Mouths Wide Open continued our 16 1/2 hour bell ringing of 1,000 names in Union Square in 2 two-hour shifts Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There was a mean pelting rain the second day and it was very cold, but we stood with umbrellas and felt it was important to keep going. Be and I were the constant representatives of our group and formed the 2-pronged core energy -- Be standing still, ringing the first bell and in a strong clear voice, intoning: ”We honor and grieve for…” out into the cold air and bustling square: and then reading a name of an Iraqi civilian, with their age and cause of death. I stood on the side and sent my thoughts to those dead, but also walked around and interceded with the public -- I told them what we were doing, invited them to take a flyer with information re the mortality studies, and brought many people close up to the muslin cloth to take some petals from the basket and scatter them over the pictures of dead Iraqis with me.

Mouths Wide Open's first day in Union Square -- 12-2 and 4-6 went smoothly. We handed out information flyers with the numbers of Iraqi dead and we read one name per minute for the four hours. Many people who stood silently and looked at our display with some photos of the dead (from Dahr Jamail's website.) The pictures were laid lovingly on a muslin sheet with rose petals and a dirt circle. Every minute we read a name, with age and cause of death, with bells accompanying it. Several people accepted the offer to put rose petals on the cloth as they offered thoughts to the dead. We had some beautiful responses: an Afghani man who sat for awhile and then said thank you so much for doing this.