Car keeps our eyes on the toll (U.S. Iraq War Dead - Rolling Memorial)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/15840609.htm

Memorials to the soldiers who have died in the Iraq war aren't yet chiseled in marble or cast in bronze.

But they are shrink-wrapped onto Maureen Beail-Farkas' Nissan Altima - a rolling riot of purple, yellow, green and red with gold and black letters spelling the names of almost all the 2,803 men and women killed since America invaded Iraq in 2003.

"Two dead today in Basra. Three dead yesterday in Tikrit," said Beail-Farkas, a cardiac nurse at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby. "It doesn't sound like that many, but they were adding up."

Five months ago, she decided to turn the numbers into something more tangible. If it took sacrificing her new Nissan, so be it.

Inspired by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, she resolved to inscribe the names of all the American servicemen and women who had died in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

<snip>

The car, Beail-Farkas said, attracted a lot of attention during the summer. After working a night shift at the hospital, she said, she went out to the parking lot to find a family combing the car with a flashlight for the name of their cousin.

[silverweb]

1. Links are always welcome at DU.

Here's the one for this story: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=4687915

And the woman's website with many more pictures: http://www.deadsoldiers-iraq.com

:)

[RamboLiberal]

2. Thanks - I added it on edit - had a brain f*rt

eom

[silverweb]

3. You're welcome.

I know all about brain f*rts, having experienced quite a few myself!

:D

An excellent story, btw.

[OneBlueSky]

4. there should be one of these in every community . . .

it's too easy for people to ignore U.S. casualties in Iraq, particularly since the corporate media doesn't give them much coverage . . . having a car like this driving around would at least remind folks that people are indeed dying in Iraq and Afghanistan . . .

wonder how big a car you'd need to display the names of all of the Iraqis who have lost their lives in this illegal invasion/occupation . . .

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. It'll be a two car family soon.

:cry:

[Heidi]

6. Recommended

and kicked. :kick:

[PuraVidaDreamin]

7. Hey UnhappyC- check out the end of the article- wooohooo

Vicky Castro lost her only child, Cpl. Jonathan Castro, on Dec. 21, 2004, in a mess-tent suicide bombing in Mosul.

Castro, who attended a Cape Cod beach memorial called "Arlington East" last week, said the homegrown memorials honored her son and served an important purpose.

"Unless we grieve as a country, unless we stop bickering and stop insulting each others' politics, we will never heal as a country," Castro said. "Each of these memorials push us in that direction


PeAcE IN man!
debbie