In the center, there is a beaded structure, representing the Iraqi people--hundreds of beads symbolize the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead. It would be impossible to light a million candles, so this is the best we could do.
Every candle bears the name of an American soldier that has died in this needless, senseless, evil brutality. Their names, ages and dates of death are listed. Of the candles I personally lit, the youngest was 19, the oldest 28. There are 3988, total.
The sheer number of names is overwhelming. Each small, flickering light--a life that has been extinguished.
In the sixth photo below, activists are singing the old Civil Rights hymn, This little light of mine/I'm gonna let it shine.
Yes, we have to do that, as hopeless as it sometimes appears.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
And as another poet once wrote: We all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun.
We must light the way with truth.
~*~
