Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 New Jersey

Remembering Dave Cline

2012-01-09T19:33:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, January 8th, would have been Dave Cline's 65th birthday. Dave died on September 14, 2007, which was far too soon and in my opinion, Dave was a belated casualty of the war in Vietnam.

Please watch this video and if you wish, you can download an abbreviated version of the entire movie from Google videos.

Peace and Solidarity,

Ken Dalton
VFP 21, N.J.
VVAW

"In the 1960's an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. This movement didn't take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point. And it spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam. It was a movement no one expected, least of all those in it. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile. And by 1971 it had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services. Yet today few people know about the GI movement against the war in Vietnam."

Vietnam vet Dave Cline was one of those organizers.

Visit www.sirnosir.com

Writing the Way Home

2011-12-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

Book project supported by VFP 21

By Jan Barry

Across America, a special gift is arriving at numerous homes this week. This gift is a new book by Warrior Writers titled After Action Review: A Collection of Writing and Artwork by Veterans of the Global War on Terror.

What makes this book decidedly different from so many other gifts this holiday season is three-fold: its handcrafted artistry by young men and women who turned sleepless nights and troubled days into making art with hands that for too long held war weapons; its funding by dozens of supporters who collectively chipped in thousands of dollars to pay for the printing and postage; and its timing—published just as the war in Iraq was officially declared over and the last US military units departed that war-savaged land.

Here at home, a great many veterans of deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan are trying to turn off unrelenting war memories. Some try chasing off nightmares with hard drinking, drugs, death-defying lifestyles. Some find nothing seems to work. As Zach LaPorte, a former Army Ranger who served twice in Iraq, writes in a poem titled “Spliced”:

My life is like a slide show, spliced with images of the desert.
Mom asks me if I like the potatoes,
     A woman shrieks from a bloodied mouth.
My Professor hands me an exam paper,
     I’m riding in the door of a Blackhawk.
I walk alone at night past neon signs,
     Crimson tracers snap so close you could touch.
I sit in my air-conditioned cubicle,
     The blood in my brain boils.
The scars run deeper than they appear.

LaPorte’s poem is a troubling, yet heartening example of what the Warriors Writers project and this anthology are about: writing war images and injuries out, releasing them to the light of day, shared with those who care, aired to help heal hidden torments that long ago were called “soldier’s heart.”

"It's hard to overestimate how writing can heal long scarred over wounds that every veteran inevitably has,” Josiah White, a former Marine who was wounded by a suicide bomber, writes in a quote displayed on the back cover. “These stories and poems also have the power of communicating a near impossible message to non-veterans, those hurt by war, those hurt by tragedy, anyone who has ever suffered and asked the question ‘why?’ No one will read this book and come away unchanged."

With the 10-year war in Afghanistan still raging and flailing dangerously into Pakistan, this book raises veterans’ concerns that extend far beyond the mission in Iraq that just ended. In the Foreword, Brian Turner—author of one of the first poetry books to come out of the war in Iraq, Here, Bullet—writes that the works in this anthology “seem to suggest that we would be wise to take stock of where we are now, as a country.”

Many of the pieces in this collection by more than 60 contributors focus on an incident that triggered disconcerting change in perspective in the midst of military life. In a poem titled “Happy Birthday,” Zachariah Dean writes about suddenly realizing he just turned 26 as death whizzes by in the middle of a firefight in Afghanistan in which his rifle is jammed by a defective bullet. Scrambling to fix the rifle, it hits him how carelessly he’s led his life to end up in such a desperate jam. "I wrote this in a hurry in a machine gun turret several nights later,” he notes in the poem, stunned by the surreal experience. “Try to burn it out of memory by putting it on paper…"

Others focus on trying to find a thread that may bring deeply sought change for the better in a veteran’s life. In a sardonic welcome home for himself and other veterans, Garett Reppenhagen wrote in a poem titled “Black Out Drive”:

“Heeeey, welcome home brother.”
Just grip that wheel hero.
Stay alert, stay alive.
The real war has just started,
Your fight to survive.

Jacob George, who served three tours in Afghanistan with the Army, reaches out to fellow Americans in a poem titled “Support the Troops”:

don’t thank me for what I’ve done

give me a big hug
and let me know
we’re not going to let this happen again
because we support the troops
and we’re gonna bring these wars to an end

Unlike collections of writings by warriors of previous wars, women veterans take a prominent role in this anthology. Air Force veteran Kristina Vogt captures the bizarre military bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo that she describes as, from a female perspective, creating “the womb of the WoMD” (weapons of mass destruction)—the official reason for invading Iraq, which became as illusive as a desert mirage.

“I am the savage,” writes Emily Yates, who served two combat tours in Iraq, describing bursting into “proud homes” looking for elusive enemies, where women and children “stand in the doorway with fearful faces,” while she the armed American soldier wields “the weapon of ignorance … the shield of arrogance,” speaking with “the voice of entitlement….”

Former Army sergeant Robynn Murray, in a poem titled “Eviscerated,” throws the disillusionment of serving in terrorizing raids on Iraqi civilians directly at war supporters back home:

I am your walking wounded broken toy soldier,
and your flag is burning and all your yellow ribbons have fallen down.
I cut open these festers to force your eyes to see the truth so damn it, LOOK!
Look at what has become of me, of us.

I will gladly reopen these wounds if there is change that will come of it.
So that no one else receives these scars. …

Woven throughout the poetry and essays in this collection is an arresting gallery of often startling artwork. These include an American flag made of bullet casings (“Bullet Flag” by Lars Ekstrom); a toy soldier inside a prescription bottle (“Trapped” by Malachi Muncy); and a drawing of a walking skeleton with flaming oil derricks crowning the skull (“Greed Walks” by Eric Estenzo).

Many of the works in this book address post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Chantelle Bateman, a Marine veteran of Iraq, writes about “anger is the color I sometimes paint the town with … louder than incoming and the sirens they play when I hit the deck … I’m just a pile of tears needing to punch you”. Another former Marine, Jon Turner, punches at everything in sight in Iraq and back home in a string of explosive, insightful, drunken, cold sober images of human encounters, rejections, attempts at reaching out that ends with these lines:

In the unwritten letters and poems—
are the hidden faces of war

Several pieces reach breathtakingly out of inner turmoil to find an uplifting path. “I desire to trust life,” writes former Marine Liam Madden, “to cultivate my unique and needed gifts/Loving with abandon/ I intend to weave a web of gratitude into my community.” His poem “Intention” is the first in the book, followed by a wide array of perspectives drawn from a decade of war. The last poem is called “Brio,” in which Army veteran Maggie Martin, who served twice in Iraq, joins others in various civic actions:

I sow community in re-acquisitioned places,
Crowded city street, marching orders, protest song,
Our hands and mouths’ unsinkable strength.
…
Old constructs crumble and blow away,
new consciousness takes root.

The concluding section showcases photos of veterans at Warrior Writers workshops in cities around the country, accompanied by a quote by Eli Wright, a former Army combat medic: "I used to write before I went to Iraq, but when I got over there, I wasn't able to write. So through Warrior Writers I have been able to slowly begin to find my words again and share my experiences and what happened over there. It's been a healing experience."

The nearly 200-page anthology was compiled and edited by Lovella Calica, the director of Warrior Writers, which is based in Philadelphia, PA, with the assistance of a number of contributors and supporters. I aided the project as an advisor and copy editor. The book was artfully designed by Rachel McNeill, an Army veteran who included thought-provoking photos shot on patrols in Iraq by herself and others. A series of drawings and paintings titled “Dust Works” by Army National Guard veteran Aaron Hughes provides a visual theme of roads through war on the cover and throughout the book.

After Action Review (paperback, $20) is the third in a series of anthologies of writing and art by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans published by Warrior Writers, and is available at www.warriorwriters.org.

VFP Chapter 21 contributed to the financial support for this book project.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-18T13:31:00.001-08:00

PEACE ON EARTH

Artwork on this greeting card was designed by Walt Nygard, a fellow Vietnam veteran; typesetting on the back is by Eli Wright, an Iraq war vet.

The cards were handmade and printed by Walt, Eli and me at the Printmaking Center

of New Jersey as part of a Combat Paper workshop.

Planting a Peace Pole

2011-11-16T19:38:00.000-08:00

Jules Orkin and Puffin Peace Pole

Dedicating a Peace Pole at a community cultural center in Teaneck, NJ drew a small crowd of local officials, school children and war veterans the other day.

The carved wood pole was dedicated at the Puffin Foundation, as a band from Thomas Jefferson Middle School played and adults took turns exhorting the students and a television audience via a cable news program to help advance a cause that is often hard to hear in a nation engaged in seemingly perpetual war in various corners of the world.

“A world without war is a universal desire by untold millions of people,” Puffin Foundation Executive Director Gladys Miller-Rosenstein said on behalf of herself and her husband Perry Rosenstein, a retired industrialist and noted philanthropist. “We have sought to have our voices for peace heard. We have erected a ‘Peace Pole’ on our property. This pole will be shared by many young and old, who will take part in the varied cultural activities at our Forum. … There are presently 264 peace sites throughout New Jersey. We are proud to be one of the new sites in our state.”

“This is a community peace pole,” added Neil Rosenstein, vice president of the Puffin Foundation. “Peace is only achieved through community.” One of the community leaders, School Superintendent Barbara Pinsak, praised the Rosensteins—whose foundation assists local and regional arts programs, conservation and environmental education programs, as well as social action and investigative journalism projects—as role models.

“This is one of the things I am very proud to welcome to Teaneck,” said state Senator Loretta Weinberg, a well-known champion for a substantial agenda of domestic issues. “May peace prevail on Earth,” she said, quoting the message on the pole, which is printed in eight languages. “It is not an easy goal. It’s a long struggle.”

The idea of planting a peace pole at the Puffin Foundation, which hosts an eclectic collection of outdoors sculpture, was proposed by Jules Orkin, a member of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 New Jersey. A retired bookstore owner from neighboring Bergenfield, Orkin was named a Puffin Peace Fellow earlier this year in recognition of his participation in numerous peace walks, vigils and civil disobedience actions in protest of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In his comments, Orkin proposed organizing “a walk between peace poles,” such as the annual walk in neighboring Leonia between peace poles at the high school and the Methodist Church to mark the United Nations International Day of Peace. And then he was off to pack for a peace walk from Atlanta, Georgia to Ft. Benning, Georgia to protest the training program based there for military officers from Latin American nations that until recently were bastions of military dictatorships.

Walt Nygard, vice president of Veterans For Peace Chapter 21, spoke about transforming Veterans Day to the original, peacemaking intent of Armistice Day.

Township Councilwoman Barbara Toffler offered an historic note of hope for peaceful change in the world. “There is a legacy of peace in Teaneck,” she said, holding up a copy of Teaneck High School’s 1959 yearbook. “The Class of 1959 dedicated its yearbook to peace,” she said, reading from that dedication, composed amid the Cold War nuclear missile stand-off with the Soviet Union by students who were born during World War II.

Peace Poles grew out of a project of The World Peace Prayer Society that began in Japan in 1955 as a response to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For more information:

http://www.ny1.com/content/your_nj_news_now/150545/teaneck-peace-ceremony-spans-all-ages

http://www.peacepoleproject.org/

Peace Is Patriotic

2011-11-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

Walt Nygard at Peace Pole dedication

Comments by VFP Chapter 21 Vice President Walt Nygard, US Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam war, at dedication of the Puffin Peace Pole at Puffin Cultural Center, Teaneck, NJ on 11/9/11.

Friday is Armistice Day. Originally meant to honor American soldiers killed in World War I, it was a celebration - of sorts - of the peace that had arrived at the end of the War to End All Wars. Since then, Veterans Day has become a day to honor succeeding generations of American veterans, as the idea of lasting peace was never seriously pursued by the governments of the world or their various owners.

The day itself all too often becomes a spectacle of militarism and bogus patriotism. Spewed by politicians and businessmen who've never heard a shot fired in anger, patriotism - like Armistice Day itself - is now held hostage by those untroubled by the idea of endless war.

Their words mean nothing. History will record who the patriots were. Our bloody Twentieth Century has now passed away. We are at a time and place of change and so that when our history is written, the stories of Joe Hill and Gene Debs and Woody Guthrie will be as one with those of Alvin York and Audie Murphy and John Basilone.

The struggle for peace is surely fighting for one's country. Peace is patriotic. Keep up the fight!

The War at Home

2011-10-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

Scott Olsen (photo/AP)

In Boston, Massachusetts and Oakland, California, Veterans For Peace members have been assaulted by police while peacefully demonstrating on behalf of Occupy Wall Street protest groups’ constitutional rights.

The most seriously injured is Scott Olsen, a Marine vet of two tours in Iraq, who was hospitalized with head injuries after police in Oakland fired tear-gas canisters and other projectiles into an Occupy Oakland crowd assembled in front of City Hall. Olsen was wearing a Veterans For Peace T-shirt and desert camouflage field jacket and hat when he was struck in the forehead. He is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

“It was like a war zone,” Joshua Shepherd, a fellow vet who was standing near Olsen while dressed in his Navy uniform and holding aloft a highly visible, white Veterans For Peace flag, told The Associated Press. “Shepherd said it’s a cruel irony that Olsen is fighting for his life in the country that he fought to protect. ‘He was over there protecting the rights and freedoms of America and he comes home, exercises his freedoms and it’s here where he’s nearly fatally wounded,’ Shepherd said.”

In Boston, police knocked down, clubbed and tore Veterans For Peace and an American flag from the hands of a group of peace activist vets standing between the police assault and an Occupy Boston encampment the authorities set out to destroy. Among those dragged off to a paddy wagon was Rachel McNeil, an Army vet who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and was holding an American flag. Her crime: “Rachel loudly and continuously led a chant of the Oath (I do solemly swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic); but she alternated it with ‘We have a permit. It's called the Constitution’ and also ‘This is a peaceful demonstration,”" a fellow Vets For Peace member noted.

Rachel McNeil (right) and fellow VFP members
“VFP members are involved with dozens of these local ‘occupy movement’ encampments and we support them fully,” VFP national officers stated. “In Boston, for example, our members, wearing VFP shirts and carrying VFP flags, stood between a line of police and the encampment, urging police to ‘join the 99%’ and not evict the protesters. In that case, several of our members were banged and bruised when the police decided instead to carry out their eviction orders…

“As with virtually every example of the occupy movement across the country, those encamped were conducting themselves peacefully beforehand, protesting current economic, social and environmental conditions in the U.S. brought about by decades of corporate control, a criminal financial industry and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that are driving the U.S. global empire into bankruptcy. These ‘occupy movement’ participants are telling us something we need very desperately to hear. They should be listened to, not arrested and brutalized.

“Police in the majority of cities are acting with restraint and humanity towards the encampments, but Veterans For Peace will not be deterred by police who choose to use brutal tactics. In fact, as happens with repression everywhere, more people join the cause.”

Indeed, as The New York Times reported today, “the wounding of an Iraq war veteran … has provided a powerful central rallying point.” Thousands of people streamed into downtown Oakland the next day for a peaceful gathering on behalf of the Occupy Oakland movement. The mayor of Oakland commended the movement’s goals. The police promised an investigation into what caused Olsen’s injuries. News reports and videos taken at the time show what happened.

“ Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, stood calmly in front of a police line as tear gas canisters that officers shot into the Occupy Oakland protest Tuesday night whizzed past his head,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported today.

"’He was standing perfectly still, provoking no one,’ said Raleigh Latham, an Oakland filmmaker shooting footage of the confrontation between police and hundreds of protesters at 14th Street and Broadway. ‘If something didn't hit him directly in the face, then it went off close to his head and knocked him down.’ The something was a projectile that apparently came from police lines, fractured Olsen's skull and put him in Highland General Hospital. Doctors upgraded his condition Thursday from critical to fair, and said they expect him to make a full recovery.”

Like many members of Vets For Peace, Scott Olsen felt it was important to demonstrate the peaceful presence of military veterans at the Occupy Wall Street encampments that have sprung up around the country. As The Associated Press noted in a report carried by Business Week and news publications nationwide, Olsen “makes a good living as a network engineer and has a nice hillside apartment overlooking San Francisco Bay. And yet, his friends say, he felt so strongly about economic inequality in the country that he fought for that he slept at a San Francisco protest camp after work.

