cranes and nails

keep thinking of the cranes for peace project that edison parent, margie, brought to our children's school. the powerful nature of it. she had somehow found a list of names of iraqi civilians who had perished in the iraq war that continues to this very day. i remember volunteers attaching a name onto each crane. what a simple way to raise awareness. to honor those whom we do not know and whose lives we cannot imagine from our life experience.

samantha power opens her book with a quote from Abraham Lincoln:

"we --even we here--hold the power, and bear the responsibility."

tonight, margie's efforts and lincoln's words fuel me.

i got to thinking, as i sent this blog out to folks for the first time tonight: "what if someone else sees this? some stranger? and they get the idea to make an art piece like this before me?" yes, that's the ego talking. and then, a wonderful idea came forth. what if another art piece of 800,000 nails were made to honor rwanda? what if 10 more were made? 50 more? one for each state. one for each continent. right on.

i say that there cannot be enough art made to teach us the lessons of global citizenship and awareness and if 10,000 people took this idea, more power to us all, for i live with the cockiness that i had at age 15, when i learned and really read about the holocaust of WWII for the first time. what a rude awakening. i was cocky because i had said to myself, "if i had been alive back then, i would have been vocal. a fighter. i would NEVER have let this happen on my watch. there's no way. how did caring people let this happen? and yet, in 1994, i did. we all did. i have to teach my children something.

i remember looking for the aisle of nails at lincoln hardware. i saw the sign that read "nails". me and my will shortz-loving brain noticed that the letters that make up "nails" also make up the word "slain."