New links to soldiers in Iraq -- both living and dead New links to soldiers in Iraq -- both living and dead (June 10, 2005)

Video e-mail event dedicated to Mountain View mom's fallen son

By Jon Wiener

Like a lot of the people Lt. Ken Ballard touched through his life and death, Frank Leong had never met him. A small-businessman from Sunnyvale, Leong met Ballard's mom, Karen Meredith, through bead-decorating parties he hosted.

Meredith communicated regularly with her son, a 1996 graduate of Mountain View High School, before he was gunned down in An-Najaf last year on Memorial Day. Phone calls, e-mails, instant messages -- all helped the two of them to stay in touch, and helped Meredith share her son's travails with everyone back home.

This Saturday at the Tech Museum of Innovation, Leong will be trying to help others connect with service members, using video e-mail technology distributed by his company, AGL Internet Solutions. Ten notebook computers equipped with Web cams have been donated for family members and friends to send video e-mails to those serving overseas. Leong said that will be enough to send as many as 200 messages.

"It is such a richer way of communicating that you wouldn't have if it were just straight text or over the phone," said Leong.

Leong is calling the event Operation Connect, and he has dedicated it to Ballard's memory. His friend Meredith will be there to greet participants.

"I think it's wonderful what these guys are doing," said Meredith.

In recent months, Meredith has turned into somewhat of a national media celebrity and a darling of peace groups nationwide. She recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where she met with five different congressional representatives. She spent the one-year anniversary of her son's death at his grave at Arlington National Cemetery, where she did a live televised interview with The Early Show on CBS and was featured on the front page of USA Today.

In the months since she first spoke up at a Mountain View Voices for Peace vigil in December, Meredith has become more and more frustrated with a war that she believes has no end in sight. And every time new evidence raises questions about the Bush administration's statements to the American public about the war -- whether it is the Downing Street Memo or the differing times of death listed on her son's official documents -- Meredith says she will continue her efforts to put a human face on the cost of war.

"If I don't speak out, then people won't know how horrible this journey's been," she said.

A counter on the Voices for Peace Web site keeps a running total of the war's cost. (The city's share is now approaching $70 million -- approximately equal to the city's general fund this year). Meredith wears a similar counter, a button tallying the number of dead American soldiers and asking, "How many more?" (Tuesday, it was up to 1,677).

It took Meredith more than 11 months to get a copy of Ballard's autopsy report, which she is not ready to read. And as she begins the second year since her son's death, she is hopeful that the military will release a photo of his casket returning to Dover Air Force Base.

But for now, Meredith says she will continue to make herself available wherever she can, from local meetings and media interviews to events like Operation Connect.

"It's not all a lost cause," she said. "I'm going to continue to speak out."
What: Operation Connect Where: The Tech Museum of Innovation When: Saturday, June 11, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Register: www.icsbd.org

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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