"’He felt you shouldn't wait until something is affecting you to get out and do something about it,’ said friend and roommate Keith Shannon, who served with Olsen in Iraq.”

For more information:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/28/MND61LN3LM.DTL

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9QKTHS82.htm

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/news_detail.php?idx=123

Protest at Wall Street

2011-10-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Ken Dalton (center) holds VFP banner at Wall St. protest

A contingent of Veterans For Peace Chapter 21 and Military Families Speak Out members from New Jersey joined the Occupy Wall Street demonstration on Saturday, October 8.

Many in the crowd of young people, older folks who dusted off memories of the protests of the '60s and '70s, and photo-snapping tourists seemed delighted to see the VFP banner unfurled near a corner of Liberty Plaza facing the new office towers being constructed at the site of the former World Trade Center. Among the Jersey contingent was VFP Chapter 21 President Ken Dalton, a Navy vet of the Vietnam war, who worked as a fire fighter in search and rescue operations at Ground Zero in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.

A common question of news reporters who stopped by for a comment was “What do war and Wall Street have in common?” Duh. Millions of unemployed veterans and other folks caught in the web of trillion-dollar wars and an economic collapse that the federal bailout of Wall Street banks was supposed to fix could have told them in a New York minute.

Many of the demonstrators in New York on Saturday eloquently stated the reasons for their dismay in an array of hand-made signs, some of which are shown here.

(Photos by Jan Barry)

Peace Beat

2011-09-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

By Jan Barry

War drums began beating across America before the dust settled at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It’s an all-American tradition to march to the beat for military action, the fountain of flag waving excitement that produces legions of war correspondents, bugle-blaring headlines and armchair commandos in newsrooms.

It is rare to hear that a drum-beat journalist felt, in retrospect, that rushing to war was perhaps a grave mistake. It’s almost historic, in fact, to see the reconsideration that Bill Keller, a top editor and columnist at the New York Times, published amid the flood of 9/11 commemorations on the 10^th anniversary of that explosive spark of war the US expanded to places most Americans had barely heard of before.

“The world is well rid of Saddam Hussein. But knowing as we now do the exaggeration of Hussein’s threat, the cost in Iraqi and American lives and the fact that none of this great splurge has bought us confidence in Iraq’s future or advanced the cause of freedom elsewhere— I think Operation Iraqi Freedom was a monumental blunder,” Keller wrote in a New York Times Magazine article revealing his conversion from the war hawk club of liberals beating the drums for military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Aside from this astonishing note of atonement, the bulk of the Times’ massive retrospective in the Sunday newspaper is essentially a monument to the US news media’s cheerleading for a decade of military blunders.

A major reason for this is that, for all the war correspondents and warrior-editors, there are few if any journalists assigned to cover waging peace.

Do editors at the Times and other mainstream news organizations ever travel outside military-oriented circles and see what groups such as September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Peace Action, Veterans For Peace or the US Institute of Peace are doing? Even small newspapers have a military affairs reporter. Does any news organization in America have a peace beat?

The glaring lack of coverage of peace groups’ actions spurred a special report earlier this year by the Nieman Watchdog website of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

“Antiwar activists repeatedly stage dramatic acts of civil disobedience in the United States but are almost entirely ignored by mainstream print and broadcast news organizations. During the Vietnam era, press coverage of the fighting and opposition to it at home helped turn public opinion against the war. This time around lack of homefront coverage may be helping keep military involvement continue on and on,” wrote John Hanrahan, a former Washington Post reporter.

“By ignoring antiwar protests almost totally, editors are treating opposition to the ongoing war in Afghanistan much as they handled the run-up to the war in Iraq: They are missing an important story and contributing to the perception that there is no visible opposition to the U.S. wars and ever-growing military budgets, even as polls show overwhelming support for early U.S. military withdrawal,” Hanrahan continued.

Among the examples of non-coverage of significant events that Hanrahan cites is this:

“Last December 16, in a demonstration organized by Veterans for Peace, 500 or more people gathered outside the White House, as snow was falling, to protest the war and to support Wikileaks and accused leaker PFC Bradley Manning. As Nieman Watchdog reported in a previous piece in this series, there were 131 arrests – including a sizable number of veterans of current and past wars – for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience. (This was the most arrests at the White House at any point in 2010.) One of the arrestees had chained himself to the White House fence and another to a lamppost. Additional newsworthy factors: Among those arrested were the nation’s most famous whistleblower (Daniel Ellsberg); a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter (Chris Hedges, the former long-time war correspondent for The New York Times); a much-praised FBI whistleblower (Coleen Rowley); a former CIA analyst who used to prepare daily presidential briefings (Ray McGovern), among others. Additionally, the demonstration seemed newsworthy because it coincided with both the release of the Pentagon’s latest progress report on Afghanistan to President Obama and the results of a new ABC/Washington Post poll in which 60 percent of Americans responded that the Afghanistan war had not been ‘worth fighting.’

“The event was covered by The Huffington Post, the Socialist Worker, OpEd News, Salem-News.com in Oregon, and the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, but was ignored by The Washington Post, The New York Times and almost all other mainstream media,” Hanrahan found.

Veterans For Peace protest at White House

As the Nieman report notes, there’s been a colossal failure of balance in coverage of what’s going on in the world. It’s a cultural failure, as well.

“It’s been a decade since 9/11, time enough to let go and shift the way we approach our decisions about war, right? One might think so, but … I’m beginning to question if and when we will choose to let go and imagine a new way forward,” notes James A. Moad II, an Air Force officer whose career as an airline pilot was diverted to military missions by the long war.

“Like most Americans of drinking age, that September day is seared into my subconscious,” he continued. “As a young commercial pilot back then, I can still remember my own nightmares as I imagined what took place in those cockpits, thinking about an old pilot buddy who’d been murdered there, and more than anything, the feeling of insecurity reverberating out from the rubble of those two towers like great clouds obscuring the future and limiting us, blotting out the imagination necessary to see beyond the anger and destruction.”

Moad’s incisive comments were not conveyed in the New York Times’ galaxy of 9/11 reminiscences, but in a War, Literature & The Arts Blog that he administers.

The internet and community-oriented newspapers provide a vital forum for many voices with a different perspective than the usual sources featured in the national news media.

"One of the outcomes of 9/11 is we need to make the decision about what kind of society we want to be," Andrea Leblanc, whose husband Robert died on United Flight 175 when it smashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, told a local newspaper in New Hampshire, Foster’s Daily Democrat. "What do we want to teach our kids? The story isn't about the fact that for 10 years I've been a widow. It's about the real cost of 9/11. I think this country squandered its moral authority. To me, it's all about peace; what societies are doing to either move toward or away from conflict."

Leblanc credited fellow 9/11 survivors with providing a compassionate, activist community of support for her anguish.

“An eye opening thing for Andrea through her involvement with September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows is the people all over the world who are reaching across borders to converse and share with other cultures,” Foster’s reporter Jennifer Keefe wrote. “She noted the numerous women's networks in Afghanistan and youth networks that reach out via Skype to hold conferences with other youths to talk about love and understanding. The groups and organizations dedicated to forming unity and speaking out in the wake of 9/11 are not in short supply, and demonstrate each day there is a compassion across borders that breaches even the deadliest of wars.”

It’s not hard to find these stories. In Philadelphia, PA, CNN filmed a Saturday night crowd at World Café Live drawn to an evening celebrating peace and ice cream. “Philadelphia-based Christian author and activist Shane Claiborne partnered with Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, to raise public awareness about federal military spending,” noted CNN’s website report.

“The evening started off on a somber note with Cohen pouring 10,000 BB gun pellets into a metal container to illustrate the power of the United States’ nuclear arsenal in front of a stunned audience. ‘It’s that kind of overkill mentality that drives an out-of-control Pentagon budget,’ he said.” Another part of his demonstration is a tall stack of oreo cookies looming over tiny piles of cookies representing the military vs. everything else in the federal budget’s priorities.

Winding up the evening, Cohen said: “If we’re going to have fewer bombs and more ice cream, we need to shift our budget to what helps people live instead of killing people.”

The ice cream business maven has traveled the nation and partnered with community activists, business executives, war veterans and many others to present a stunning critique of military spending overseas while the home front economy crumbled. I first saw his BB and cookie demonstration at a journalists’ conference in Vermont five years ago. Video versions from presentations around the country are all over YouTube.

For more information:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/us/sept-11-reckoning/keller.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=%22bill%20keller%22&st=cse

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Background.view&backgroundid=563

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110911/GJNEWS_01/709099949/-1/FOSNEWS

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/11/jesus-bombs-and-ice-cream/

Jan Barry is an award-winning investigative journalist. He has been a peace advocate since resigning from the US Military Academy after serving an Army tour in Vietnam.

Why You Won’t See Veterans For Peace on the Cover of TIME Magazine

2011-09-02T00:45:00.000-07:00

Published on August 31, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

by Leah Bolger

The cover of the August 29, 2011 issue of TIME magazine features five members of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), with the caption “The New Greatest Generation.” The point of author Joe Klein’s article is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a new kind of veteran who is “bringing skills that seem to be on the wane in American society, qualities we really need now: crisp decision making, rigor, optimism, entrepreneurial creativity, a larger sense of purpose and real patriotism.” Klein profiles a small number of veterans (including a Harvard valedictorian, a Rhodes scholar, and a Dartmouth grad) who have done well since returning to civilian life and credits their military service as the reason, then goes on to make a sweeping generalization that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have created a whole new generation of hard-working, disciplined young citizens who have something “more” to offer than their civilian counterparts.

It is articles like this that perpetuate the meme that anyone who ever wore a military uniform is a “hero.” TIME magazine is part of the biggest media conglomerate in the world, and corporate media is the lubricant that keeps the well-oiled military machine humming along so smoothly. By glorifying this “new generation” of veterans, they are adding to the layers of positive messaging about war and militarism, which the American public seems eager to absorb. We don’t want to ask ourselves the hard questions because we might not like the answers. The media conflates the military members with the wars themselves and produces layers upon layers of nothing but superficial “feel good” messages which eventually form a fairly unimpugnable depiction of our military, wars and militarism, and anyone who questions the wars risks being decried as unpatriotic. Congressmen fund wars they don’t agree with because they can’t afford the political cost of not “supporting the troops.”

Klein briefly mentions the high rates of suicide, domestic violence, joblessness and homelessness amongst Iraq and Afghanistan vets, but then dismisses it all by saying that that’s all we ever hear about—he wants to tell us the untold story of a handful of vets who came out of their military experience and moved forward in a positive way. But the real untold story is the truth of war, and we will never read about that in the likes of magazines like TIME.

The mission of IAVA is “to improve the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families,” and they are very good at that. They have a multi-million dollar budget, have ready access to the top Congressional leaders and have even met with the President on more than one occasion. The Executive Director of IAVA, Paul Rieckoff, has appeared hundreds of times on all the major media outlets. Why is it that IAVA is given so much media exposure, so much access, and so much money? The answer is that they do not question the legality or morality of war. They are not critical of the complicity of the corporate media in fostering and supporting militarism. They want only to support our troops, and who doesn’t want that?

The mission of Veterans For Peace is to end war as an instrument of national policy by educating the public about its true costs and consequences. Veterans For Peace has been around since 1985 telling the ugly truth of war. Our members understand the devastating effects of war on both sides of the conflict. We seek justice for the victims of war—not just ensuring care and benefits for our soldiers, but also reparations for innocent civilian victims. We know that wars of aggression are the most egregious crime there is, and we point an accusing finger at our government, the military-industrial complex, and the corporate media who collude to keep the United States in a perpetual state of war. We try to use the power of our first-hand experiences and stories to prevent wars from happening and to end them once begun. We don’t sugarcoat the experiences of war and the militarism. We believe that if the American people saw the real truth of war, they would end it. Think we’ll be on the cover of TIME magazine anytime soon? Don’t hold your breath.

Leah Bolger spent 20 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy and retired in 2000 at the rank of Commander. She is currently a full-time peace activist and serves as the National Vice-President of Veterans For Peace.

Local Campaign on Federal Budget Priorities

2011-08-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Sign at recent Teaneck Peace Vigil

If ordinary citizens could decide how to spend one million dollars on behalf of the nation, what would they spend the money on? That was the idea behind handing out copies of $1 million bills to people who stopped by the NJ National Guard Armory in Teaneck last week during the weekly peace vigil at the corner of Teaneck and Liberty roads.

“Jobs Not War,” Veterans For Peace member Tom Urgo, a plumber from Ridgewood who served in the US Army in Vietnam, wrote on the back of one of the bills. “Resurrect the W.P.A. & the C.C.C.,” wrote another North Jersey resident, referring to the federal agencies created by President Roosevelt to provide government-subsidized jobs building schools, roads, state and national parks during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

“Spend our tax dollars for people’s needs, not to kill people. Use this money to create jobs, fund education & medical care, and finance our state & local governments,” wrote Joseph Harris, a labor mediator from Teaneck.

These and other handwritten budget messages are being sent to New Jersey’s congressional delegation.

Other budget priorities presented by more than two dozen people who took time to write their thoughts include: housing for the homeless, Veterans Affairs, AIDS and drought relief in Africa, the Peace Corps and to establish a Peace Department.

While not drawn from a scientifically random survey of North Jersey residents, the budget priorities expressed by these concerned citizens closely match those of the American public as shown in national polls. “Unemployment and jobs” topped a Bloomberg National Poll in June, while the war in

Afghanistan

only drew 5 percent support as the nation’s most pressing issue.

A University of Maryland study released in March found similar concerns in its national survey. "Clearly both the administration and the Republican-led House are out of step with the public's values and priorities in regard to the budget," said University of Maryland School of Public Policy researcher Steven Kull, who directs the Program for Public Consultation, which did the study. "Our respondents would more than double funding for job training and cut deeply on defense."

The $1-million budget priorities campaign was inaugurated during the 6^th anniversary of the weekly peace vigil at the National Guard Armory. The event is sponsored by the Teaneck Peace Vigil, Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County; Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 NJ; Bergen Greens and New Jersey Peace Action. The peace vigil goals are: The immediate return of all troops and military contractors from Afghanistan and Iraq, proper care for the troops when they return, maintain the NJ National Guard in New Jersey, and use war dollars at home for community benefits.

Welcome Home

2011-08-14T13:36:00.000-07:00

Among the highlights of the 2011 Veterans For Peace convention in Portland, Oregon earlier this month was a showing of a new documentary, "The Welcome," on a memorable community event that several VFP members helped create and foster.

Eli Painted Crow and fellow vets in "The Welcome"

By Jan Barry

Bob and Moe Eaton’s marriage, shadowed for more than 30 years by nightmares from the war in Vietnam, was about to implode. Ken Kraft, an Army officer who proudly served in Iraq, felt betrayed by his son’s refusal to carry on the family tradition of military service. Eli Painted Crow, a former Army drill sergeant, felt betrayed by the nation that sent her to war on dark-skinned, tribal people like herself.

These were just some of the rubbed-raw emotions that a couple dozen war veterans and several family members brought to an unusual retreat in Oregon. In this deceptively quiet setting, a film crew recorded real life dramas brimming with outbursts of bitterness and laughter, tears and hugs, dark humor and dawning revelations. The focus of the four-day gathering, just before Memorial Day 2008, was to sort out what they wanted to say—in a poem or a song or a concise statement—to a crowd of people preparing a public event to welcome these warriors home from war.

“I’m asking you to f------ listen!” Eli Painted Crow shouted at the other participants in a particularly tense point in the new documentary called “The Welcome.” A retired Army sergeant and Native American peace activist, Painted Crow was fed up with interruptions as she attempted to explain how she felt about her deployment in Iraq, where fellow soldiers called combat areas Indian country. “I just want to be heard with your hearts,” she added, before stomping out the door to cool off. “If you don’t hear me with your hearts, I can’t heal.”

In another scene, a member of Veterans For Peace said he felt like the enemy in Vietnam. Another Vietnam vet retorted that he wasn’t the enemy but killed people who were the enemy. That set off a whirlwind of war justifications by other veterans.

