SOU flag display prompts reflection

The thousands of small flags fluttering on the SOU campus lawn represent only twenty percent of the American and Iraqi dead. Sadly, we have no way to imagine or even to estimate the numbers of living victims this war has damaged in body and/or mind. No matter how we stand on the war, it is vital that we, each, look squarely at its on-going consequences to be sure in our minds that this is the necessary and best road we have chosen.

This touching display prods us to reflect.

Barbara Scarim

Ashland

Open letter to Bush on SOU flag exhibit

Dear President Bush, I just drove past the exhibit of flags that represent over 650,000 Iraqis and Americans that have died, all in the (as you term it) "pursuit of freedom." It's hard for me to fathom how you make this equation work for you and the other neo-cons you have conferred with — especially how you really believed the lies you told would convince us that your case for freedom was real. I hope someday soon you and your group can wander amongst those flags, especially the white ones, and feel what I believe most of us feel, the horror of what you have done.

Paul Moss

Ashland

Sobering display on SOU campus

There is a sobering display on the campus of SOU. Thousands and thousands of little white and red flags, representing deaths in Iraq, bloom like an obscene flowerbed on the lawns from one end of the campus to the other. At first I thought each flag represented one death, but no, each white flag represents up to six Iraqi dead and each red flag up to six Americans dead. To portray the full extent of the death and destruction would require an area six times as great! To represent the wounded, orphaned, displaced and others who's lives have been ruined by this war would probably require the entire city of Ashland!

I hope the University leaves the exhibit in place for a few more weeks so that as many of us as possible have a chance to reflect upon it; to ask ourselves why such death and such destruction have been committed in our names. God bless America! But first, God forgive America. 

David Hill

Ashland

Touched by SOU flag exhibit

I am grateful to the 100 students and community members who planted the white and red flags in the lawns at SOU. Viewing the 124,000 flags was for my visitors and me the most graphic and emotional experience, bringing to heart the lives of Iraqis and Americans lost in the war from 2003 to present. Each white flag represents at least five Iraqi lives lost. 

Each red flag represents five American lives lost. As the wind fluttered the tiny flags, it was a visual and visceral reminder of the sacrifice made to an act perpetrated by greed and power mongering. We were deeply touched and saddened.

I wish to thank the administration of SOU for allowing the presentation. Hopefully, it will be in place long enough for the entire community to honor it.

Mouna Wilson

Ashland

Educating students on cyberbully issue

I read with great interest the front page story (Schools vs cyberbullies, April 16) on the Ashland School Board's endorsement of state mandates prohibiting cyberbullying. I'm writing today to tell you I just completed my third day training Ashland Middle School students in new choices they can make when facing or witnessing bullying.

Whether the danger is physical, social, or cyberbullying, over 800 Rogue Valley students this year have learned how to exercise new options to short-circuit bullying, courtesy of Mediation Works' Youth Bystander Awareness Program. I am one of four trainers working with the Youth Bystander Awareness Program (YBAP) in area middle and high schools. As a relative newcomer to Ashland, I have to say that my personal experiences working with students and staff on classroom and school-wide strategies have been both gratifying and eye-opening.

Our program focuses on bystander skills, girls' relational aggression and cyberbullying, as well as traditional bullying challenges. We address who gets targeted and why. We examine bystanders and allies in history and emphasize the success rate of students stepping in and preventing violence in face-to-face settings as well as online. Students have opportunities to hear each others' stories, brainstorm choices for helping out, and then embody these choices through role plays that cover physical violence and relational aggression of all kinds, including cyberbullying.

The Bystander Awareness Program is a relatively new offering from Mediation Works and we are actively looking for teachers, or groups of teachers, who will give us three class periods with their students. If there are parents, groups of parents, or School Board members ready to create programs that further address cyberbullying, we are eager to help.

Meri Aaron Walker

Mediation Works YBAP Trainer

Preserve Ashland's lovely open spaces

When I moved here with my son just days before 9/11 we sent postcards to all our friends with pictures of cows on them, boasting that these were our new neighbors. We cherish our "neighbors" and take great pleasure in walking by the farms near our house and seeing the goats, cows, lamas, chickens, etc.

Recently, we were blessed to witness the birth of a calf just a two minute walk from our home on lower Clay Street. We stood at the edge of the field in complete awe of this miraculous unfolding of nature right before our very eyes. We stood as the sun set and this precious new life struggled to stand on her legs for the first time. We watched as she found her way to her mother's udders and the nourishment that awaited her there.

Together we uttered a prayer of gratitude for having been blessed with this amazing opportunity. These green fields are precious and bring joy to many lives and breathing space to all of us. Sadly, this acreage has already been approved for 133 new homes.

I pray that those who make the decisions regarding city development will strive to consider and honor the sacred beauty of this place, where one can enjoy an experience such as this in the city of Ashland. Let's preserve what's left of our green space and continue to enjoy the awesome beauty of nature in our midst and the character of this fair city.

Ayala Zonnenschein

Ashland