UPDATE: KOTV 6 found my blog. I recieved two emails from their reporters, asking to talk. I was still mulling over what reply, if any, I would make, when I got home from work yesterday, flipped on the TV, switched over to Channel 6, and there was the evening news guy reading the following:
We have a follow up to a story the News on 6 brought you on Monday.
The author of an Internet blog claims credit for planting the white crosses on the median of the Broken Arrow Expressway.
The writer says he put up the crosses on April 16th, and got the inspiration after seeing other roadside memorials for people killed in traffic accidents.
As you can see, they didn't mention my real name (if they had it) or the name of my blog, for which I thank them kindly. I don't think they meant it that way, but the phrase "...author of an Internet blog claims credit for planting the white crosses..." is reminiscent of the phrasing used on other newcasts; "so-and-so terrorist group claimed responsibility planting the bombs..." I missed my chance to put a message on the air this time round because I stopped to think about just what I might say. As my wife, who has worked as a local tv news producer, reminded me, the newscasters at 6 and I are working on different timelines; they look toward their daily deadline; I have a continuing project with a long term goal. I want to remind people that the soldiers sent in our name to die and bring death to others in Iraq had names, and died before their time. This is the cost of war; young men and young women coming home in boxes draped with flags, whatever they could have accomplished, invented, created with the rest of their lives lost to us all. Whether you think we are bringing freedom to the Iraqis, or that entering into this war in Iraq was colossal and tragic mistake, I want remind you of that cost, name by name, cross by cross. I want to do honor to their service, I want their sacrifice to be remembered, all the more so because I strongly disagree with the policy and policy makers that brought them to their deaths. But I really needn't say anything at all; the crosses speak for themselves.
Note: My blog was broken, and I could not post to it when I put up the crosses for April. Sam at feral kindly put Dr. Omed up on her own blog, and there you find the original post made the day the crosses were planted.