Such scenes pull viewers intimately into the inner turmoil of the aftermath of war that swirls through many veterans across America. Throughout the 93-minute film directed by Kim Shelton, veterans and family members openly struggle to tame the turmoil long enough to find some pathway to healing.

“Sometimes you stumble into something out of a sense of duty or good intentions only to find yourself absorbed and overwhelmed beyond anything you might have anticipated,” a reviewer for The Oregonian, Shawn Levy, wrote of this low-budget film that was an audience hit at the Ashland (Oregon) Independent Film Festival this spring.

“From virtually the outset, with a poem by Laura Carpenter, a veteran of Afghanistan about to deploy to Iraq, ‘The Welcome’ drills directly through any emotional reserves you might bring into it,” Levy added. “You're unsteadied, startled, galvanized, and brought to sobs again and again. There are dark jokes and harrowing accounts of the hellish confusion of war and its grip on the memory. There are angry outbursts as the various veterans try to establish terms of respect and conduct with one another. There are wry laughs and monumental silences. And there are staggering moments of courage in which the veterans look as if they're merely speaking aloud but in which they are actually performing open-heart surgery on themselves -- in front of an audience and a movie camera.”

Amazingly, the participants ignored the camera as they candidly interacted with each other and with retreat leader Michael Meade, described by the filmmakers as a “mythologist and story teller who specialized in working with traumatized communities.” Meade’s ritualistic mixture of Native American chants and Irish stories grated on Eli Painted Crow and another Native American woman veteran. But after an outburst about respecting traditions, they participated on their terms.

“One of the ways to heal is to find out what our gifts are and begin practicing giving them,” Meade said, in guiding the group to write poetry, which he defined as “the speech of the soul,” in preparation for a Memorial Day event at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.

Retired Army Captain Ken Kraft wrestled with how to make sense of a phone call he’d gotten in Iraq that his son had deserted from Army ranger training and denounced the war. He felt betrayed, he said, and bolted from the podium back to his seat. At the Memorial Day event, Kraft praised the intense interaction at the retreat and read a poem about his pride in being a soldier and noted that he was trying to reach out to his son.

A young woman veteran shyly read a poem about the shame of a sexual assault by a military superior. Another young woman vet read a poem about older veterans reaching out and clearing a path for them.

Cynthia Lefever, whose son was severely wounded in Iraq, read a poem about a dream in which rows of wounded soldiers marched down a road toward her, beseeching: “Be our mom—for God’s sake, bring us home!”

“I found a voice I didn’t know I had,” Mandy Martin, another of the retreat participants, said in a recent PBS television interview. "The impact has been pretty immense," she said of the veterans' healing project. A follow up on the film website notes that she now works at the Department of Veterans Affairs as a congressional communications officer.

Moe Eaton, whose husband Bob served in Vietnam, read a poem about his frightening mood swings and suicidal statements. “Me: Why can’t you count your blessings? He: I don’t know.”

Bob Eaton then haltingly told a story, which he said he’d never been able to tell his wife, about surviving a battle in Vietnam and having to shovel up the remains of dead soldiers blown apart by artillery explosions. “I thought every f------ night that that was going to happen again,” he added.

At the Memorial Day event, Bob Eaton pulled out a guitar, stared at the packed auditorium full of neighbors, friends and strangers and brought down the house with applause when he growled “I was heavily medicated for depression. I wanted to get off the medication and took up the guitar. You’re the first audience I’ve ever played for.”

“You’re coming home/ Feeling all alone/ Thousand-yard stare/ Nobody there,” he sang and then stopped, nearly breaking down. The audience clapped again encouragingly. “When will it end?/ The guilt and the shame/ Now it’s back again,” he continued. “That old war/ It still haunts me.”

In a recent PBS television interview about the film, Moe Eaton said the couple’s participation in the veterans’ retreat “had a lot to do with saving our marriage.” She realized, she said, that Bob’s war nightmares wouldn’t go away by continuing to say “get over it.”

For Bob Eaton, playing a song he wrote at the Memorial Day “Welcome Home” event launched a new career singing at veterans’ gatherings. “It gave me the courage to keep going,” he said.

The documentary was made by Kim Shelton and her husband, Bill McMillan, who are both therapists in Ashland, Oregon. They created the Welcome Home Project to provide resource materials for communities interested in holding similar events and are seeking film festivals and organizations that would be interested in hosting showings of the film.

For more information:
http://www.thewelcomehomeproject.org/
http://www.thewelcomethemovie.com/
http://blog.oregonlive.com/madaboutmovies/2011/04/ashland_independent_film_festi_1.html

In fighting wars, do the math

2011-07-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

This letter to the editor appeared in The Record (Bergen Co. NJ) on July 29, 2011

Recently, a friend of mine, also a retired teacher from Paterson, e-mailed with some information about the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I kind of put it aside. However, when I had some free time I took up his challenge and did the math, as he suggested.

My friend contended that if you spent $1 million a day from the time Jesus Christ was born to the present, you wouldn't have spent as much as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 10 years. I multiplied 365 by 2,010, which gave me a total of 734,154 days (503 leap years). Multiplied by $1 million, I came up with $734.2 billion, which is more than half of what we have spent on the Iraq-Afghanistan wars ($1.3 trillion and counting). It's also a little more than half of what the Department of Defense gobbled up in two years.

It seems incredible that we're spending that kind of money on wars of choice and weapons to fight an enemy that no longer exists, the Soviet Union, while we're cutting money to things we desperately need here at home, like health care, education and public transportation.

As Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, "Any nation that continuously spends more on weapons of defense rather than uplifting its citizens is a nation approaching spiritual death." I would add that we reached that point many years ago, and we're now in the middle of financial and political death.

In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower, a retired professional military man, had these thoughts: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

"This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

I hope readers will encourage their representatives in Washington to try doing the math for once.

Ken Dalton
July 20

The writer is president of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21, in New Jersey.

Sailing for Peace

2011-07-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

Golden Rule in June 1958 (Honolulu Star-Bulletin photo)

Beyond the July 4th fireworks celebrating historic battles against the British empire, American history includes many other memorable moments when courageous acts of conscience stirred the nation to steer a peaceful tack against the winds of war. One of those moments was in the spring of 1958 when a retired Navy captain, Albert Bigelow, set off in a small sailboat to nonviolently challenge the United States military use of the South Pacific as a nuclear weapons testing zone.

Concerns about radioactive fallout from nuclear bomb tests and the possibility of nuclear war worried many people around the world. When authorities stopped the “Golden Rule” as it sailed out of Hawaii and arrested Bigelow and his peacenik crew, a tsunami of antinuclear testing protests erupted across America. “Later that year, the beleaguered U.S. government agreed to a nuclear testing moratorium,” historian Lawrence S. Wittner recently noted in an article in Z magazine on the impact of what he called the “legendary” sailboat.

Bigelow—a World War II veteran who died in 1993 at age 87—continued protesting preparations for waging nuclear war and what he saw as other outrages, joining the Freedom Riders in 1961 on another history-changing journey. The “Golden Rule,” meanwhile, sailed off into oblivion until it was dredged up last year from the bottom of Humboldt Bay in northern California.

Shipyard owner Leroy Zerlang was torn between cutting up the salvaged wreck or preserving it in a museum, Wittner wrote. Now a crew of history-minded volunteers is working to restore the 30-foot wooden ketch and sail her under the flag of Veterans For Peace. "She's going to be the peace boat out to confront militarism and needless war," project coordinator Fredy Champagne recently told The Sacramento Bee.

“It was the Golden Rule's peace mission that captivated Champagne,” noted Bee correspondent Jane Braxton Little. “After a year of combat in Vietnam, he retreated to the hills of Humboldt County, living as a recluse with post-traumatic stress disorder. One morning in 1988, he suddenly decided to build a hospital in Vietnam.

“Since then Champagne has organized 23 teams of veterans to build dozens of medical facilities, schools and homes in Vietnam. His ‘people-to-people diplomacy’ campaign also includes driving the Kosovo Peace Bus, which held ‘teach-ins’ in major U.S. cities; building water systems in Iraq; and organizing a 2000 trip to Cuba for the Lost Coast Pirates Little League team.

"”Waging peace has saved my life,’ said Champagne.”

Champagne and other members of the Golden Rule Project of Veterans For Peace set a goal of raising $50,000 for repairs, including replacing the deck and cabin. They plan to launch the ship by next summer to tour U.S. waterways to promote the peace group’s “goals of nuclear disarmament, abolishment of war,” Champagne wrote in a report in the current issue of the Veterans For Peace Newsletter.

The Golden Rule Project organizers’ vision and enthusiasm is contagious, Grandmothers for Peace International’s director, Lorraine Krofchok, stated in that organization’s spring 2011 newsletter.

“This little ketch could be used to educate ‘the future’ and how peace is the only alternative to constant war and aggression,” Krofchok wrote after visiting the storied sailboat in dry dock in Fairhaven, California. “Our oceans are bombarded with ‘war games.’ The Golden Rule could become a lead boat in a Flotilla of Peace.”

For more information:
http://www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org/
http://www.zcommunications.org/the-golden-rule-will-sail-again-by-lawrence-s-wittner
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/28/3731864/eureka-volunteers-work-to-restore.html#ixzz1RI61yj6A

Grassroots Peace Actions Guide

2011-06-23T09:45:00.001-07:00

Grassroots Peace

Actions:

A Guide for Engaging

Communities

"Don't say it can't be done."

--Pete Seeger, “Take it from Dr. King"

"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures."

--John F. Kennedy, Speech to United Nations, Sept. 20, 1963

Here are some suggestions for extending networks of peace actions based on work done in Bergen County, NJ and elsewhere:

1. Costs of War exhibit/posters/flyers

For example: http://janbarryphotojournal.shutterfly.com/pictures/143

2. Combat Paper/Warrior Writers workshops/events

Further information: http://www.warriorwriters.org/ and http://www.combatpaper.org/

3. Film showings/guest speakers with panel discussions

i.e: http://vetsforpeace21.blogspot.com/2011/06/poster-girl-showing-draws-crowd.html

4. Billboards with peace messages

5. Peace vigils, demonstrations and related activities

For example: http://www.mfsobergencounty.org/Local_Events.html

6. Letters to editors in local newspapers

7. Meetings with members of Congress

8. “Peace Is Patriotic” contingents in Memorial Day/ July 4th/ Labor Day/ Veterans Day/ Martin Luther King Jr. Day parades

9. Poetry/music events by war veterans, families and peace supporters

10. Resolutions to bring troops and military funding home from Afghanistan and Iraq – by municipal councils, county and state legislatures

11. Networking with community/social justice groups

12. Guest speakers in school and college classes

13. Information tables/booths at festivals and other events

14. Facebook page/website/blog on local actions for peace

Compiled by:

Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County

www.mfsobergencounty.org

Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 NJ

vetsforpeace21.blogspot.com

“Poster Girl” Showing Draws Crowd

2011-06-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Robynn Murray (photo/Stefan Neustadter)

"Poster Girl,” the 2011 Oscar-nominated documentary, drew a standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 people in a recent showing at the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck. The June 1 event also included a discussion with director Sara Nesson and Robynn Murray, the Iraq war veteran whose story is the focus of the film, which stirred a flurry of questions from the audience.

The 38-minute film unveils the life of a high-school cheerleader from Niagara Falls, NY who enlisted in the Army and ended up on combat patrols in Iraq, becoming a “poster girl” for women at war featured on an “Army Magazine” cover. Back home, Sgt. Murray battled the debilitating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and other injuries.

Shot and directed by filmmaker Sara Nesson, the film focuses on a veteran’s home front journey of anguish, rage and renewal. In hand-held camera shots, it shows her frustration in seeking Veterans Affairs aid, including her medical records being lost at the Buffalo VA office. In a creative turn of events, the camera closely follows Murray as she moves from kicking car doors and punching walls to working out her own healing regime of art and poetry, symbolic displays of tattoos and feisty public speeches to lance festering war memories.

An unexpected setback, highlighted in the film, is VA medical treatments that subject veterans to astonishing amounts of medication. Murray said this caused more health problems, including addiction to morphine after surgery to repair a back injury.

“I was on 14 medications at one time, from the VA!” Murray told the Puffin audience. While some VA doctors and treatments were helpful, she said, a better approach to sustained healing was getting involved with art and writing projects sponsored by veterans groups, educational institutions and cultural centers.

“I’m doing much better now,” Murray said. “My getting involved with Combat Paper [art projects] and Warrior Writers changed my relationship with my healing. No longer was it something that happened to me. It was something that I owned.” Murray added that she discovered the writing and arts projects through involvement with Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Nesson encountered Murray at a Warrior Writers workshop on Cape Cod while making a documentary on veterans turning war memories into art. "Poster Girl" has been showcased at a number of film festivals and was selected by HBO for a cable TV run in the fall.

The showing at Puffin was cosponsored by Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 NJ; Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County; Teaneck Peace Vigil, Bergen Grassroots, Central Unitarian Church Social Action Team, Leonia Peace Vigil Group, Bergen County Green Party, Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice, Haiti Solidarity Network of the North East, NJ Peace Action, and People's Organization for Progress, Bergen County Branch.

Memorial Day Reflection

2011-06-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia

By Michael T. McPherson

Practically every city, town and village across the nation has at least one memorial to fallen soldiers. Many have many more than one. In the South, the deaths most honored are from the Civil War. This may hold true in the North as well. I respect and honor those who fell in battle as well as the veterans who survived war, but whom time has taken from us. It’s good to have obelisks and statues to remind us that people die in war, while acting on behalf of the United States.

Those who sacrifice and lose the most have the least to gain from war, and those who benefit the most almost always sacrifice and lose nothing. No matter my beliefs about the morality of war, the service members who died lost their lives for something bigger than themselves – whether they became soldiers to take care of their families or protect their buddies, or because they were drafted or believed in their country and the mission. We must honor that.

Spending the whole day eating and shopping is a desecration and honoring with monuments and words is not enough. To truly honor fallen soldiers requires self-reflection, questions and action. We must reflect on our part in their deaths. Are we allowing the blood of soldiers and civilians to be spilled in war because we are not willing to do the hard work of peace making? Hard work that may mean we must change our lifestyles, consume less and learn more about the world around us. Are we prepared to take any responsibility for our nation’s relationships with other countries? Are we willing to question our government's foreign policies and demand a change from domination to collaboration? Are we willing to take action to change ourselves so that our personal behavior and attitude reflects peace making rather than acceptance of war?

I believe the best way to honor those who have died in war, both combatants and civilians, is to work to abolish war. We must end the killing and suffering caused by war. This sounds idealistic because it is.

Idealism is one if the traits of humanity that sets us apart from the beast of nature. Striving for a higher purpose and looking to a higher calling brings out the best in us. If we truly want to honor those who died we must step up in an effort to ensure their death is not simply because we are too scared and selfish to take up the challenge to be better people.

This Memorial Day, after you eat, catch a sale, honor the dead at a memorial or leave flowers for a fallen solider; please take some time to reflect on what you can do to make the world more peaceful at home and abroad. Then go out and be the peace you want to see in the world.

Michael T. McPhearson was a field artillery officer in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, also known as Gulf War I. A Newark resident, McPhearson is the co-convener of United for Peace and Justice, and former executive director of Veterans For Peace.

"Poster Girl" Showing at Puffin in Teaneck June 1

2011-05-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

A soldier’s story that ripples behind the headlines is the focus of “Poster Girl,” the 2011 Oscar-nominated documentary showing at the Puffin Cultural Forum on Wednesday, June 1. Discussion with director Sara Nesson and Robynn Murray follows. The free event is at 7 p.m. at 20 Puffin Way (off Teaneck Rd.) in Teaneck. Call 201-836-3499 or visit www.PuffinCulturalForum.org.

