It was back in the spring of 2008. The annual Oregon Leadership Summit was happening at the Convention Center here in Little Beirut. This is a gathering of the "movers and shakers" from throughout the state who discuss and put forth an agenda to move Oregon forward. The regular stuff, business and government leaders working on the problems of the state.
However, at the time there was these wars going on over in Iraq and Afghanistan, you may have heard of them.
I was then a very active member of my local Veterans For Peace chapter. Prior to this planned action we did lots of protests, teach ins, and all the other typical anti war activities. this would be different. Prior to this I used to go down to Pioneer Courthouse Square (Portland's living room) at noon on Friday and read the names of those service members killed in these two wars. After about 3 months of this it became evident that there were just too many to read during the noon hour my spirit was wearing out.
Fast forward to spring of 2008. I had gotten the names from iCasualties.org, a website that collected all the names from various databases. I copied them into a speadsheet and had my printer make me a copy. It was 3 ft by about 7-8 ft. It had 3992 names on it.
A bunch of us from the chapter went down to the Convention Center and during the luncheon where all the attendees were meeting to hear the keynote speakers, we entered the room and unfurled the printout and with the names facing the audience, slowly walked around the room, stopping to face the front dais where the Governor, US Senators and Representatives and other dignitaries were seated. We didn't say anything, just let them look at the 3992 names. We then proceeded to complete our circumnavigation of the room and made our way out. Security was not happy but didn't hassle us.
I think we made an impact.