We will stay until we have rung our bells 1000 rings. How long depends on how many show up. We will hope for our usual 10 to 12.

This comes from Elisa in San Francisco...

Today's SF Chronicle had a short piece that talked about the high numbers of Iraqi civilians that have been "war casualties." They get their high estimate of 30,000 from Iraq Body Count, and didn't even mention the study by the journal Lancet that calculated Iraqi deaths as around 100,000. They didn't even mention it, though I guess that should not come as a surprise.

Last May, I wrote about an anti-war vigil held by Scott Blackburn of Voices in the Wilderness (now Voices of Creative Nonviolence), to recognize the deaths of the then 1.594 American troops. In his vigil, Scott rang a bell once a minute to mark each death. He was ringing the bell from 8 am on a Friday morning until 10:34 Saturday. I commented that you would need more than 70 days of bell ringing to reach the numbers in the Lancet study, plus those American deaths.

This week, in a way, both have happened.

Continue Reading on Elisa's Website

(Diane, Margaret, Nancy, Micki, Dorothy, Jan)

Every minute, for seventeen hours,
the thick, glass Buddha bell shudders
and sings its lamentation,
the axe blade of a solitary, anguished note cleaving the air
opening a space
into which a single voice among us
names a person killed in the war in Iraq.

Zaynab Haadei Jabar, twelve years old…
Kevin Clarke, twenty-one years old…

The Arabic mixing with the Anglo
entwined with the music
invokes the spirit of those named.
That mingling is more real than the diesel roar of trucks
here on Sonoma Avenue;
the redwood trees, oaks, and maples more real,
these spirits, above and about us, more real
than Homeland Security,
than holsters and flack jackets,
than Humvees and guns.

--David Smith-Ferri

Has anyone contacted AI about the arrests in the UK? It sounds like a human rights violation to me. I don't know whom in AI to contact, though.

Ashley

Mouths Wide Open's first day in Union Square -- 12-2 and 4-6 went smoothly. We handed out information flyers with the numbers of Iraqi dead and we read one name per minute for the four hours. Many people who stood silently and looked at our display with some photos of the dead (from Dahr Jamail's website.) The pictures were laid lovingly on a muslin sheet with rose petals and a dirt circle. Every minute we read a name, with age and cause of death, with bells accompanying it. Several people accepted the offer to put rose petals on the cloth as they offered thoughts to the dead. We had some beautiful responses: an Afghani man who sat for awhile and then said thank you so much for doing this.

Yesterday morning we rang out the names of the dead on the barriers in front of Downing Street.

The police around us, the Prime Minister's office in front of us, a friend of ours being harassed and searched across the road for filming us, under the threat of arrest, we read out the names of Iraqi civilians and of British soldiers.

Somehow, reading each name felt more painful than it had in Brighton or in Northwood. Somehow, the ceremony of remembrance had become more moving in these strange circumstances.

Barbara Deutsch will be ringing the bell during our regular Thursday vigil. Here is the text of the leaflet we will be giving out:

100,000 BELLS WILL RING

To date the war-related death toll in Iraq is more than 100,000 dead. This is the most accurate estimate available. It’s from the English medical journal, The Lancet. Today we grieve and protest these deaths by taking part in a bell-ringing ceremony.

We are among people gathering in this country and in Great Britain to act upon our grief. We do so by the solemn ringing of a bell. We will ring the bell one toll per minute. Each ring symbolizes the death of one Iraqi. The sound of our bell is amplified by the sounds of bells ringing this week in many public places. The goal is to ring the bells 100,000 times.

The following Ceremony leaflet and press release comes from a participant in Geneva, Switzerland. The first day of bell ringing was completed after 13 hours and 45 minutes. The participant will return to the same location in Geneva on Friday to complete the Ceremony

Ceremony poster for displaying and leaflet note

100000 sons de cloche pour l'Irak

Aujourd'hui, à l'occasion d'une cérémonie internationale pour la mémoire, nous commémorons la mort de plus de 100000 personnes en Irak suite à la guerre. D'après une étude publiée en octobre 2004 par le journal médical The Lancet, 98000 Iraqiens sont morts suite aux conséquences de la guerre, depuis l'invasion de l'Irak. L'acteur de cette journée de commémoration sonne une clochette chaque minute pour rappeler la perte d'une vie humaine suite à l'invasion et à l'occupation de l'Irak. Ceci, pendant 14 heures (de 7h00 à 21h00). Tout au long de ces 14 heures, les noms des morts de la guerre en Irak résonnera dans l'intervalle entre les 840 sons de clochette. Des journées similaires vont avoir lieu à travers le monde du 24 au 28 octobre 2005. Veuillez vous rendre à l'adresse iraqmortality.org (en anglais).

Maya Schenwar, journalist for such publications as In These Times, asked Kathy Kelly a few questions about the 100,000 Rings campaign.

Explain a little bit about why body counts are important... What in particular would you like to draw attention to with this action?

Last week, veteran journalist Robert Fisk, who has written from war zones for over 25 years, said that no one would ever vote for a war if they had seen what he has seen. Fisk goes to the morgues, the hospitals and the sites where people are wounded, maimed and bereaved. He fights against oblivion, using his skills as a compelling, respected journalist. We're ringing the bells to express alarm and grief over the horrific waste and carnage caused by this war.

Hello, all.

I'm in Alabama, and I was going to ring bells at a nuclear power plant, NASA, and a couple of military sites in the area. Because I am too scared to do it by myself, I withdrew from the bell-ringing. Instead, I am doing a solidarity action.

I will be praying for 17 hours and 40 minutes, which started Saturday at sundown and will last until sundown this Saturday. Because I'm a Catholic, I'll pray the rosary 20 times. (That's 1,000 "Hail Marys.")

Know that I am with you. Whatever your personal beliefs, please be assured that you are covered with good energy/intentions before, during, and after the action.