Citing an average of 18 suicides per day among military veterans, a US Appeals Court ruled recently that the Department of Veterans Affairs violated veterans’ rights to treatment for war injuries, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), through extensive delays. One of the affected veterans was Robynn Murray, whose story is the focus of “Poster Girl.” The 38-minute film unveils the unraveling life of a high-school cheerleader who enlisted in the Army and ended up on combat patrols in Iraq, becoming a “poster girl” for women at war, featured on an “Army Magazine” cover. Back home, Sgt. Murray battled the debilitating effects of PTSD and bureaucratic bungling by the VA.

Shot and directed by filmmaker Sara Nesson, this emotionally raw work follows Robynn on a home front journey of anguish, rage and renewal, gaining vital assistance from activist veterans’ groups to finally get much delayed VA aid and using art and poetry, arresting displays of tattoos and feisty public speeches, to lance festering war memories.

The showing at Puffin is cosponsored by Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County; Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 NJ; Teaneck Peace Vigil, Bergen Grassroots, Central Unitarian Church Social Action Team, Leonia Peace Vigil Group, Bergen County Green Party, Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice, Haiti Solidarity Network of the North East, NJ Peace Action, and People's Organization for Progress, Bergen County Branch.

How Is the War Economy Working for You?

2011-05-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

Bringing the costs of war home to local communities is an on-going campaign by Veterans For Peace nationally and locally. Here's our take on the issue for New Jersey residents that's being circulated by Chapter 21 members.

Counting Up the Costs of War

2011-03-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

How many ways need it be said? America is going broke—and has become imperious, callous and cruel—waging wars around the world. A group of concerned citizens in New Jersey and New York set out recently to visually convey the costs of war for our nation. The result is a mind-boggling array of art work displayed at the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, NJ.

The “Looking at the Human and Economic Costs of War through the Arts” exhibition on display through April 14 includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, photographs, poetry, dioramas and posters by war veterans, military family members and other concerned taxpayers, artists, writers, teachers and students about various aspects of wars’ costs.

Among the most memorable items is a carefully crafted prosthetic leg lent by a World War II veteran, Bob Levine, who lost his lower right leg from grenade wounds in 1944 in Normandy, France. The VA-issued replacement leg is part of a multi-media display of photos, drawings, newspaper clippings, tables of statistics and a diorama conveying the destructive effects of landmines and other explosives on arms and legs of multitudes of maimed survivors of war zones around the Earth.

“The Million Dollar Soldier,” another diorama made from a US Army camouflage uniform crafted for war in Afghanistan, vividly displays another side of the costs of the conflict in that part of the world. Pinned to the fashionably designed combat jacket are oversize price tags for the cost per soldier per year of keeping an army fighting for nearly a decade halfway around the world in equivalent dollar amounts to the tax bills to local residents for running the municipality and public schools of Teaneck.This diorama, by Nancy and Walt Nygard, was among several art works and poems provided by VFP Chapter 21 members.

The cost in lives in the war on terrorism is represented by a display of poetry and photos conveying former New Jersey resident John Fenton’s tormented grief over the death of his son Matthew, who died in May 2006 of wounds received as a Marine in

Iraq

.

Costs in torment to war survivors and family members is the subject of many of the art works. Nightmares are evoked from images torn from military actions around the globe. “A few years ago if I’d seen that piece I’d have run out of here,” poet Dayl Wise said of a mixed media painting by Ruth Bauer Neustadter of a precariously standing man rendered as a jumble of parts and bones. Wise read to a standing-room-only audience a pair of haunting poems—about losing his sturdy jungle boots when he was wounded in Vietnam and, decades later, suddenly seeing dead Vietnamese farmers amid the “road kill” as he drove on a highway near his home in New York.

"Open Wound," Combat Paper pulp painting made with military uniforms, by Eli Wright, US Army veteran, Iraq

Other work addressing the corrosive impact of post-traumatic stress on war survivors includes a raging display of Combat Paper artwork made from shredded military uniforms by Iraq war veterans, including Robynn Murray, featured in the Oscar-nominated film, Poster Girl. Another piece along these lines is a "Costs of War" poster incorporating a poem I wrote, with calligraphy by Drew Cameron of Combat Papermakers, hand-printed on paper made from military uniforms.

To convey a fuller view of this exhibition’s arresting visual impact, I created a Shutterfly photo album of the artwork and performers who appeared at a Costs of War cultural program on March 20. My poem on this topic is below.

Costs of War

Legless,
armless,
homeless veterans,
dead civilians
in the millions—
orphans,
widows,
shattered families—
from blasted cities,
ghostly villages
full of ghastly graves
in the ruins, ditches, fields…
pillaged farmsteads,
defoliated forests,
ravaged lanes
sowed with landmines,
roadside bombs,
booming blasts of doom
to passersby…
poisonous debris
seeding cancers,
crippling disorders,
including traumatic stress
and birth defects
for generations
in hate-filled nations…
what a toxic residue,
billions spent,
billions still due

--Jan Barry

Looking at the Human and Economic Costs of War Through the Arts

2011-02-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

"Costs of War" poem by Jan Barry, calligraphy by Drew Cameron of

Combat Papermakers, hand-printed on paper made with military uniforms

Exhibition at Puffin Cultural Forum

March 15 – April 14

The exhibition of paintings, drawings, sculpture, photographs, poetry, dioramas and posters by veterans and civilians includes Combat Paper artwork by Robynn Murray, featured in the Oscar-nominated film, Poster Girl.

The exhibition is free and open to the public Tuesdays through Thursdays
12-4 pm

Cultural Program

Sunday, March 20

3 - 4 pm     Reception – meet the artists and writers
4 – 6 pm    The Costs of War – seen through poetry, dance, and song

                 Puffin Cultural Forum
            20 Puffin Way, Teaneck, NJ 07666
               (parking and public transportation available)

The exhibition is sponsored by:

Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County;

Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 NJ;

Vietnam Veterans Against the War,NJ chapter;

People’s Organization for Progress, Bergen County;

NJ Peace Action, Bergen County Grassroots,

Bergen County Green Party,

Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County,

Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice,

Teaneck Peace Vigil, Leonia Vigil Group,

NYC School of the Americas Watch.

For more information: TheCostsofWar@gmail.com
or the Puffin Cultural Forum, (201) 836-8923.

A New Jersey veteran's hope for Iraq

2011-01-24T18:35:00.000-08:00

This guest column by VFP Chapter 21 member Michael McPherson ran in the Newark Star-Ledger on January 16, 2011.

By Michael T. McPhearson

Twenty years ago this month, I sat in the vast wilderness of the Arabian desert as a captain in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, waiting to invade Iraq. That campaign — which was to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait — began on Jan. 16, 1991.

I remember wondering how many of us would die, how many would return home scarred or broken. Would I ever see my wife and 5-year-old son again? I never imagined U.S. troops would still be fighting there — 11 years into the next century.

After I left the Army in 1992, I paid little attention to U.S. activities in Iraq, although I knew that our forces never ended military operations there. Containment was the policy.

Operation Southern Watch, begun in August 1992 to enforce a no fly-zone over southern Iraq, did not officially end until 2003. There were Operations Vigilant Warrior in 1994 and Desert Strike in 1996, which expanded the no fly-zone to parts of northern Iraq. There was Operation Desert Fox, a four-day bombing campaign launched on Dec. 16, 1998.

One summer day in 2001, I saw activists in New York City holding a sign reporting that half a million Iraqi children had died, due in part to U.S.-led economic sanctions. I began to feel some responsibility. Then, 9/11 happened and the drum beat for more war on Iraq began anew. By that time, the United States had been dropping bombs on Iraq for 10 years.

Today, when most Americans think of Iraq, the March 20, 2003, invasion is the date they remember. That is far from reality.

In December of that year, as part of a peace delegation of military families and veterans, I visited Baghdad. The city was bustling with people going about their lives, yet bombed-out buildings served as a backdrop and access to basics such as water and electricity was unpredictable. Sectarian violence had not yet exploded, but many people — especially women — feared for their safety.

The delegation met with an Iraqi human rights activist who, through an interpreter, shared the perspective of many Iraqis. The man, who appeared to be in his late 50s, told us that “… all the Iraqi suffering is because of the Americans.” He explained that Saddam Hussein’s Baath party cronies, who came to power via a 1968 coup, boasted back then of having U.S. help. He went on to remind us of the 1991 invasion and the following decade of misfortune under U.S.-led economic sanctions. He spoke of the March 2003 invasion and occupation mounted by the United States to remove the dictator it helped put into power. Our nation, he said, has meddled in his country’s affairs for more than 40 years. His feelings were reiterated by many other Iraqis I spoke with over the course of my visit.

Since then, I have returned to Iraq seeking peace, my 5-year-old son grew up and, like his father, served a tour waging war in Iraq. In 2009, the Obama administration declared the end of U.S. combat missions in Iraq, U.S. troop levels have been reduced to 50,000 and the United States has pledged to remove all troops by the end of this year.

We helped place Saddam Hussein into power and supported him, expecting him to act in our interest, and the Iraqi people have paid a high price for his removal. Today, unemployment in Iraq is estimated as high as 30 percent. Electricity continues to be sporadic and, in many parts of the country, clean water is not readily available. Birth defects in areas of heavy fighting, such as Fallujah, have increased due to the use of uranium munitions by U.S. forces. Sectarian violence, while low compared to 2004, continues to take lives and destroy families.

Forty years of meddling and 20 years of war are enough. We must not allow the Obama administration to drag its feet or back out of leaving Iraq.

Freedom is the ability to chart one’s own destiny, not have it decided by a power thousands of miles away. We owe it to the Iraqi people. They have suffered enough.

Michael T. McPhearson was a field artillery officer in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, also known as Gulf War I. A Newark resident, McPhearson is the co-convener of United for Peace and Justice, and former executive director of Veterans for Peace.

Why I Work for Peace

2011-01-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

Address by Joann Dalton in accepting a local organizer award at the Jersey City Peace Movement's recent Peace and Progress Honors Awards ceremony.

Thank you very much for this award. I am very honored. For those of you that don't know me, I am an associate member of Veterans for Peace chapter 21, a lifetime member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and also a member of New Jersey Peace Action. I am most active with Veterans for Peace, doing a lot of the behind the scenes work .Many times calling myself the administrative assistant to VFP's president who happens to be my husband.This can involve arranging trips to Washington DC, keeping his appointments straight, and also filling in for the secretary and/or treasurer of the chapter when needed. I also participate in a weekly vigil in Teaneck, table at street fairs, and most recently attended a counter-recruitment call from a frantic mother about her son who wants to join the military. At times I also try to knock some sense into the right-wingers I work with. Although mostly all I get from that is frustration.

I'd like to explain a little about my back ground and how I got here. As a child, I was raised in a family who had lost someone killed in war. My mother's brother a co-pilot in the Air Force during WWII was shot down in the Pacific by the Japanese.Back then they flew in formation and the plane above him got hit and then fell on his plane. At the time I didn't understand my mother and grandmother. I thought it happened such a long time ago, why were they still upset? I can honestly say that both my mother and grandmother never really got over my uncle's death.One reason being that my mother was pregnant with my sister about the same time my uncle was killed. In fact, they didn't tell my hospitalized mother until she came home with my sister because they were afraid she would lose the baby So every time my sister had a birthday, they were reminded of the awful news they received about the same time. My grandmother could have been a Gold Star Mother, but refused because she felt that would be celebrating my uncle's death. Now I've come to realize how much his death has impacted my feelings as an adult. I know first hand how war and the resulting problems it causes can affect a family the rest of their lives. When the Iraq and Afghanistan wars started at first I got active because I didn't want my son or daughter going to war, but soon realized I didn't want anybody's son or daughter going to war. About the same time I also figured out why my anti war feelings were so strong--because of my Uncle Steve who I never had the opportunity to meet.

Just to show how futile war is, I'd like to tell you one more story this one involving our son. In the spring of 2009, as a student at Rutgers University , Brian studied abroad for a semester, in Kyoto, Japan at Ritsuimeiken University . While there he met Hero, a Japanese student studying at the same school. That summer, Hero came to visit the United States to try to improve his English. Part of his trip he stayed with my son in Brian's off campus housing. But during one of NJ's heat waves, Brian called and asked if he and Hero could come stay with us for the weekend and enjoy some air conditioning. So they spent some time with us. While taking some pictures of Hero and my son Brian, we realized ---just one generation ago they would have been expected to kill each other .Instead, here were two young men who had become good friends.

Once again, Thank you and Let's keep our activism going strong.

Case Dismissed re Vets Arrested at White House Protest

2011-01-05T11:55:00.000-08:00

Judge Dismisses Cases Against Military Veterans and Anti-war Activists Following December 16^th Washington, D.C. Arrests

For more information, contact: Ann Wilcox (202-441-3265)

Tarak Kauff (845-249-9489)

Washington, D.C. – January 4, 2011: Anti-war military veterans and other activists celebrated a breakthrough victory today in DC Superior Court, when charges were dropped, following arrests in front of the White House, on December 16, 2010. Over 131 people were arrested in a major veteran-led protest while participating in non-violent civil resistance in a driving snowstorm. US Park Police charged all 131 protesters with “Failure to Obey a Lawful Order,” when they refused to move. All remained fixed to the White House fence demanding an end to the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and further US aggression in the region.

Among those arrested were members of the leadership of the national organization Veterans for Peace , Pentagon Papers whistleblower Dr. Daniel Ellsberg; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges; former senior CIA analyst Ray McGovern; and, Dr. Margaret Flowers, advocate for single-payer health care.

Forty-Two arrested opted to appear in court and go to trial with the first group appearing in DC Superior Court on January 4, 2011. Prosecutors from the DC Attorney General’s office stated that the Government “declined to file charges due to missing or incomplete police paperwork.” Presiding Magistrate Judge Richard Ringell confirmed that the cases were dropped and defendants were free to leave.

Those who participated in this action make this statement:

“This is clearly a victory for opposition to undeclared wars which are illegal under international law, have led to the destruction of societies in Iraq and Afghanistan, bled the US Treasury in a time of recession, and caused human rights violations against civilians and combatants. Many of us will return to Washington, DC, to support an action on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 to protest the continued use of Guantanamo detention facility, including torture of detainees in violation of international law.”

The defendants were represented by co-counsels Ann Wilcox, Esq. and Mark Goldstone, Esq. Ms. Wilcox stated: “clearly the Government and Police felt that these veterans and their supporters acted with the courage of their convictions, and did not wish to spend the time and funds necessary for a trial proceeding. This is a major victory for the peace movement.”

For more information visit www.stopthesewars.org or on facebook.

Wikileaks

2010-12-23T11:08:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks, American politicians have been calling for the censor and prosecution of Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. In fact, some people in our government have been calling for Assange to be prosecuted for treason which is ridiculous since he's not a U.S. citizen and because of that cannot be a traitor. Still others have branded Wikileaks a "terrorist" which is just as ridiculous since terrorism is the willful murder of innocent civilians or military actions against the same for political purposes. The only thing being murdered in the case of Wikileaks is the credibility of the U.S. and it's leaders, both Republicans and Democrats.

Another method being deployed against Wikileaks is to smear it's founder Julian Assange with rape allegations. First, in Sweden having unprotected sex with a consenting adult female is considered rape. Such an allegation in the United States would be laughed out of court. Yet, this charge is being pursued by Sweden due to pressure from Washington and Stockholm's desire to please the U.S. Government. Washington's tactic is to smear the messenger and thereby taint the message which is nothing new.

Many of these leaked reports from Wikileaks are already well known throughout the world. Going back several months ago when Wikileaks released a video of an American helicopter gun ship murdering innocent civilians in Iraq, most of the people in the world, especially the Arab world knew about this event. The only people shielded from that news by a self censoring media were the Americans and that's the point. People around the world, from Latin America to Southeast Asia and on to the streets of Baghdad who have been on the receiving end of U.S. foreign policy already know many things hidden from the American people. That's what Washington is most afraid of, the American people learning what their government is up to, especially when that government is spending trillions of dollars to do so while at the same time it is asking the poor and middle classes to endure sacrifices and pain.

In closing, any government which continuously lies to its citizens and or has too many secrets is neither free nor democratic!

Kenneth Dalton
President
VFP 21, N.J. & VVAW

Vets for Peace Arrested at the White House

2010-12-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

Daniel Ellsberg (in video above) joined with hundreds of Veterans For Peace members from across the nation to take a message of dissent to President Obama on December 16.

Veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, Gulf War I, Vietnam and other overseas military actions, accompanied by military families and other peace activists, chained themselves to the White House fence or otherwise refused police orders to leave. The civil disobedience, which led to 131 arrests, was done on the day the latest official report about the military situation in Afghanistan was released. Two members of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 NJ, Jules Orkin and Stefan Neustadter, were among those arrested in protest of continuing the counter-productive and wasteful wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Those arrested also included Ellsberg, the former Marine officer who leaked the Pentagon papers, retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, FBI whistleblower Colleen Rowley, and Pulitzer prize-winning war correspondent Chris Hedges, noted Examiner.com blogger Gregory Patin. "While small in numbers, this protest is significant because it was organized and led by veterans who have served their country," Patin wrote. "It is also significant that it was completely ignored by the mainstream media on a news day largely filled with sports news and holiday shopping reports."

But Veterans For Peace was determined to send a message directly to Obama by getting arrested in front of the White House while throwing piles of postcards signed by antiwar activists over the White House fence.

"We are dedicated to exposing the true costs of war and militarism," said Mike Ferner, national president of Veterans for Peace, as reported in The Huffington Post. "We've killed well over a million people. We've orphaned and displaced five times that number at least. And here in our own country, we've managed to throw millions of people of out work and out of their homes," Ferner said at a press conference. "There is a connection there. That connection is the true cost of war."

"Citing information available for every city and state in America on the Cost of War website," The Huffington Post report by Dan Froomkin added, "the former Navy hospital corpsman noted that his hometown of Toledo alone has sent almost a billion dollars into the war effort."

Crying Out Loud

2010-08-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

Address by associate member Nancy Nygard of Teaneck at a peace rally on Sunday, August 29, by about 300 members and friends of Veterans For Peace and Military Families Speak Out that culminated VFP's annual convention in Portland, Maine.

Hi!

I am so glad to see everyone here.

I am a very proud member of Veterans For Peace. My husband and I joined VFP in 2005. At the same time we joined Military Families Speak Out.

Our son Joe had joined the army in 2003 and by 2005 was getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan. We were against the invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan and knew we had to speak out, act out, rise up. Doing nothing was not an option.

In February of 2006 Joe was deployed to Afghanistan for a year. It was my first deployment also. I didn’t know what to do or what to think. Why was I crying all the time? Why was I so angry at all the other mom’s in the supermarket? Why did I have such hatred of the assholes with hummers?

MFSO helped me understand that it was ok to cry and that anger could be turned into action. They comforted me and held my hand and I knew I never had to say I’m sorry. They understood that I wanted to hear all the news but I didn’t want to hear all the news. They knew about the sleepless nights and I know they remembered holding their babies in their arms and never imagining having to let them go to war. They were and still are the sanity in my insanity that surely goes on for me and so many other military families.

My son Joe was stop lossed in September of 2006 until February 2007. His tour of duty was extended another 4 months. He spent 16 months in Afghanistan. During his deployment 71 soldiers from his brigade were either killed in action or died in accidents. 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division carved out the northern most outposts in Afghanistan. Two years later the army would begin closing them down. Outposts where my son said “good soldiers died”.

In September of 2007 Joe received his honorable discharge and left the army after serving 4 years on a 3 year enlistment. Joe enrolled in college full time, had a great paying part time job, had a daughter and a son and the hope of change that was to come with a new president. Joe was proud of his service to his country and we are so proud of him.

Two years went by. Two years! In December of 2009 President Obama gave his surge on Afghanistan speech and the next day Fed-ex showed up at our door with orders for Joe to report for duty off the individual ready reserve for deployment of no more than 400 days…to Iraq!

Thoughtless people told me he’s lucky he’s in Iraq like they used to tell me he’s lucky he’s in Afghanistan.

As of this month our combat commitment in Iraq has ended. I guess the combat infantry battalion my son is assigned to is there on vacation as are the entire 3rd infantry division, 3000 man brigades from the 4th infantry division, Dave Cline’s old outfit the 25th infantry division, 2 combat aviation brigades and 2 national guard infantry brigades, all on vacation in sunny Iraq!

Standing guard over a stalled convoy, Joe writes, “after we dropped off our load at a little spot outside Tallil we pulled to the side in a friendly area and waited for the rest of our guys to catch up. We dismounted and smoked and joked for a little bit. That’s when the kids came up. I always liked talking to the local kids in Afghanistan. Their honesty and innocence about the only pure things in a shitty, shitty place. Here it is the same way. These poor children have known nothing but death and destruction in their young lives and even if after we leave, their country turns to peace, they will forever be scarred from the horrors they have seen. Life for them has always been about survival. Seeing little girls the age of my little daughter, running alongside our convoy, their clothes dirty and their feet bare, offering anything, even themselves for just a bottle of water breaks my heart. Back on the base, eating ice cream and pizza and buffalo wings, just makes the whole experience of war more disgusting. As these people starve to death, partly because of us, we eat like kings”.

To a certain extent our participation in MFSO and VFP has been a selfish act because we think that the American people, in spite of their yellow ribbons, don’t give a damn about American soldiers, but you do! I’ve found a community that not only believes in world peace but respects the courage and sacrifice of soldiers and their families. I’m so glad I’m not alone. Thank you Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For Peace!

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!

Winding Down a Misbegotten War

2010-08-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

By Jan Barry

As the last U.S. combat units rumbled out of Iraq under President Obama's August deadline, Time magazine's chief political columnist, Joe Klein, summed up the costly consequences of what he called "a war that should never have been fought." Blasting the Bush administration for blundering into "a neo-colonialist delusion" that caused hundreds of thousands of casualties and may still cost trillions of dollars for health care of a generation of war-mauled veterans, Klein then turned his ire, remarkably, on himself.

"As for myself, I deeply regret that once, on television in the days before the war, I foolishly--spontaneously--said that going ahead with the [March 2003] invasion might be the right thing to do," he wrote in a column titled "Never Again" in Time's August 16 issue. Although he subsequently wrote about the war with increasing skepticism, Klein added, "The issue then was as clear as it is now. It demanded a clarity that I failed to summon. The essential principle is immutable: we should never go to war unless we have been attacked or are under direct, immediate threat of attack. Never. And never again."

War veterans who protested the invasion and brutal occupation of Iraq will take little pride in having predicted the disastrous impact on Iraqi society and on U.S. troops that Klein describes, seven years into what he calls "a profound misadventure" with toxic effects. A Time news piece that follows Klein's column cites a Rand Corp. study and military reports that found that "more than 500,000 troops have returned home to the U.S. in the last decade with a mental illness," created by the relentless stress of repeated war tours mixed with an epidemic of traumatic brain injuries from roadside bombs and other explosions.

Veterans For Peace activists, who warned of such dangers to soldiers and civilians for years, contend that the draw-down of troops in Iraq is a misbegotten maneuver by the Obama administration to claim peace in Iraq while waging a wider war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, under the same misguided strategy of the previous administration of trying to police unruly corners of the world with highly destruction military actions.

"The lessons of this disastrous intervention should also be an impetus for Congress and the administration to end the war in Afghanistan," Veterans For Peace leaders said in a recent statement. "It’s time to focus on creating real security here at home and rebuilding America."

But Time magazine and its chief political writer are not ready to tackle that issue. Like most of the mainstream news media, they take their cues from the White House on how to stay within accepted parameters in discussing foreign policy. "Obama's announcement [of the end of combat operations in Iraq, in a speech to the Disabled American Veterans] was no celebration. It was a somber acknowledgement that amends will be made to those whose lives were shattered and that their courageous service in an unnecessary cause will be honored," Klein wrote.

"A national discussion about America's place in the world, and the military's excessive place in our foreign policy, would also be appropriate in the wake of this disaster," he added, "but I'm not holding my breath." So that means a debate on the implications of the war in Iraq and lessons to be drawn for the war policy in Afghanistan isn't about to happen, unless the public overrules the press and politicians and demands it.

Peace Action at Work

2010-03-19T13:23:00.000-07:00

By Jan Barry

In cold rain and summer heat, snowdrifts and bitter winds, a Veterans For Peace Chapter 21 contingent anchors a weekly peace vigil on a busy street corner by the NJ National Guard Armory in Teaneck. Chapter members are also active in numerous other vigils, public meetings and marches around the state, as well as in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

"This is what the troops gotta put up with, so we're out here in the same kind of weather conditions," one of the vets explained to a visitor to the Teaneck vigil one blustery day. The solidarity with today's soldiers extends from memories of guard duty and patrols in military units in Vietnam, Korea, even as far back as World War II. The solidarity also extends across American society: A retired cop stands next to a retired firefighter, a Jewish mother next to a Catholic priest, holding signs commemorating the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan of more than 5,000 US troops, signs crafted by a house painter and carried by a plumber from his repair truck to every weekly vigil.

Drivers honk their horns, sometimes two and three in a row, and wave to the peace vigil regulars from family cars, delivery trucks, school busses. Some passerbys stop on cold days, roll down a window and with a big smile hold out a big container of coffee or hot chocolate. College students stop by between classes, parents drop by with young children, frazzled parents of soldiers and, sometimes, raw-edged young veterans come by for comfort for their unrelenting concerns.

Many in the chapter have protested the war in Iraq since the US invasion and violent occupation began seven years ago. Some joined to focus their protest on the war in Afghanistan, now expanding into it's ninth year. To address the deaths and destruction of soldiers and civilian societies by both wars, Chapter 21 cosponsors a wide range of public outreach activities, often in partnership with Military Families Speak Out, which has family members serving on active duty.

This month's actions range from a "Speak Out - Sing Out" at a church in Teaneck to a contingent from New Jersey joining a national peace march in the nation's capital; from conducting a writing workshop for veterans and family members in conjunction with vets in a neighboring area of New York state to planning workshops for the Veterans For Peace national convention in Portland, Maine in August.

"We're a movement," Chapter 21 President Ken Dalton said during discussions this week on plans to widen war protests to the doorsteps of national elected officials, incuding members of Congress and President Obama. "We can make changes. It may not be happening as fast as we'd like, but it's happening."

Adding to the pressures to wind down these costly wars is the disastrous financial squeeze on Americans, from state governments slashing staff and social programs to rising unemployment levels for young veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Jobless rate at 21.1%" for veterans in their early 20s, The Washington Post reported last week. "It was significantly higher than the 2008 unemployment rate among veterans in that age group: 14.1 percent. Many of the unemployed are members of the National Guard and reserves who have deployed multiple times, said Joseph Sharpe, director of the economic division at the American Legion. Sharpe said some come home to find their jobs have been eliminated because the company has downsized. Other companies might not want to hire someone who could deploy again or will have medical appointments because of war-related health problems, he said."

These are issues that Veterans For Peace in New Jersey and across the nation have been repeatedly raising at public events with other groups and in talks with members of Congress and their staffs. Spending an estimated $1 million per year to keep a soldier in Afghanistan is unsustainable, especially as tens of thousands of Americans lose their jobs--and millions can't find jobs--at home. It's an urgent discussion that hopefully all Americans will join.

Remembering King in 2010

2010-01-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

By Michael McPhearson
Executive Director, Veterans For Peace

As our nation celebrates the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, it is important to remember the breadth and depth of his the message and vision. In the era of the first Black President, it would be easy to say King's dream has been fulfilled and now it is time to move on to new challenges. But this is a misreading of current events and his words.

In his 1967 Riverside Church speech, Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break Silence, Dr. King talked about three major demons; racism, materialism and militarism. Today these triplets continue to haunt us. In fact they have become more entrenched. In the speech, King spoke of youth challenging his disapproval of their use of violence when the U.S. was "...using massive doses of violence..." in Vietnam. He called our government, "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." This continues to be true as our nation is conducting global military operations and occupying two countries with eyes on one or two others. The U.S. is the largest weapons exporter in the world and has the largest military budget, nearly outpacing all other nations combined.

Racism continues to distort the promise of America as people of color have the highest unemployment rates and are blocked from access to resources and opportunity. Speculation and greed caused by rampant materialism has ravaged our economy, devastating the lives of millions, hitting working class and poor people especially hard. The economic and social currents created by the triplets flow together and work hand in hand to divert resources to war for profit's sake and empire building rather than investing in healthcare, education, jobs, housing and other human needs that would uplift the poor and help change the insidious legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Perhaps Dr. King's most prophetic words come from this speech when he warned, "The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation."

We find ourselves today as the clergy and laypersons organizing in our generation. As we remember Dr. King we must applaud how far we have come. We must also reflect on how far we have yet to go, and challenge others to see Dr. King's full vision of a just and peaceful world. He called for a true revolution of values that will cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies and see that using war to settle our differences is not just. He called on America to lead this revolution of values.

"There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war."

Dr. King wisely saw then what is still true today, that the world's only hope "...lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism."

This is how we ensure international security. This is how we stop nuclear proliferation and reverse global warming.

This January 18th remember Dr. King by proclaiming his full message. Do not stand by while it is watered down to make us all feel good. Celebrate the journey we have taken, but remind everyone how far we have to go. Will our nation take up the challenge? As Dr. King said, "The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history."

Ending War

2009-12-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

By Jan Barry

Army Captain Paul K. Chappell attended West Point with an usual goal, "determined to study war the way a doctor studies an illness." What he found in his studies and in a war tour in Iraq was a pragmatic way of envisioning what it would take to create a cure for war fever. "In the U.S. Army, as in ancient Greece, the most admired trait in soldiers is not their ability to kill but their willingness to sacrifice for their friends," Chappell notes in his new book, Will War Ever End? A Soldier's Vision of Peace for the 21st Century (Ashoka Books, 2009). His book argues that soldiers and folks at home, in order to protect each other, should mount a concerted campaign to wind down warmaking, due to the massively deadly threat of military escalation in the nuclear age. A better way of dealing with international disputes, he contends, is to adapt nonviolent tactics to produce conflict resolution that de-escalates violence.

In an essay titled "How Patriotism Can Save America," posted earlier this year on The Huffington Post and other websites, Chappell summed up his call for peace actions in terms that echo the stance of Veterans For Peace and other antiwar vets groups: "With the survival of our planet now at stake, our country needs patriotic Americans to question, think critically, and pioneer this democratic experiment. Now more than ever, our country needs us to help it become a beacon of hope that exports peace instead of war." Chappell, who served seven years on active duty after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 2002, is the Peace Leadership Director for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

In his book, Chappell argues that the war on terrorism "can never be won with an army alone, because terrorism is not a place we can occupy or a dictator we can overthrow." He also notes "how multiple deployments have pushed many soldiers to the breaking point." He argues that military actions are stoking the hatred fueling angry people who use terrorism as a tactic in fighting for their beliefs and causes. "If we are going to win the war on terrorism ... the United States will require many more soldiers, and not just soldiers who are armed with guns. ... During the challenging years ahead, our planet will need soldiers of peace who understand this truth of our brotherhood, because our survival in an interconnected world will not depend upon our ability to wage war. The fate of humanity will depend upon our willingness to wage peace."

Chappell grew up in a military family, where his view of war's widespread consequences was shaped by his father's raging threats to shoot himself. His mother, he adds, grew up in Japan during World War II and then moved to Korea, where her family endured the Korean War, where Chappell's father began a 30-year military career, which also included combat in Vietnam. "Throughout my childhood, I watched my father lose his grip on reality ... Rage overshadowed his once peaceful nature, and when I heard him complain about violent nightmares, I realized that something called war had taken my gentle father from me ... when I was a teenager, I wanted to know if war will ever end."

At West Point, Chappell studied peacemakers as well as warmakers. Gandhi, he discovered, was a British army medic during the Boer War in South Africa, where he took close measure of the British military culture that he outmanuevered to gain India's independence with a nonviolent campaign. Chappell found that some other West Pointers had come to the same conclusion as Gandhi. His book quotes General Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address as president, in which he warned that "another war could utterly destroy this civilization" and that people must learn "to compose differences" without war.

Chappell found a model for banishing war in the 19th century campaigns to ban slavery. "Slavery existed on a global scale for thousands of years, but due to the courageous actions of our ancestors who fought this injustice, no country today sanctions slavery. Together we have the capacity to create a world where countries no longer sanction war."

