drew3ooo: life in the two point oh

For the last four years, “Arlington Northwest Displays,” a rotating Iraq war memorial consisting of an ever-growing number of white corrugated plastic crosses and tombstones (3,800 at last count) representing the numbers of US soldiers killed in Iraq, has been making the rounds around Western Washington. Sunday and Monday it came to Olympia, courtesy of the Veterans for Peace Rachel Corrie Chapter 109. The view of all these little crosses at the edge of Capitol Lake and crowned by the dome at back, is a bit haunting and gives the park an even more DC look than it already seems to emulate. Out here, in the other Washington, it’s all right to pay attention to such things. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get much play in that other Washington. The one in the District of Columbia.

Still, as impressive as this spectacle is, one could only imagine how cramped the park would be if their were markers representing all the Iraqis killed by US policy as well.

I took some snaps, which follow: