Hundreds of white and red crosses lined the grass field on campus in honor of fallen and injured troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every red cross represented ten fallen soldiers and every white cross represented one fallen soldier.
The memorial known as Arlington West started in November 2003 in Santa Barbara by Veterans for Peace, a nonprofit educational and humanitarian organization. It has since grown to more than half a dozen memorials on the west coast of the United States alone, including Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Huntington Beach and Oceanside.
The memorial, which takes place every Sunday in Santa Monica, has become a place of reflection and remembrance of those killed. On campus, it caught the eyes of some students as they walked to and from their classes.
“It’s sad to see how many people have died for this cause,” said Cal State Long Beach student Mustafa Hakami, who was born in Afghanistan and still has relatives there. “It’s kind of an eye-opener.”
Greg Foisie, a Veterans for Peace associate, hopes the memorial grabs the attention of students who might have forgotten about the war.
“Organizations on campus asked for Arlington West to come to CSULB to generate and encourage dialogue and education about the subject,” Foisie said. “We want people to understand there are consequences [of war] … The war is not here … you can forget about it.”
The memorial will be on campus from May 3-5 and will include a display called the “Wounded Wall,” where half a dozen pillars feature images of the first 1,000 U.S. troops killed in action. The wall of the wounded also contains graphic images of veterans wounded in war. On Wednesday, photographs by Mathieu Grandjean will be displayed on easels in honor of the fallen troops.
Other peace organizations such as CODEPINK, a women’s peace group, and the Catholic Worker Movement will also have booths set up around the site.
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