He was struck by how hard the military has had to work to train and prod soldiers to fight a battle, rather than flee for safety. This is proof, he argues, that humans don't have a gene for waging wars. And he took note of General Omar Bradley's comment after leading armies in World War II: "Modern war visits destruction on the victor and the vanquished alike. Our only complete assurance of surviving World War III is to halt it before it starts." Reflecting on his own military career, which started at West Point and spanned two world wars, Bradley stated, in a 1948 Memorial Day speech: "Wars can be prevented just as surely as they are provoked."

In the foreword to Will War Ever End?, Lt. Col. (ret.) Dave Grossman noted "there is cause to hope, and believe, that there can be an end to war. The West has won the Cold War without resorting to mega-death ... In recent years we have exercised the choice to step back from the brink of nuclear destruction." Chappell is currently finishing a sequel titled The End of War, designed to offer what Grossman calls a "toolbox" of information on peace actions.

For more information:
http://www.paulkchappell.com/
http://www.wagingpeace.org/

Maybe It's Time to Cut Defense Spending

2009-11-15T05:04:00.000-08:00

Dear VFP 21 & VVAW-N.J. Members and Friends

I just read in today's newspaper that the Obama Administration want to freeze domestic spending. Yet, when it comes to war and the military, money is no object, just like it was with the guy before him!

Tonight over dinner, this subject came up in a conversation with my son who is a Japanese language major and who has also spent time studying in Japan. We talked about how after the Second World War, the Japanese people adopted Article 9 to their constitution on May 3, 1947. This article prohibits the Japanese nation from engaging in war as a right of that nation and as a method for resolving international disputes.

The United States, on the other hand, has been in some kind of an overt or covert war against other nations almost continuously ever since V-J Day in 1945. In fact, many of these conflicts are unknown to most U.S. citizens. As a result, our country is morally, physically and financial bankrupt.

Perhaps what we really need is less spending on wars and weapons and more spending to uplift our citizens.

Please check out the information and pictures below and pass them on to all your contacts.

Peace and Solidarity

Ken Dalton
VFP 21, N.J.
VVAW

WHO "WON" THE WAR?
(Courtesy of John Ketwig, VFP 21 & VVAW)

I wonder at the reason this commentary was made? Is it saying that nuclear war is not such a bad thing after all? Or that Detroit, the home of the American automobile industry, has lost its way? My take is that the Japanese have a severely limited military activity as required by the surrender agreement we imposed on them at the end of WWII. The U.S., on the other hand, has a military budget greater than all of the planet's other countries put together, and there are no resources left for our societal needs. Our industrial base is gone. We find ourselves in the business of death and destruction, able to export nothing else, and now morally and financially bankrupt. What a shame.

Photos of Hiroshima in 1945 and today contrasted with photos of Detroit

VFP Leaders Arrested at White House

2009-10-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

Three-fourths of the VFP Executive Committee arrested along with others in DC today

Dear Colleagues,

VFP President Mike Ferner, Vice President Leah Bolger, and Treasurer Ken Mayers were all arrested in front of the White House today while standing vigil over three mock coffins draped with US, Afgan, and Iraq flags. Other VFP members arrested included Mike Hearington, Jim
Goodnow, Tarak Kauf, Tom Palombo and Louis Wolf. VFP Executive Director Michael McPhearson, along with Colonel Ann Wright and members of the capital area VFP chapters also supported the protest. The VFP members were among 65 arrestees who included Kathy Kelly, Liz McAlister, and Cindy Sheehan among others. All those arrested were taken to the National Park Police Headquarters, booked, and released. They now have 14 days in which to reappear at the National Park Police Headquarters either to pay their $100 fines or to obtain a court date.

Along with Veterans for Peace, a broad range of affinity groups, such as the Atlantic Life Community, Witness Against Torture, Veterans for Peace, World Can’t Wait, and Activist Response Team had members arrested. Other groups fully endorsing the action and participating were Peace Action, Code Pink, the War Resisters’ League, and Student
Peace Action Network.

The protest called for withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, ending the illegal bombing with US drones, including neighboring Pakistan, and the closing of the Bagram prison and ending indefinite detention and torture. We called for an end to these wars and
occupations, including that of Iraq, so that our resources can be used for life-sustaining actions including the funding and the rebuilding of Afghanistan’s and Iraq’s infrastructure and medical assistance to Afghans and Iraqis, in addition to poverty reduction programs in the United States and world wide. We continue to call for accountability for those who have committed war crimes.

Kenneth Mayers
Veterans for Peace - Santa Fe
Wage Peace!

Convention '09

2009-08-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 23, 2009
Convention '09
". . . the best people and
the stoutest souls in the world . . ."
- Mike Ferner
Never been to a convention before. Heard about 'em often enough; I'd formed a few opinions: a large gathering of people from around the country (or state or world), a lotta speechs and meetings, funny hats and boisterous behavior, good opportunity to meet, drink, push agendas, settle scores, pick up bumperstickers, act like a fool . . . I was filled with prejudices and misconceptions.
But I'd been scorched by the emotional intensity of the Winter Soldier Hearings, March 13-16, 2008. As Security volunteer, I found myself part of the biggest and truest thing happening in America those four days. My particular job was small and anonymous, but I walked with heroes those days. My life was changed in ways marchs and vigils, signs and slogans could not match.
So I went to the Convention for the fellowship . . . and maybe to read a few poems. In a time when even political victory doesn't seem good enough, I went to rekindle my spirit, revive my dedication. I went looking for those heroes.
And in the hallways and meeting rooms, the food court and lit room, I found them . . . guys like Paul Brailsford, Englishman, Massachusetts VFP, activist and poet, who went to sea in 1932 at age 16, stood the lonely watchs as a deck officer in the Pacific during World War II and at age 93 remains a stalwart voice for peace and justice . . . and Suel Jones the Marine rifleman from Texas and the Vietnam War, who now divides his time between Alaska and Vietnam, went from oilfield machinist to gifted memoirist and friend to the Vietnamese people . . . and the service brats: Deborah Forter, Navy, M.F.S.O.'s new leader and Donna Edwards, Air Force, Maryland's new Congresswoman. Dragged around the world as service kids are, these eloquent women learned at an early age to love the warrior and hate the war . . . and everywhere I turned, there was Carlos - just like at Winter Soldier - a curly-haired Saint Everyman, tirelessly holding heaven and earth together, his presence our whole meaning, his tragedy our fight . . .
The names and faces go on and on, anchored by a corps of Vietnam veterans and their good spouses, enriched by those of other eras and re-affirmed by the strong, young faces of the men and women of the Afghan and Iraq Wars.
Days later, outside the Teaneck Armory, at our four year old vigil, Chapter 21 Prez Ken Dalton regaled the watchstanders with tales of conventions and conventions to come. Ken once lived up in Portland, Maine, had , like the rest of us - Nancy and Paula, Barry, Fallon, Hancock, the Drozds - a great time at '09. I interrupted him to ask, what's Portland, driving time from Jersey? 'Bout six hours. Next year I thought. Sounds good.
- Walt Nygard August 23, 2009

Recruiting for Peace

2009-08-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

By Jan Barry

Suel D. Jones is on an unusual mission. The 60-ish Vietnam vet, who hails from Texas and has a hideaway cabin in Alaska, wants to create a Veterans For Peace chapter in Hanoi. “I already got 10 members,” Jones said last week as he talked up his latest campaign, while hawking copies of his memoir, Meeting the Enemy: A Marine Goes Home, at the 24th national convention of Veterans For Peace.

In his memoir, Jones wrote: “At a Veterans For Peace convention in 2006, I was asked about how I was recruited into the Marine Corps. I replied that I didn’t have to be recruited. My parents, the church, and society had recruited me since birth.” After years of wrestling with rage he brought home from the war, Jones moved to Vietnam and did volunteer work with the Vietnam Friendship Village, a hospital for children and Vietnamese veterans affected by Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used by the US military to destroy much of the forests in Vietnam. “I felt that as a warrior I was not complete until I returned to the country where I had fought in order to help heal the wounds of the war,” he added.

At a nearby table, Marine vet Doug Zachary of Austin, Texas, was selling a variety of books, buttons and bumper stickers on peace themes, including War Is a Racket by Smedley D. Butler, the legendary Marine major general and two-time winner of the Medal of Honor. Among the most popular items for men and women who stopped by between workshops on conflict resolution and other aspects of peacemaking were olive drab T-shirts emblazoned with the Veterans For Peace logo—a white dove on a military helmet—and an unusual team spirit message: “Recruiting for Peace.”

The event at the University of Maryland also drew Master Sergeant (ret.) Wesley Davey. A draftee during the Vietnam war, Davey ended up in Iraq with an Army Reserve unit at age 54. He arrived in College Park on a dual mission. A founder of the Minnesota chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Davey is also challenging the official “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that discriminates against gays in the military. “I was against this war, but felt that as the first sergeant I should deploy to Iraq to look out for the good people in my unit,” Davey told an assembled gathering of antiwar activists with ties to the military.

In a news article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2007, Davey bluntly said: “For the second time in my life, a president has plunged our country into a quagmire where there is no way to win a victory which can be defined. I thought we learned a lesson in Vietnam. I was wrong.”

Another participant was a mother of a young war veteran who attended a workshop on poetry for peace. “My son has several poems in this anthology,” said Tina Richards, a Missouri member of Military Families Speak Out, waving a copy of “Warrior Writers: Re-Making Sense,” a collection of poetry and art by members of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Writing and reading poems on the war at antiwar events was a great help to her son, who was struggling to cope with severe health problems after two tours with the Marines in Iraq. When requests to the VA and traditional veterans’ organizations for assistance proved fruitless, Richards said she found Veterans For Peace on the Internet.

“I called my son and said ‘we’re going on a march to New Orleans,’” joining a protest march by veterans’ peace groups in 2006 through hurricane-ravaged towns awaiting federal assistance while billions of dollars were spent on waging war in Iraq. During an evening of songs and poetry by participants, her son got up, she recalled, and read a poem he’d jotted down on a napkin. And now he’s a published poet, Cloy Richards, with a growing family of his own and a future he couldn’t see through the pain before.

The veterans’ convention in a Maryland suburb of Washington, DC, drew scores of people from across the United States. It also drew one of the newest members of Congress. “It is important to hear a voice for peace. We who are working for peace have to open up the space for people to move in that direction,” said Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Maryland), who was elected last year. “I think that the work you do as veterans working for peace gives the rest of us validation for what we do,” she added.

In her keynote speech, Edwards noted that she grew up in a career Air Force family and lost her brother at age 27 as a result of “psychological problems” from his military service. “I feel that I, as a very strong opponent of the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan, am a great patriot,” she said. Yet in working to change these policies, activists need to “work for peace with respect” for other people’s perspectives, she advised. Noting that she went on a tour of Afghanistan with other members of Congress, she concluded that the US strategy of widening the war with more troops “will not work. I’m a big supporter of President Obama. But I disagree with him on this.”

Summing up the focus of the convention, Michael T. McPherson, executive director of Veterans for Peace and a Gulf War I veteran, wrote in the program book that “We must reach out and educate about the full horrors and impact of war. … We must provide and live alternatives to war. We must become examples of conflict resolution in all aspects of our lives and build solidarity with allies in search of justice. … This weekend we gather to gain strength and learn from each other to do that work.”

For more information:
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
http://www.ivaw.org/
http://www.mfso.org/

2009 VFP National Convention

2009-05-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

The 24th Veterans For Peace National Convention is Aug. 5 – 9 at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. Come for a day of workshops ($75), two days of workshops ($150) or the full program ($200, if register by June 1). To register, go to http://www.vfpnationalconvention.org/.

Workshop topics include GI Rights and GI Advocacy, Counter Recruiting, Torture, War Profiteering, Winter Soldier hearings, Women’s Voices, Vets 4 Vets, VFP’s Mission and many more. Learn how, as veterans, we can do more to address the widening war in Afghanistan/Pakistan, as well as the war in Iraq that is supposed to be winding down.

At the 2008 Convention, VFP passed a resolution calling for: “the government of the United States to immediately withdraw all military and intelligence forces from Afghanistan and Pakistan; to provide humanitarian aid directly to the people of Afghanistan, in non-coercive forms, to help the Afghan people rebuild their own nation and their lives in cooperation with other nations in the region; and to allow the people of Afghanistan to freely determine their own government without interference by the US.”

Home for Veterans

2009-05-09T04:42:00.000-07:00

By Jan Barry

Coming home for some war veterans means slipping off the track of chasing a fading American dream. Despite the yellow ribbons of support for the troops festooning patriotic front yards and backs of cars, there’s an army of homeless former soldiers seeking shelter in cities and towns across this country. Compounding the shock of becoming homeless can be another bitter discovery: Few communities provide programs to help veterans who hit a rough patch get back on their feet. Consequently, an estimated 154,000 veterans are homeless on any given night, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Why are so many once-able military troops living a hobo life straight out of bleak stories from the Great Depression? Besides the “factors affecting all homelessness -- extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income, and access to health care -- a large number of displaced and at-risk veterans live with lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and substance abuse, compounded by a lack of family and social support networks,” says the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans web site. While the VA assists about one-third of the homeless vets, the majority have to look for state and local programs.

“The most effective programs for homeless and at-risk veterans are community-based, nonprofit, ‘veterans helping veterans’ groups,” says the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. “Programs that seem to work best feature transitional housing with the camaraderie of living in structured, substance-free environments with fellow veterans who are succeeding at bettering themselves. … There are about 250 community-based veteran organizations across the country that have demonstrated impressive success reaching homeless veterans. These groups are most successful when they work in collaboration with federal, state and local government agencies, other homeless providers, and veteran service organizations.”

When an empathetic religious group in a suburban New Jersey town proposed turning an empty church into apartments for homeless veterans, however, neighbors turned out to vehemently oppose the plan. What happened next showed the other side of America. When the proposal came up for a vote by the Highland Park Board of Adjustment recently, the room was packed by a crowd of veterans wearing military caps, peace activists in protest T-shirts, church members and residents of the central New Jersey area appalled by the neighbors’ complaints.

“Joe Vanliew broke down as he uttered his first words to the Highland Park zoning board, one of dozens of people who spoke Monday at a tense, four-hour meeting at which the board ultimately agreed to allow a shuttered church to be converted into an 11-unit housing complex for homeless veterans,” The Star-Ledger correspondent reported. "’I hope the sacrifices of every veteran are remembered tonight,’ the white-haired man said, his voice cracking. ‘They were in the thick of things, and I can't believe that anybody in Highland Park or anywhere else wouldn't support the veterans.’"

The objecting neighbors, who included a veteran or two, maintained that the conversion would add traffic to a busy street, ruin an historic building and put veterans in substandard basement-level apartments that, paradoxically, would cost much more in government grants than would be needed to buy houses on the market.

During the hearing, testimony was provided that the housing plan had the approval of federal agencies seeking to address the fact that “New Jersey has more than 3,500 homeless veterans, according to Victor Carlson, a psychologist and chief of homeless services for the Department of Veterans Affairs New Jersey Health Care System,” The Star-Ledger reported.

The veterans’ home project was launched by Highland Park Reformed Church pastor Seth Kaper-Dale, who told the newspaper that “the project stemmed from years of preaching about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Members of his congregation would ask him to pray for nieces and nephews going to war, then they asked him once again to join them in prayer when the veterans returned, he said. ‘They were praying for their nephew who came back and was sleeping on someone's couch.’"

For more information:
http://www.nchv.org/
http://www.nj.com/news/mustsee/index.ssf/2009/04/highland_park_agrees_to_conver.html
http://www.mainstreethp.org/polDoc.cfm?Doc_Id=590

Six Years of War is Too Long

2009-03-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Veterans For Peace marked the 6th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq with a call for the Obama Administration to end the war now, not years from now.

