December 2009 Issue
by Vickie Aldrich and Mary Burton Risely
What began as a family project in the fall of 2003 as a response to the invasion of Iraq has become a leading with its own life. “At the time we started, there were 637 deaths, and they weren’t allowing images of coffins in the media. We wanted to make that number visible,” said Vickie. She and Tim Reed and daughter Jenny Stuart began making cranes, and crafted the first eleven panels of cranes, which they displayed at local peace vigils. Since then, everyone from IMYM’s children’s program to community members in Las Cruces has worked to make cranes for the memorial. It now contains 110 panels with over 4,000 cranes. When it is set up, it extends for nearly 100 yards, the length of a football field. It has been displayed in Las Cruces, in Silver City, in Albuquerque and Santa Fe—and in our nation’s capital.
In the winter of 2008, I mentioned to Mary Burton Riseley of Gila Friends Meeting in Silver City that I would like to take the Iraq Peace Crane Memorial to Washington DC. Mary said, “Great! We can take my truck.” In the spring, we telephoned the National Park Service, which operates the monuments in Washington, DC. They sent us a permit to display the Memorial for three days over the Memorial Day weekend at the base of the Washington Memorial on a grassy plot at the corner of 14th Street and Constitution Avenue. This permit was free, as we were not selling anything and qualified for First Amendment protections.