Tomorrow (Saturday) I will get in my wheelchair-accessible van and head southeast towards Washington, DC. This 500 mile/804.6 km trip takes me two days to drive by myself. For the next six days--from Sunday afternoon through Friday evening--I will mount a solitary vigil for peace in front of the White House and the U.S. Senate and House office buildings. All day Monday, September 10th, I will be on the sidewalk in front of the headquarters of the neoconservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, where they will be hosting two public presentations, one of which is called “The Iranian Time Bomb.” My final day of demonstrating--Saturday, September 15th--will coincide with a massive anti-war march and rally in DC which I plan to attend. On Sunday I hope to get together with family and friends--I was born and raised in the Washington, DC area--and, all going well, I'll be back home in Detroit by Tuesday evening, September 18th.

As you see in the photo, the sign I will be holding all week says “Don’t bomb Iran.” It is illustrated with two photos from Ali Majdfar’s beautiful PBase gallery, “Throughout IRAN.” Ali and I have been in contact regarding my intention to mount this vigil, and he offered his photos for me to use in any way that might be helpful. As it turned out, he chose one and I chose the other. I am only sorry I had to crop his exquisite photo of the bridge in Isfahan in order to make it fit on my sign. But I know Ali will be OK with that. He and I are in this together. I will feel his presence beside me every minute of every day.

I will be unable to post a photo blog entry tomorrow (Saturday) but intend to post daily entries during my entire vigil. Please hold this small effort for peace in your hearts. May it help my government’s leaders wake up to the disaster they are contemplating. May all who see my sign stop and think before they support any attacks on Iran. But most importantly, may Ali and his countrymen and women be protected from harm.