Arlington South was inspired by the documentary, “Arlington West”.
Arlington West depicts the Veterans For Peace of Santa Monica as they presented their weekly cementary crosses display.
Arlington South began Veterans Day, Friday, November 11th 2005, spanning the three day weekend.
Jody, Simon, Sam and others borrowed 800 wooden crosses from Veterans for Peace in Naples, Florida. Each cross bore the name of a fallen soldier.
In the sand on South Beach, the crosses were unavoidable to beach goers. The Democracy For America-Miami organizers drew a range of emotions they describe as “…ranging from despair to aggressive anger against us.” “…wendy sam and i read the names of the florida fallen…” Jody Finver recounts to me.
They then changed to corrugated plastic signs cut to resemble tombstones mounted on wire, with extensions for implanting in the ground.
In 2006, three displays were done; In March, May and October. The October event is the subject of this compelling, beautifully filmed and produced video.
The March and October events were at downtown Miami’s showcase Bayfront Park
The May display was at Lummus Park, on South Beach.
In 2007, displays were done on South Beach in February, during Superbowl weekend, and again at Bayfront on Veterans and Memorial Days.
“…we were inspired by arlington west and meeting two vets - michael hoffman who leads iraq veterans against the war and jimmy massey, a former military recruiter. because vets for peace is a 501C3 we needed to remain neutral about the memorial (we dont tell you who to vote for just that we need to change what i(s) happening) - we honor the soldier not the war and we point out the human cost of war, forcing people to open their eyes and pay attention. at one point one man was so moved by the event he donated 1000 dollars and we were able to buy more tombstones to get the memorial to the count it is at today. sadly, we will be buying more.”
—Jody Finver (more…)