New Haven Independent

News coverage was sparse as three dozen people gathered at New Haven’s war memorial on Broadway Monday to lay another stone on the cairn (in photo above) that is built from stones marking each month of the war in Iraq. April’s stone, placed by Lois Smith of the Unitarian Society in Hamden, noted that 38 Americans died in the month of March, along with a very conservatively estimated 774 Iraqis civilians.

The Unitarian Society’s Rev. Kathleen McTigue (pictured) helped lead the service. She and two of her parishioners were fresh from their arrest at the federal building in Hartford on March 19, to mark the war’s fifth anniversary. This was also the first monthly New Haven observance since the 4,000 mark has been reached and now surpassed of American service members killed in Iraq. (U.S. civilian casualties are not included, nor are U.S. military deaths in the war in Afghanistan.)

Various individuals read poems, the group sang songs, and Susan Meredith (pictured in front) read the names of the March casualties. Click here to listen.

After the short commemoration, a reporter (this reporter, the only one present) asked Rev. McTigue how she felt about the war losing the spotlight to the various economic ills that have come to the fore in Americans’ consciousness - not to mention the ever-present awareness of the latest with American Idol. What would she say to people who seem to be ignoring the war?

“I don’t know any people who don’t think this matters anymore. For those who have decided they just need to get about their lives, I would say, try to pay attention, and one way to pay attention is to just to read the names of the soldiers who have died.” Click here for more on the impact of naming.