Veterans For Peace objects to President Obama's plan to keep troops in Iraq until 2011. “Beside the suffering and death caused by prolonging these wars, America simply can no longer afford the cost of empire,” commented Mike Ferner, the group’s National President. A long time critic of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, VFP calls for President Obama to bring all the troops home now. The organization’s consistent position has been that the presence of U.S. soldiers only ensures there will be violent resistance from Iraqis. The Administration’s plans to leave 50,000 “non-combat” troops in Iraq will not ensure less violence; it will guarantee the deaths of more U.S. troops and Iraqis at the hands of U.S. service members.

March 19-21, to mark the end of the 6th year of the occupation, Veterans For Peace members will participate in various events across the U.S. including the March on the Pentagon scheduled for Saturday. They are also urging their members to write and call Congress and the Obama Administration to register their dissatisfaction with the President’s timetable.

Ferner went on to say, “Barack Obama became president in part because millions of voters were sick of these wars and wanted them stopped, period. The People of Iraq can handle their affairs. They have proven that over thousands of years. It is time for U.S. to pull out all troops.” Violence in Iraq has lessened and sectarian divisions appear to be coming together, but military and Administration officials remain cautious that violence could escalate at anytime.

“U.S. policy claims to keep troops in Iraq to ensure stability,” continued Ferner. “With violence down, the President is taking over 2-1/2 years to leave. If violence rises, will plans change to stay? Either way, U.S. policy keeps troops in Iraq. This is not the sentiment of the majority of people in the U.S. or Iraq. We want all the troops to come home now!” Ferner concluded.

Open Letter to President Obama

2009-03-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

Dear President Obama:

Recently, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont convened a "Truth Commission" to investigate the CRIMES committed by the Bush Administration during the last eight years. As president of the Alan Reilly-Gene Glazer Chapter 021, New Jersey, I strongly urge you to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate those crimes and take appropriate action in order to bring the guilty individuals to justice. We believe that members of that administration have committed numerous crimes, subverted the U.S. Constitution and have soiled the reputation of this country in ways which will last for generations. Therefore, a "truth commission" is totally inadequate and there must be prosecutions in order to preserve our democracy.

Peace and Solidarity,

Kenneth A. Dalton, President
Alan Reilly-Gene Glazer Chapter 021
Veterans For Peace, New Jersey
Life Member, Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Community Action on War Trauma

2009-02-28T23:34:00.000-08:00

By Jan Barry

Many communities in the United States have a hidden problem, one that is in grave need of the American tradition of neighbors helping neighbors. The problem is the burden of memories that many young men and women bring home from a war, which can often become harder to deal with as time goes by.

Many veterans try to deal with war memories by trying to forget, by drinking or taking drugs. Some join veterans’ groups that offer comradeship and service programs. Yet an increasing number of veterans and active duty soldiers have felt nothing eased their anguish and committed suicide. Most veterans find ways to cope with life after war. But too often, when a veteran realizes he or she has a problem and seeks assistance from government agencies, they run into a bureaucratic logjam. Family members and friends often feel they don’t know where to turn to find a helpful program.

This is where community networking and community forums can play a vital role. Non-profit agencies may have counseling programs that are not widely known. Some advocacy groups have trained counselors to help navigate the mental health care system. Government agencies are trying to figure out how to do improved outreach to veterans, active duty troops and National Guard members.

Adding to the problem is pent-up anger. Perhaps most of all, soldiers, veterans and family members need public forums or community gatherings where their concerns can be heard and responded to in supportive ways.

A forum on this issue at Bryant University in Rhode Island drew a small, but emotionally intense gathering of veterans and supporters on the weekend before Veterans Day last fall. The forum included viewing a new documentary film, Leave No Soldier, which explores how diverse activist groups of vets (Rolling Thunder, Veterans for Peace) cope with war grief. Speakers on a panel included the filmmaker, vet activists, Veterans Administration counselors, a National Guard public affairs officer and a Navy officer with a program to address post traumatic stress. Several Vietnam veterans in the audience bitterly described experiences that soured them in seeking government assistance. In response, one of the government representatives thanked the vets for helping bring these problems to public attention. The VA and military representatives talked about how programs are being revised to address what is now recognized as a widespread, national problem.

This problem has become even more acute since Congress approved legislation more than a year ago to boost programs that assist veterans with acute post traumatic stress. The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act, signed by President Bush just before Veterans Day 2007, was named after a 22-year-old Army reservist from Iowa who killed himself after returning from Iraq. The bill requires additional mental health training for VA staff and improved counseling and treatment programs at VA medical facilities, as well as “outreach and education for veterans and their families, peer support counseling and research into suicide prevention,” as The Associated Press reported.

One way to help expand this outreach would be to hold community meetings on this issue throughout the country. Donna Bassin, the director of Leave No Soldier, who is a psychologist, suggests showing her film as a discussion starter, which she has done in Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York and other locations. In film fund-raisers, Bassin has done showings of the work in progress in friends’ living rooms, followed by candid discussions of these issues by veterans with their neighbors.

“Like a Greek chorus, our veterans express our collective sorrow; they warn of the dangers of ignoring and forgetting. They hold the grief of war for us who will not, and in so doing help us come to grips with its catastrophic impact,” Bassin says of the veterans of Vietnam and Iraq she interviewed. “Their communal mourning forces us to reflect upon our politics, and to pause and think critically about actions done in our name and that of our nation. If we as a nation send our children to war we have a responsibility to share the heavy load they carry.”

At a showing of the film at Pratt Institute in New York in December, Iraq veterans and I joined Bassin in a panel discussion with a roomful of mental health therapists. In the 1970s, I spoke to similar audiences on behalf of Vietnam vets beset by problems of readjusting to civilian life, in a time when many Americans dismissed or ignored what was then called post-Vietnam syndrome. Activist veterans, with the help of supporters around the country, helped identify what is now called post-traumatic stress and convince Congress to fund VA outreach centers to provide counseling and treatment—a program that still exists. This is one wheel that doesn’t need reinventing, but does need a renewed infusion of civic action.

For further information:
http://www.leavenosoldier.com/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/87964.php
http://www.truthout.org/021809A

For PTSD resources:
http://www.ptsdinfo.org/
http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/

Suicide and Soldiers

2009-02-18T20:25:00.000-08:00

By Jan Barry

The Army says it’s at a loss to explain the latest twist in US war casualty figures—which show that more soldiers killed themselves than died in combat operations.

“In January, 24 U.S. soldiers are believed to have committed suicide — seven confirmed cases and 17 more awaiting confirmation. By comparison, last January there were only five suicides in the Army,” NPR reported recently. “Last month's total is not just the highest monthly total since the Army started counting in 1980; it is more deaths than were sustained in combat last month by all branches of the armed forces combined.”

Addressing this issue, “Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, says that the Army is actively looking into the deaths and is trying to figure out why the suicides are happening. ‘If we knew why, in every single instance we would, in fact, be able to stop this problem,’ Chiarelli tells NPR's Robert Siegel. ‘We've got to try to find out why the numbers continue to go up.’"

For a start, the generals ought to study the Rand Corporation’s report to the Pentagon last year, "Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery," which found that “Nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan — 300,000 in all — report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression. … Since October 2001, about 1.6 million U.S. troops have deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with many exposed to prolonged periods of combat-related stress or traumatic events. Early evidence suggests that the psychological toll of the deployments may be disproportionately high compared with physical injuries.”

"If PTSD and depression go untreated or are under treated, there is a cascading set of consequences," one of the Rand researchers wrote. "Drug use, suicide, marital problems and unemployment are some of the consequences.”

The generals ought to also study the Portland (OR) Tribune’s investigation last August titled “‘Suicide epidemic’ hits veterans,” which found that one-third of recent suicides in Oregon was a military veteran. “In 2005, the last year for which complete Oregon data has been compiled, 19 Oregon soldiers died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. That same year, 153 Oregon veterans of all ages, serving in various wars, committed suicide.

“The rate of suicide among Oregon men who are veterans is more than double that of Oregon men in general — 46 suicides out of every 100,000 compared to 22 out of 100,000 — according to the Oregon Department of Human Services Center for Health Statistics,” the Portland newspaper reported.

“Nationally, reports of high suicide rates among veterans began to gain attention in April, when a series of e-mails from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs officials came to light during a class-action lawsuit brought by a veterans group in San Francisco. The e-mails say that 12,000 veterans under VA treatment attempt suicide each year, and that more than 6,000 veterans succeed in killing themselves each year. There are about 25 million veterans.

“’There is clearly a suicide epidemic,’ says Paul Sullivan, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Veterans For Common Sense, which brought the lawsuit. Sullivan says the VA’s own data on calls made to its suicide hot line might be the best indicator of the depth of the problem. According to the VA, in July there were 250 calls a day to the suicide hot line. And veterans have made more than 22,000 calls since the hot line started in July 2007. “

The Portland Tribune found evidence of increasing numbers of suicide among Vietnam veterans, as well as National Guard, Reserves and Marines who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Linda Rotering, a social worker who counsels veterans at the Portland Vet Center on Northeast Sandy Boulevard, says she is seeing an increase in the number of Vietnam veterans coming in to see her with post-traumatic stress disorder. Rotering and others say many Vietnam veterans may have been able to keep the symptoms of their stress disorder at bay while they busied themselves with jobs and families after the war. Now, she says, many are retiring, with adult children, and may be more susceptible to the images from the war in Iraq.

“’There’s nothing to block out the memories,’ Rotering says. ‘I hear over and over again, if I have a 19-year-old sitting in my office or a 60-year-old from Vietnam, the exact same things are coming out of their mouths.’”

During the Vietnam war, the VA and the Pentagon pretended there was no such problem for veterans. Yet as early as 1963, nearly 10 percent of Army deaths in Vietnam were suicides or otherwise killed themselves—“accidental self-destruction,” “misadventure”—according to casualty reports. Only after massive evidence of veterans experiencing serious readjustment problems was presented by Vietnam vet and other organizations during the 1970s was post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) given a name and a treatment plan. Under prodding from Congress, the VA in 1979 created storefront Vets Centers that provided counseling and therapy services for PTSD.

With the US fighting two hellacious wars in Asia, the VA is overwhelmed by a tsunami of vets seeking help and the military is scrambling to stop a suicide epidemic among the troops. "It's going to take system-level changes — not a series of small band-aids — to improve treatments for these illnesses," a Rand researcher said.

For more information:
http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/
http://www.rand.org/news/press/2008/04/17/
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=121926671416052100

Asbestos and Military Veterans

2009-02-18T07:49:00.000-08:00

My name is Allen Dutton and I’m the Veteran Liaison for the Mesothelioma Cancer Center (Asbestos.com); an organization devoted to assisting veterans through their application processes for VA benefits, and helping them obtain the maximum benefits for which they are entitled. I’m also a Veterans Benefit Counselor for the Veterans Assistance Network, and a retired Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy. I came across your site while searching for bloggers who post about veterans' issues.

Countless veterans are currently suffering from life-threatening illnesses that are a result of exposure to asbestos, a material that was commonly used in hundreds of military applications, products, and ships primarily because of its resistance to fire. Unfortunately, asbestos-related diseases are not always recognized by the VA, which is why I’m reaching out to veterans -- in hopes of helping them win the rights to their benefits.

The Mesothelioma Cancer Center provides a complete list of occupations, ships, and shipyards that could have put our Veterans at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases. In addition, they have thousands of articles regarding asbestos and mesothelioma and they’ve even created a veterans-specific section on their website in order to help inform them about the dangers of asbestos exposure. The main reason I’m contacting you is to see if you’d be interested in posting an article about military asbestos exposure on your blog.

Thank you for all your help,
Allen Dutton
Mesothelioma Cancer Center
Asbestos.com

Vets, Soldiers, Peaceniks Find Common Ground

2009-01-26T19:16:00.000-08:00

Members of Veterans for Peace Chapter 21, Military Families Speak Out and other peace groups were featured in a Jan. 25 New York Times article titiled “Soldiers and Protesters, Seeking Common Ground”: <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/nyregion/long-island/25Rparenting.html?_r=1&ref=new-jersey>

The lead article in the Sunday section for regional news profiled some of the core members of the weekly peace vigil outside the National Guard Armory in Teaneck, with comments by National Guard members and local veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“On the face of it, you’d think the protesters and the National Guard members are divided and separate, antiwar outside the armory, pro-war inside. But that is not so. There is much common ground between the two groups,” the insightful investigative piece by reporter Michael Winerip notes.

For instance, he writes: “Joseph Nygard, 27, who served 16 months in Afghanistan with the Army, said he likes that his parents, Nancy and Walt Nygard [a Vietnam vet], are regulars at the vigil. ‘We have pretty much the same feelings about the war,’ he said. At one point during his tour, he flew home to Newark, on leave from Afghanistan. ‘When we landed, the pilot made an announcement: ‘Please stay seated and let the soldiers leave first.’ We got up and everyone on the plane clapped for us. It was a great feeling.’ Asked how he would describe the American public’s attitude, he answered, ‘I’d say, ‘End the war, support the troops.’ ”

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Rally

2009-01-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Monday, Jan. 19, 1 pm in Teaneck

Rally and press conference to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
and to call on President-Elect Obama and the new Congress to:
· end the war in Iraq
· bring all of the troops home NOW
· keep the New Jersey National Guard in New Jersey for New Jersey
· take care of the troops when they get here
· bring the more than $12/billion home to use for our communities –
· for health care, housing, jobs, and education

Where: 713 Teaneck Road (across from Holy Name Hospital)
at the site of the newest Bring them Home billboard.
Please bring food and baby supplies for National Guard families.

Sponsored by:
Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County Chapter http://www.mfsobergencounty.org/
Bergen Peace and Justice Coalition http://www.bergenjustice.net/
NJ Peace Action http://www.peaceaction.org/
Teaneck Peace and Justice Coalition http://www.teaneckpeace.org/
NJ Coalition to Bring the Troops Home NOW

Speakers include:
Teaneck Town Council member Barbara Toffler and other elected officials
Hallie Emma Brevetti, Teaneck High School student
Veterans, Military Family members, community activists

Call for Cease-fire in Gaza and Israel

2009-01-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

Our chapter, in keeping with our charter, calls for an end to all violence against innocents in Gaza and Israel. We also call for an immediate United Nations monitored cease-fire and provision of food and medical supplies to all Palestinians and Israelis in the war zone.

Investigate Iraq War Crimes

2009-01-05T11:18:00.000-08:00

We, the members of the Alan Reilly-Gene Glazer Chapter 21 of Veterans for Peace, New Jersey, at our January 3, 2009 meeting, voted to endorse a resolution that the Iraq War was an illegal and immoral invasion and occupation, whereas, all those responsible should and must be held accountable as per the Nuremberg Principles and International Law.

Therefore, we strongly urge that the national leadership of Veterans for Peace and all chapters take up this matter and make it an immediate priority. Furthermore, we call upon the leadership of Veterans for Peace to petition the President of the United States to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the war crimes of the Bush administration.

2008-12-28T15:15:00.000-08:00

Michael Kramer and Ken Dalton accepting peace award from Lisa Marie Palmieri in Jersey City on December 27. Chapter 21 received the award from the Jersey City Peace Movement in recognition of our activism for peace and justice. Kramer, chapter secretary, is an I.D.F. veteran of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war; Dalton, chapter president, is a U.S.N. veteran of the Vietnam war.

Sign Up to Bring NJ National Guard Home

2008-12-04T21:13:00.000-08:00

PETITION: Bring New Jersey's National Guard Home From Iraq
SPONSOR: New Jersey Peace Action, endorsed by Veterans for Peace Chapter 21
DESCRIPTION: In June 2008, President Bush ordered the deployment of nearly half the NJ National Guard to Iraq. With the deployment, many local families have been disrupted and are suffering financial and emotional hardships and our State’s ability to respond to emergencies has been greatly impaired. The war in Iraq has resulted in the deaths of over 4,118 American service men and women, with costs exceeding $1.5 trillion, $16,500 for each American family of four—already too great a cost.We, the undersigned, call on our elected officials in the NJ State Senate and Assembly to pass the resolution currently before the Legislature to order the return of NJ National Guard members, limit the service of the Guard within NJ and to withhold consent from further deployment of the NJ Guard to Iraq unless lawfully called into service under a valid and subsisting authorization from Congress.

