June 5, 2007 - Gainesville Florida Veterans For Peace: Joe Courter at Gainesville's Civic Media Center talked me into producing a "simple" drive-by video of Memorial Mile with "milestone" events displayed full-screen along the way. Nothing is "simple" and audio media is mixed with the video to tell a more complete story.

The Gainesville Veterans For Peace "Memorial Mile" served well to demonstrate the real cost of giving up PEACE to choose WAR. A thumbs-up response from the public was overwhelming throughout the day. Gainesville VFP even received a big "Thank You" from uniformed Army Reserve personnel and cash donations from drivers who insisted on showing their appreciation.

While many traditional Memorial Day observations serve mostly to re-affirm patriotism, the VFP display gives citizens a look into the present and future costs when leaders violate the sanctity of life to use war as foreign policy.

It was assumed that the soldiers who died in the last war would at least serve to teach our leaders how to avoid repeating the mistake. But our leaders forgot the tragedy of a mistake made within their own lifetimes in "Nam".

It was supposed to be the legacy of soldiers who died in Viet Nam that our government would never again choose to fight a war of invasion and occupation but our leaders repeated the mistake in 2003. Now the sacrifices made by those loyal troops who died in Viet Nam just 35 years is now completely wasted by leaders who refuse to learn from history and prefer the convenience of death over diplomacy.

Keep working for Peace!