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Tell Your Town the Costs of War:LED Displays Across America!-Here's How

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chlamor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-04-05 09:36 PM
Original message
Tell Your Town the Costs of War:LED Displays Across America!-Here's How
Edited on Wed May-04-05 09:37 PM by chlamor
The people who are spearheading the project may have some resources
available to help you get a sign in your town, and certainly can give you
some advice on how to do it. To that end, we ask that you send your name,
phone number, whether you are affiliated with an organization, and whether
you've yet located a business/place to 'host' the sign.

This link provides some information on how they did it:

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar/MainStreet.html


National Priorities Project
413-584-9556
www.nationalpriorities.org


MAIN STREET AMERICA:
HOW TO TELL YOUR TOWN THE COSTS OF WAR

The National Priorities Project is pleased to share how one group of committed citizens in the small town of Northampton, Massachusetts, organized to let the rest of their town know the human and financial costs of the Iraq War. They have shared their story below in order to inspire others to undertake similar projects.

<snip>

COST OF IRAQ
AN ELECTRONIC WINDOW DISPLAY

On September 14, 2004, an electronic display appeared in the window of a store on Main Street in Northampton, Massachusetts. This simple electronic sign enclosed by a box flashes five pieces of information sequentially, and will do so day and night. The information appears between two statements painted on the box, which are not electronic and do not flash; one is the subject of the display and the other is its sponsor.

This sign cost about $1300 and can be easily replicated in any community. All it takes is:
• the money to purchase the electronic display,
• someone to build a box to hold it,
• someone to inscribe the subject on the box above the sign and the name of the source on the box below it,
• and someone willing to have it hang in the window of his or her business.
In Northampton no permit is needed for a sign that hangs inside a window; it's a different matter altogether if it hangs outside. In order to hang our sign on Main Street, we did the following:


• Contacted Aaron Krossovitch from ComText Media, Inc., who advised us about the appropriate types of electronic displays. We purchased from ComText an "Alpha Window Display LED message center," with a data receiver and a monthly Custom Message Service. This sign displays at least 14 characters at a time, each 4" in size. Contact information: ComText Media, Inc., 455 Rex Boulevard, Elmhurst, Illinois 60126-3752; phone: 630-941-3200; fax: 630-941-3214; email: comtext@sbcglobal.net.



• Contacted Vitek Kruta, an artist and art teacher at Renova Studios in Northampton, who contributed the box, which he built and inscribed in his usual elegant manner, and hung it in the window. Contact Information: http://www.Renovastudios.com; phone: 413-529-0700).



• Asked business owner, Dar Cote-Houghton, to let us hang the display in the window of her business, Good Thyme Deli (186 Main Street, Northampton MA). She genererously agreed, and we have found that other businesses will allow us to hang additional signs.

More at Link Listed Above
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Massacure Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-04-05 09:39 PM
Response to Original message
1. Those numbers on the website are old. Does the box update itself?
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chlamor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-04-05 09:43 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Yes
The box is constantly changing to see how it moves go to:

http://www.costofwar.com/

The numbers are flying
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Massacure Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-04-05 09:51 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. So does that mean the box needs an internet connection?
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chlamor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-04-05 10:03 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. I suspect so
Am in the early stages of getting sponsors and looking for a business to put it up where I live. Still learning. The response here has been great-would love to see these popping up around the US.

The support for the war and the Bush junta is at an all-time low so if we get going now I think there is a real chance we can raise the level of disgust and maybe wake up this sleepy nation. People who would otherwise be ambivalent are appalled when I show them the costs and how that affects their community. I wish they would respond when forced to consider the massacre of Iraqi children but...
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Egalitarian Donating Member (379 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 12:41 AM
Response to Reply #3
8. Internet connection shouldn't be required
All you should need is an inexpensive old computer with a simple program that updates the cost of the war every second or two or three. A $100 used computer and half an hour of a programmer's time and you should be in business. You'll need to provide the programmer with the average cost of the war per second and the date the war started.
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blondeatlast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-04-05 09:58 PM
Response to Original message
4. Very interesting. Nominated. nt
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paineinthearse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-04-05 10:37 PM
Response to Original message
6. Northampton/Amherst, hotbeds of Liberalism/Progressivism!
Gave this its 3rd nomination. Great post. I'd love to put a big one of these over the interstate.

The obvious place for a REALLY BIG one of these would be across the street of the GOP national headquarters. Or maybe Times Square.
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-04-05 11:20 PM
Response to Original message
7. .
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NJCher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 02:04 AM
Response to Original message
9. grassroots at its finest
Very impressive--this could really turn opinion against the war even faster. The Northampton share of the cost shocked even me.

Thinking about where I can get someone to host it.


Cher
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salin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 07:22 AM
Response to Original message
10. What a great idea!
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 08:07 AM
Response to Original message
11. .
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 08:28 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. .
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 10:22 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. .
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 11:43 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. .
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 01:06 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. .
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 01:59 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. .
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 04:00 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. .
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 05:30 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. .
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 08:00 PM
Response to Reply #19
20. .
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goodhue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 12:06 PM
Response to Original message
15. excellent
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chlamor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-05-05 10:27 PM
Response to Original message
21. Stop the War
“The U.S. has taken measures that have started a new arms race. Despite developing into the mightiest military power in history, and which no country on earth is in a position to challenge, it is developing a new generation of nuclear weapons.”
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chlamor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-06-05 06:57 AM
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22. ....
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