again with the science
The Iraq Memorial to Life is up and running. About 3,000 symbolic grave markers have been placed in order to memorialize and honor on a fraction of all the individual innocent Iraqis whom have been killed as a result of US interference in Iraq.
There are many different death counts. One count is of about 100,000 documented deaths since the 2003 invasion. Another count is a scientific census survey by which there are estimates that as many as 1,300,000. Another count puts the war deaths, resulting from US intervention since 1991, at over 2,000,000. These are horrible statistics. And they don’t even begin to take into account the suffering of those Iraqis forced to flee their homes, and/or forced to flee their native land, nor those who suffer from war related injury, loss of limb, permanent brain injury, etc..
Today’s memorial was a real feat. On so many levels. Here’s one way it was extraordinary.
The markers themselves are made of 8.5x11 sheets of paper, laminated. A simple metal pin with a hook holds them in the ground. They had not been tested in a high wind. So I was hoping all along that we wouldn’t have wind. But as the day progressed, the wind rose. Squalls came and went, but they generally grew in strength.
About 30 people gathered Friday to commemorate the occasion with a silent single-file walk around part of Capitol Lake. Then the group huddled under a small tent to remember the dead as driving wind and rain began to pluck the sheets from the soil.........
SondraK Hussein Lympian Slayer 
