The Peace Monument
in lsla Vista’s Perfect Park
DEDICATION CEREMONY
June
10,2003
A celebration of peaceful protest.
In a
spirit of remembrance, inspiration and
reconciliation, the Isla Vista Peace Monument
commemorates the people who worked for peace,
justice and non-violence in Isla Vista and elsewhere
during the Vietnam War era.
Isla Vista's Perfect
Park was the site of numerous concerts, rallies and peace
events in the late 1960s and early 1970s, culminating in the historic sit-in of
June 10, 1970. These events sparked a community-building movement leading
to the creation of such resources as the Isla Vista Medical Clinic, Isla Vista
Food Co-op, Isla Vista Youth Projects, the Isla Vista Recreation and Park
District, and the IV Foot Patrol in the early 1970s.
Following a
nationwide competition, a South Coast committee representing
art interests selected a design for the monument by Santa Barbara artist
Colin Gray. The award-winning design envisions the four-fold way to peace
as an eternal challenge and objective.
First established in 1995, the Perfect Park
Peace Monument Implementation
Committee is a self-supporting committee of the Isla Vista Recreation and
Park District. The committee has raised $25,000 in private contributions to
construct the monument in Isla Vista's Perfect Park. No public funds have
been used in the construction of the monument. Present members of the
committee are Bob Potter, chair, Diane Conn, Dr. Dave Bearman, and Carmen
Lodise.
The project's National Advisory Committee:
Dick Flacks, J. Marc McGinnes,
Brent Foster, Leila Salazar, David Krieger, David Fortson, Daniel Ellsberg,
Torn Hayden, Keith Stroup, David E. Smith, M.D., and
Terence Hallinan.
Cover Photo: A
peaceful protester being removed from Perfect Park, June 10,
1970. This unidentified
person was one of 390 students, residents, UCSB staff
and local clergy arrested that day as 1,000 persons sat in to protest a sunset
curfew. Police cleared the area with teargas. Judge Joseph Lodge set
all 390
free the next morning. Photo from The Isla Vista Slide
Show
Program Agenda 6:00 PM
Geoff Green & David Fortson are the MCs: both
are former elected
representatives to the board of directors
of the Isla Vista Recreation
&
Park District.
1.
AChumash
Blessing by Art Cisneros
2.
U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (represented by Jeremy
Tittle)
3.
Gail Marshall,
County Supervisor
4.
Yonie Harris, UCSB
Dean of Students
5.
Bob Potter,
Monument Committee Chair, on the history of Perfect
Park and the movement to build a
monument
6. Rob Gibson: current Isla Vista resident present June 10, 1970
7.
Superior Court
Judge Joseph Lodge (letter read by Carmen Lodise)
8. Christine Lawson,UCSB Associated Students President, 2002-03
9.
Colin Gray,
Monument artist
10.
Geoff Green:
Areading of the plaque in the
center of the monument
and a declaration that the
monument has been dedicated.
11.
Music: John
Lennon's "Imagine"
12.
Open Mike
Special thanks for help making this ceremony
possible go to the
Isla Vista Recreation & Park District, the Isla Vista Community Relations
Committee of the UCSB Associated Students, the Fund for Santa Barbara, and
Sanford Winery.
IMAGINE
Imagine there’s no heaven,
It’s easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today…
Imagine there’s
no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
Imagine no
possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for
greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I’m
a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us,
And the world will live as one.