOME AND END THE WAR or banners specifically related to this theme only please) but also peace cranes, and a string of "prayer flag" style with small cloths with a name of a fallen soldier or Iraqi civillian on each and strung together in long chains. In other words, this is a semi-somber procession- the idea being to show the utmost respect to our soldiers and veterens and their families, as well as Iraqi casualties of the War. This is a PEACEFUL procession and entire weekend! The procession will go about 3/4 mile, in no hurry, with a stop at a small Veteren's Memorial, possibly, to lay a wreath, and then on to our regular vigil site, near the armory, where we will also lay a wreath, flowers, pictures, names, etc, . The procession will be immediately followed by a rally with some speeches and music (suggestions?).

Saturday evening we are hoping to have some kind of entertainment, like, Dr. Atomic and/or Urgent Carnival, the Eugene Peace Choir....??
And, if you are into making it a weekend we always have our silent candlelight vigil on Sunday evening 7- 8pm, where we read the names of the week's dead in Iraq, including Iraqi civilians and stand silently w/ candles the remainder of the hour.

As you can see this is an ambitious undertaking. We feel it is important to not let the anniversary of the invasion slip by without doing something significant. We do need your help and support, however. Here are some ways you can help, right now or over the next month or so:
  • 1) We are forming a Steering Committee for ongoing planning and for day of the event coordinating. If you have someone in your group that can help in this capacity- FANTASTIC. Much of the initial work will be done via email and phone, but being able to attend our Stand for Peace meeting, January 10th, 6:30pm, in Cottage Grove, would be a real plus. In fact we wil likely have an initial steering committee meeting before the regular meeting, say at 5pm. This will include setting the final event plans and agenda and media work.
  • 2) As in any event like this we want to build a list of "Participants/Endorsers". If your group can do this it would be a big boost as we pull this together. Having a broad list from all over the state is our goal.
  • 3) start planning on how to get as many people as possible to the event AND how you might publicize it locally.
  • 4) help with production of the "flag chains" with names for the procession ( right now the plan would be to cut this chains up for folks to take back with them after the weekend). If you can make some of the flags, we will send you names depending on the number you can commit to.
  • 5) gather up those rainbow PEACE flags- we want them to be prominent throughout the procession.
  • 6) send along any suggestions you have for ways too improve this event.
    • This is a frightening thing for us as a small, but very persistent, peace group and community to take on, but we feel it is very important to keep the pressure up against the War and for real support of our soldiers in harm's way. It is the Holidays and therefore energy is divided, but please give this some attention if at all possible and lets make some big memories and PROGRESS for PEACE this March.
    Thank you for your support and consideration.
    Scott Burgwin
    Stand for Peace- Cottage Grove 541 767-0770