In a message dated 10/13/05 3:07:13 PM, somebody else wrote:
Some
very sad news (some of you already know).
I'm
sorry to say that Lennox Sweeney, our friend and a great South Bay
peace
activist, was hospitalized (at El Camino Hosp) the other day with a
bleed
in his brain. I heard from his housemate, George Johnson,
that he is not
expected to recover... all the signs are that there is no brain
activity.
The hospital will be removing life support today.
This
is a very sad day. Lennox, even while fighting health
problems, has always
been an anchor, a man of wisdom and maker of great protest signs for
the
peace movement in the South Bay, counter-recruitment and in
Veterans for
Peace for a very long time. He went to the September 24th march
in Washington,
DC and is present at most every event... encouraging
our youth and helping
to organize and stage VFP events. He also worked in the
Dennis Kucinich
for President Campaign.
A
while back he received a transplant that returned him to
better health, but now this. What a great loss for all of us.
Lennox
apparently had already lost all of his family, so his close
friends as taking
care of what needs to be done and we will probably have a wonderful
(large!)
memorial service for him soon.
Please
keep Lennox in your thoughts and prayers.
Diane wrote:
>
>We
sure will miss him.
>
At 1:45 pm today, October 13, 2005, our wonderful Lennox Sweeney
>was taken off life support. He was surrounded by love and
friends
>holding his hand when he passed quietly a few minutes later.
>
>
As a very active member of Veterans for Peace, Lennox sometimes
>seemed to be everywhere, with his signs and his car prominently
>covered with bumper stickers.
>
>
If you missed the previous e-mail, Lennox suffered a brain
aneurysm
>yesterday morning. He spent the day in ICU on life support,
and today's
>action was pretty much expected.
>
> When I think of
Lennox, I picture him always smiling.
>
>
A party to celebrate his life is being planned, possibly for the
weekend after Veterans' Day.
>
>
Sharon Kufeldt can be contacted with questions about any of this -
650-799-1070.
>
I didn't really know him well, but I knew
Lennox long before I started my
website.
He was one of the people who said "I've seen you before" when
I
started going to public events here in '99 or '00 or whenever it was
that I
came back. I didn't remember him from the first gulf war time
frame,
but being an activist was all new to me then. Lennox wasn't the
kind
that dominates your attention. He was more the kind you notice
when
the crowd gets more interesting than the speakers.
The
first time I remember him was when he came to the Statewide Green
Party
meeting in Arcata, back when that was the only place in the USA
that
had a Green Party majority on the City Council. Lennox wore a very
tie
died T shirt with exquisite Native American themed artwork
on the
front.
He gave me a couple of lessons on the nonviolent nature of peace
activism.
One of them was holding up a hundred freshly printed Green
Party
stickers to his nose and inhaling deeply. Then he said "the smell
of
activism" with a smile. The other thing he told me there that stuck
was
that watches are "time machines".
There are
many pictures of Lennox on my website. He was always
showing
off another great sign at marches, rallys, and peace vigils.
In
fact, it was looking at those things and wanting more people to see
them
that got me started putting demonstrations on my website.
One is the
"Quagmire Accomplished" in the crowd of people listening here:
http://tian.greens.org/PaloAlto/AnarchistMarchJune05/index.html
Another is
the "Quagmire Accomplished" he held in a yellow coat here:
http://tian.greens.org/MountainView/MVVPChristmas04/index.html
Another is
the Rachel Corrie picture on this page:
http://tian.greens.org/PaloAlto/JusticeBusDec03/EventNotes.html
Rest in
peace, Lennox Sweeney...
Tian
I sent the above out as an email, and got the following reply from John:
>
>I just had to write to say that I'm sorry to hear of
Lennox. You're right, he was
>always around, showing up to take his stand.
>
>When I was involved with the campaign to keep the women's
clinics open
in San Jose
>(I think it was in the summer of '92), I first ran into him.
Then when I worked on the
>campaign to defeat Prop. 209, I was with one group,
and he would always show up
>with the Greens at various actions the group
I was with would participate in. We had
>more than a couple street corner
discussions on green politics & issues of the day, and
>when the Dems
punted on maintaining affirmative action and ceded the campaign to
>the state
fascists, aka Pete Wilson, well, I started coming to Green meetings.
>
>I mentioned it to Gaylen, and she said, Isn't he the guy we
saw in San
Jose who had the
>"Quagmire Accomplished" banner. I told her it was, and
that the last time I saw him,
>he seemed okay. I saw him a couple months
back in front of the Grand Lake Theatre
>in Oakland when we were part of the
last 1000 people to show up for 650 seats to hear
>U.S. Representative Barbara
Lee speak.
>
>I mentioned Oakland, where I'm at now, in the context of
a Seva Concert
that Lennox
>and I had attended in Berkeley, when we discovered at about 1:30
a.m. that BART
>actually stops running sometime just after midnite. He
knew
someone in Oakland who
>took pity on us and let us stay with them. Lennox
had kind of let it go, but it was a
>great concert. Jackson Brown, Bob Weir,
Ram Dass, Odetta, among others.
>
>You're right about his getting around and being there.
I'll think of
him and will miss
>him. Thank you for posting this message.
Then the next day I found this notice about an upcoming event:
Honor
the memory of Lennox Sweeney
by
doing what he would be doing today:
Saturday
Peace Vigil
October
15, 12 noon
at the corner
of Stevens Creek & Winchester, San Jose
End the War
& Occupation! Bring the Troops Home Now!

This email
message was sent by Lennox to the SBM list last week.*
From:
Lennox Sweeney <lummox41@pacbell.net>
To: sbm@lists.riseup.net; VFP 101 <vfp101@yahoo.com>
Subject: [SBM] Help - Winchester peace vigil
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 23:40:36 -0700
Attendence at the Saturday/Sunday peace vigil at Winchester and Stevens
Creek has fallen to about 2-3. David Ledesma, the mainstay of this
vigil,
is off to Hawaii this weekend and next for a mix of business and
pleasure.
I feel a little awkward out there alone and would appreciate any
support.
I'll be out from 11:30 to 1:30 Saturday and Sunday, Oct 8, 9, 15, 16
(and
beyond) with some extra signs.
(This location has good visibility and LOTS of cars)
*It
could be considered his last request. It was the last request I saw he
made.
On the appointed day, many people showed
up:
We vigiled for a couple of hours. There
was some talk about Lennox, but mostly people just did what they do at
these kind of things. Bob passed around a bowl of fresh orgainc apples
from the tree in his back yard. Vida gave out fliers about an upcoming
event. It was special because there were so many people. Lennox would
have been pleased that his email had so much effect.
At the end we circled up and talked a
bit. Donna recalled how Lennox had always been there, and always on the
right side of every issue. Lennox's landlord of 25 years talked about
all the activism stuff there is in the house, and how reliable Lennox
had been about paying the rent. Somebody else mentioned that he had been
arrested just two weeks ago on in front of the White House.
Several people had nice things to say about the signs he was always
coming up with, and everybody liked the way he was always smiling. We
finished up by responding to "Lennox Sweeney" with "PRESENTE!"
Before going our separate ways we posed
for a group shot.