Main Street America: How to Tell Your Town about 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 and are eager to help others to do the same in their location.

Cost of Iraq War: An Electronic Window Display:

On September 14, 2004, we hung an electronic display in the window of a store on Main Street in Northampton, Massachusetts. Here is a photo of it:

This simple electronic sign displays five pieces of information in a scrolling fashion, and does so day and night. The above photo captures, of course, only one moment of the whole continuously scrolling message the sign displays. The numbers, which we update almost every day, are these:

U.S. TROOPS KILLED

IRAQI CIVILIANS DEAD

U.S. WOUNDED

EXTRA COST TO -

USA

TO OUR TOWN

This sign costs about $950 and easily can be replicated in any community. All it takes is someone’s initiative to spearhead the project, acquire a sign and find a good place to hang it. In most communities, no permit is needed for a sign that is mounted inside a window and is showing to the outside.

Sources for the information we put on the sign are:

National Priorities Project [1]
This site provides a running total of U.S. taxpayer money for the Iraq War and includes the explanation of how the estimates are derived. The taxpayer cost is available at the federal, state, county and town levels throughout the country.

Iraq Coalition Casualty Count [2]
This site provides the numbers of U.S. soldiers killed and wounded since the beginning of the war in March of 2003.

Iraq Body Count [3]
This site provides its own minimum and maximum estimates of Iraqi civilians killed since the war began based on media reporting and other data.

Signs can be programmed and updated either by hand held device, much like a television remote control device or by computer. The computer approach requires a subscription service of $15 per month and is wonderfully easy to do; it needs no special software. You simply go on line and gather your update numbers, you then sign on to the proper web page that connects you to your sign. Once you have entered the updated numbers and press submit the information is sent to your sign via a signal such as is used by a cell phone.

The sign in the picture above is mounted within a box that was constructed by a local artist. The sign can be mounted without a box. We preferred, in our case, to use a box for mounting in order to make the source of the taxpayer cost data, the National Priorities Project, more pronounced.

There are approximately nine signs operating at various locations around the country at this time.

We recognize that some people may feel less than fully confident to handle the set up and updating processes, even though these are very simple. We also recognize that $950 may be a lot to devote to this kind of effort, even though continuously informing people about the costs of the U.S. in Iraq is important. If you are interested in knowing more about how to acquire a sign and/or about the set up process please contact us by calling the number below. Once you have purchased a sign we are happy to provide as much support as we can toward having your effort be successful and effective.

Finally, we would like to point out that we have a small fund that can be used to help reduce the price of the sign in some cases. Our intent is to help make it possible for people to purchase signs. Please feel free to discuss this with us at the following number:

Frank Marotta
413-586-7912

-- Lori Divine-Hudson, Carolyn Hicks, Dennis Hudson, Frank Marotta
Northampton, Massachusetts
September 23, 2006