My name is Dale Clark.  I am an artist-filmmaker from the Bisbee-Tombstone, Arizona area. 
 I am pushing, and hitchhiking with, a coffin on wheels in hopes of making it to Los Angeles, 
San Francisco, Washington, DC, New York City and towns in between to bring attention to
 my project, the America, Afghanistan and Iraq Children’s Memorial.   I very comfortably
 sleep in the coffin, which is equipped with solar energy for lights and a home entertainment 
system.  

The Children’s Memorial is a large, walk through, environmental sculpture (about  50 foot 
by 50 foot that requires about 50 to 70 hours just to set up) with 4,000 small tombstones.  
It respectfully remembers the 8 children killed in the US on 9/11/2001 and the 4 – 8,000 
children killed in Afghanistan and Iraq as a result of the current conflict in these countries. 
It emphasizes that all wars are devastating for children who cannot defend themselves.  

The large Children’s Memorial was shown in May, 2005, at the University of Arizona in
 Tucson. It received major television and newspaper coverage.  At that showing, I was invited 
to take the Memorial to Baghdad, but respectfully declined, as at 82, I’m still too young to die.
  A recent showing scheduled for April, 2006, at Arizona State University in Tempe was cancelled
 2 days before the opening because the school president, Michael Crow, was worried about
 damage to the grass!  It is because of objections like this that I created this coffin, covered with
 hundreds of names of the dead children, as a mini-memorial and am pushing, and hitchhiking
 with, it.  I hope that the mini coffin memorial will open doors for the large Children’s Memorial.
(To learn more about the set-up and showing of the large Memorial, please visit our lessons 
learned page.)


Would you be willing to give me a ride? The coffin can fit in a very small space when the wheels
 are removed.   It would be wonderful if you would allow me to audio and videotape while I am in
 your vehicle.  If that’s okay with you, your comments might become part of a documentary film
 about our adventure in your vehicle.  It would be necessary for you would to sign a standard
 audio/visual release form.  

The video shown here was created by Sarah Sher, a Tucson filmmaker.   It was awarded 'Best of
 Tucson' at the 2006 Puro Inspiration Film Festival and received the Audience Favorite Award at
 the Tucson Loft Theater. 
 


Thank you,