To participate, please visit http://njpon.org/petitions/sign.php?pid=72.
Please share this with your lists.

Now More Than Ever, Our Activism Is Needed

2008-11-24T15:41:00.000-08:00

Dear Members and Friends of VFP Chapter 21

Now that the crazy season is over and Barack Obama is the new President Elect, the question of "Where do we go from here?" has come up many times. I have also heard many voices of discontent by Obama supporters who are now upset over the people Obama has either appointed or may appoint to his new administration like Rahn Emanuel, Hilary Clinton or Joel Klein. There is also a feeling that Obama may be backing off his commitment to end the Iraq occupation due to the amount of hawks that are being brought into this new administration in order to placate neocons and republicans.

Well, this past Saturday, November 22, which was my 57th. birthday, I treated myself to a conference at William Paterson University sponsored by the Young Democratic Socialist of W.P.U. There were several fine speakers on the three panels in this program including Greg Palast, author of "Armed Madhouse" and John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". The main message all the speakers on the panels I attended was that the changes we're all hoping for won't come from Obama or the Democrats in Congress. Those changes will have to come from us!

I'm sure many of you remember me saying time and time again that we should not depend on or put too much faith in the Democrats. Once again, I'll repeat that message. Barack Obama will not end the Iraq occupation or find a resolution to the situation in Afghanistan. That is unless, we keep the heat on him, just like we did with Bush and the Republicans.

So if any of you thought our job was done by getting Obama elected President or by getting a sizable Democrat majority in Congress, you better think it over again. If you thought that you could forget about the anti war vigils, marches or demonstrations, you got another thing coming. NOW, MORE THAN EVER, OUR ACTIVISM IS NEEDED! NOW ISN'T THE TIME TO PUT AWAY OUR BANNERS AND SIGNS BUT INSTEAD, IT'S TIME TO KEEP THE HEAT ON! In fact, we'll probably need to turn it up a few notches. So don't get too comfortable, get more active! Change will only happen if all of us make it happen!

Peace and Solidarity,

Ken Dalton,
President Alan Reilly-Gene Glazer Chapter 021
Veterans For Peace, New Jersey
Life Member, Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Message from VFP 21 President

2008-11-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

Dear VFP Chapter 021 Members and Friends

Well we did it. We changed the course of the country away from the policies of the last eight years towards a new course that hopefully will bring a new era of peace and prosperity. Actually, the problems we all have been experiencing over the last eight years actually began with Ronald Reagan and his aggressive foreign policy based on military force and a domestic policy based on selfishness and greed.

For most of us, the Iraq war was the straw that broke the camel's back and the motivating force behind our activism. How many marches, vigils and demonstration have we participated where we had to deal with cold winter winds, hot summer sun, humidity, snow, sleet and rain? How many time have we been called traitors, unamerican or had our past service to this country questioned? Through it all we stood together and changed the attitude and opinions of our fellow citizens, laying the ground work of this new revolution.

As president of the Alan Reilly-Gene Glazer Chapter 21, Veterans For Peace, New Jersey and a life member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, I would like to salute each and everyone of you for your courage and persistence in this struggle for our nation's soul.

Please be warned that the results of the November 4th election will not be the end of our efforts, but only the end of the beginning. There will still be so much more to accomplish and gains that will have to be protected. The forces on the right are only wounded, not eliminated. They'll be back with more vigor and viciousness to impose their will and promote the wishes of Wall Street and the military industrial complex. Therefore, take a few days off to celebrate your hard earned victory and I expect to see you all back on the job next Monday.

Until then, peace and solidarity.

Kenneth Dalton,
President Alan Reilly-Gene Glazer Chapter 21
Veterans For Peace, New Jersey
Life Member, Vietnam Veterans Against the War

VFP Chapter 21 Endorsement

2008-11-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

JEWS UNITING TO END THE WAR AND HEAL AMERICA: ORGANIZING FOR ACTION
SUNDAY NOV. 23, 9:30AM-5PM
Central Synagogue, 123 East 55th Street, between Park & Lexington Avenues, NYC

Join hundreds of domestic and international policy, human and civil rights, peace and Jewish community experts and activists from across the nation for a daylong call to conscience and strategy session focused moving the incoming Presidential Administration---whichever it will be---to end the war in Iraq, attend to pressing domestic issues and shift to a saner foreign policy.

Speakers and workshop panelists include:

Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, Temple University; Diane Balser, Brit Tzedek V’Shalom; Jan Barry, Veterans for Peace; Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street; Lawrence Bush, Jewish Currents; Leslie Cagan,
United for Peace and Justice; Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network; Jeff Cohen, Park Center for Independent Media; Penny Coleman, author; Adrienne Cooper, Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring; Je!rey Dekro, founder The Shefa Fund; Liza Featherstone, journalist and contributing editor to The Nation; Rabbi Marla Feldman, Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism; Gary Ferdman, Common Cause; Emmaia Gelman, Center for Working Families; J.J. Goldberg, The Forward; Amy Goodman, Democracy Now; Cantor Jonathan Gordon; William Hartung, New America Foundation;!Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman, former Congresswoman, author and attorney; Mark Johnson, Fellowship of Reconciliation/Olive Branch Interfaith Partners for Peace; Rokhl Kafrissen, Jewish Currents; Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, Rabbis for Human Rights-North America; Esther Kaplan, The Nation Institute; Robert Kaplan, Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring; Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, scholar and poet; Rabbi Peter Knobel, Central Conference of American Rabbis; Charles Komano!, Carbon Tax Center; Steve Kretzmann, Oil Change International; Brad Lander, Pratt Center for Community"Development; Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives; Myriam Miedzian, author; Sammie Moshenberg, National Council of Jewish Women; Congressman Jerrold Nadler, (D-NY); Sue Niederer, Goldstar Families for Peace; Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights; Lilly Rivlin, Meretz USA; Rabbi Or Rose, Hebrew College; MJ Rosenberg, Israel Policy Forum; April Rosenblum, author; Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center"; Basya Schecter and “Pharaoh's Daughter”; Marty Schwartz, Workmen's Circle/
Arbeter Ring; Rabbi David Shneyer, Am Kolel; Dan Sieradski, Jewish Telegraphic Agency;
Dara Silverman, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice; Greg Speeter, National Priorities Project;
Ann"Toback, Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring; Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center;
Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, Rabbis for Human Rights-North America.

Panel discussions and strategy workshops on:

-Building a Jewish Anti-War Activist Network
-Confronting the War in the Jewish Community: A Historic Moment of Opportunity
-Domestic Economic Consequences of the War and Peace
-Healing Veterans, Their Families and the Families of the War Dead
-Impacts of the Iraq War on Human Rights and Civil Liberties in the U.S.
-Impacts of the Iraq War on Peace and the Broader Middle East
-Oil, War and Climate Crisis
-Takhlis: Jewish Values, Texts and Organizing with Rabbis and Synagogues
-The Media and Changing Jewish Public Opinion

For further information:
jewsunitingtoendthewar@circle.org / 212-889-6800 ext. 274
Or register online at: www.circle.org/jewsuniting

Veterans' Poetry at Puffin Cultural Forum

2008-10-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

Friday, November 7, 8 p.m.
POETRY: Vets Against War
Puffin Cultural Forum
20 Puffin Way, Teaneck, NJ
201-836-3499

Vietnam veterans Jan Barry and Gerald McCarthy will headline this evening of anti-war poetry and solidarity with our veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Other poets include Dayl Wise, Thomas Brinson, Jim Murphy, Walt Nygard, Sam Weinrab, and Michael Embrich.

This will also be an open mic event emceed by Walt Nygard (VP of Veterans for Peace, Northern NJ, Chapter 21). Free and open to the public.

For more information and directions: http://www.puffinfoundation.org/forum/forum_new/home.html

Turning Military Uniforms into Art

2008-10-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

A thought-provoking project by a band of Iraq veterans is to gather a group of vets and students at local colleges and shred military uniforms into handmade “combat paper”—which is then inscribed with images or messages designed by the vets.

For instance, Drew Cameron printed a poem over photos of a soldier shedding his uniform, titled “You Are Not My Enemy.” His work appears in a collection of poetry and art titled Warrior Writers: Re-Making Sense, published earlier this year by Iraq Veterans Against the War.

The Combat Paper Project is bringing this creative take on war memories to New Jersey on November 10-15 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Garden State vets are invited to participate in the workshops, which are free, at the Brodsky Center for Print and Paper.

“Veterans of wars in Iraq, Viet Nam, World War II and Bosnia, have contributed so far,” says Cameron, an Army vet of the Iraqi campaign who has helped lead more than a dozen such workshops across the country. “From each new participant, I take a piece of fabric and mix it into the lineage pulp. This pulp is then mixed in with each new batch of pulp, so a little piece of each vet’s uniform is in every new piece of paper made.”

Many of these recycled works of art have been shown in a number of art shows and galleries around the country. But the biggest artistic impact may be on the vet who shed the uniform. “The Combat Paper Project gives vets a chance to fight back against their trauma — taking the horrors of war from the battlefield into the studio, sharing their experiences with other veterans, and remaking those experiences into something entirely new,” writer Julia Rappaport noted in a perceptive news report (“Scars & Stripes,” 9/25/08) in the Boston Phoenix.

“The story of the fiber, the blood, sweat and tears, the months of hardship and brutal violence are held within those old uniforms. The uniforms often become inhabitants of closets or boxes in the attic. Reclaiming that association of subordination, of warfare and service into something collective and beautiful is our inspiration,” says Cameron, who founded the Combat Paper Project in Burlington, Vermont with fellow artist Drew Matott.

Cameron, Matott and other papermaking veterans will be at Rutgers November 10–15 at the Judith K. and David J. Brodsky Center for Print and Paper in the Department of Visual Arts, Mason Gross School of the Arts, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. They will conduct a combat paper workshop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday with area veterans and students, followed by an evening of readings and performances on Friday. To sign up, call 732-932-2222 ext 838 or email Cameron at drewcameron@combatpaper.org.

For more information: http://www.combatpaper.org/index.html

Another Move to Bring NJ Soldiers Home

2008-10-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

The Teaneck town council sent a message this week to Washington that it wants the NJ National Guard out of Iraq. Last month, about half of the state’s National Guard members began shipping out to Iraq, many for a second tour in the war. As host community for a National Guard armory, Teaneck has debated the war since the Bush administration invaded Iraq. Reflecting the course of that debate, the council voted 4-3 on Tuesday to support a bill in the state legislature that calls for keeping the National Guard in the state, unless Congress declares war.

“I think it is part of our responsibility to advocate on behalf of our residents,” Mayor Michael Feit replied to a councilman who questioned the legality of local government addressing a national issue. Councilman Adam Gussen said he felt the message the council majority wanted to send should be directed to Congress, but not via a local resolution in support of a state bill. A local American Legion leader spoke against the resolution from the audience, arguing that "it does not reflect the entire township" and in particular members of his veterans' group.

Teaneck’s resolution was based on one passed by Highland Park in August. The municipal resolutions support bills introduced earlier this year by state Senator Loretta Weinberg (SJR55) and Assemblywomen Connie Wagner and Valerie Huttle (AJR89). The bills challenge Bush’s authority to order National Guard troops to Iraq, arguing that the U.S. Senate’s 2002 authorization to use military force in Iraq has expired.

Paula Rogovin, a leader of Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County and other peace activists in the audience applauded the Teaneck council vote. The next step, Rogovin said after the meeting, is to lobby state legislators to hold hearings and approve the National Guard bill.

“The premise of the bill is simple,” Weinberg said last month as she joined peace activists outside the Teaneck Armory to present a petition with over 4000 signatures to a representative of Governor Corzine that calls for keeping NJ’s National Guard in New Jersey. “The National Guard was called up under an Iraqi threat posed by Weapons of Mass Destruction. There were no weapons, and Iraq’s military has been defeated. There is no threat left for the National Guard to defend us from."

For more information: http://www.bringhometheguard.org/

WE NEED YOU

2008-09-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

Vets for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, NJ Peace Action and other peace groups are mobilizing a campaign to bring National Guard units home from Iraq. The next step is to seek resolutions of support from local governments for a bill in the New Jersey Legislature to challenge the Bush administration's misuse of the National Guard in prolonging a reckless war. Activists in Teaneck plan to raise this issue with the town council next week.

WE NEED YOU.
On September 23, we will call on the Teaneck Town Council to pass a resolution of support for Senate Joint Resolution 55, a resolution in the NJ State Legislature. SJR55 explains that the 2002 Congressional Authorization for the use of the National Guard in Iraq has expired and insists that the Governor take action to bring the NJ Guard Home from Iraq NOW and keep them and their equipment here for the safety of the people of NJ (and other states when necessary). We all know that THE NJ NATIONAL GUARD IS A LOCAL ISSUE. It's time for the Teaneck Town Council to take a stand. Of course, we continue with our larger demands: Support the troops, Bring all of the troops home now, Bring the contractor army (of 180,000) home now, take care of our troops when they get here.

Please let us know if you will attend the meeting and if you are willing to speak during Good and Welfare. Please respond to this by hitting reply. Thanks.
_______ Yes, I will attend the September 23 meeting of the Teaneck Town Council. 8:00 pm. Municipal Building. Teaneck Road and Cedar Lane.
_______ Yes, I will speak about this resolution during Good and Welfare.

We are continuing the petition drive calling on other municipal and county governments, as well as members of the NJ Legislature and Governor Corzine to support legislation SJR55. Let us know if you would like to get your municipal government to introduce a resolution. To get more information, sign on-line or download the petition, and get a copy of SJR55 go to www.bringhometheguard.org or www.bergenjustice.net. Please return completed copies of the petition at the Wednesday vigils.

George (age 95!), a World War II veteran, and member of the Wednesday vigil, has been concerned about the numbers of troops wounded in Iraq. Here is some data and a link to www.anti-war.com/casualties. The exact numbers are not known. Injuries such as PTSD and traumatic brain injury, depleted uranium poisoning from US weapons, are not even counted. American Wounded: Official: 30,634, Estimated: Over 100,000.

Peace NOW!
Paula Rogovin, Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County. www.mfsobergencounty.org
paula.rogovin@verizon.net

Action to Keep National Guard in NJ

2008-08-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

After no one at the governor's office a week ago Friday would accept copies of the petition to keep New Jersey's National Guard from deployment to Iraq, Jack Donnelly, Policy Advisor to Governor Corzine on Military and Veterans' Affairs, agreed to accept the petitions at the weekly peace vigil at the National Guard Armory in Teaneck on Wednesday, September 3.

In a press release, petitition organizers also asked that vigil participants "please bring school supplies, baby supplies, and/or food for the Family Assistance Center at the National Guard Armory. Many of the families are really hurting during the deployment of their loved ones."

Activists at the vigil will also describe their efforts to gather support for a bill currently in the NJ State legislature, Senate Joint Resolution 55, which instructs Governor Corzine to refuse to send the Guard to Iraq and to return any Guard currently serving in Iraq to New Jersey. The legal basis for this resolution is explained in SJR55. "The New Jersey National Guard, now in Iraq, must be recalled and returned with their equipment to the Garden State immediately to serve the needs of the people of the State during emergencies," said Paula Rogovin, of Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County.

"Governor Corzine has legal grounds to order our National Guard to return home immediately," said Leigh Davis, a NJ coordinator of Keep the National Guard Home - It's the Law. "We want him to stand up and do what should have been done last October - reject an illegal order. States across the nation have legislation pending to return full control of their National Guard troops to the Governors."

"The war in Iraq has wreaked havoc on the U.S. troops (4138 killed and tens of thousands wounded) and contractors (1,200 killed) and on their families who face financial hardship and ruin, and who are left to support loved ones returning with PTSD, alcoholism and high rates of suicides," said Madelyn Hoffman, Director of New Jersey Peace Action. "The Federal Government is sending our National Guard personnel to be prison guards in a powder-keg situation," said Hoffman. "Instead, our NJ Guard members and their equipment should be here in New Jersey to protect the people of New Jersey in case of emergencies. Now is the time to work round the clock to bring all the troops home as quickly as possible."

For more information about the state and national efforts to de-federalize the National Guard, please visit www .bringhometheguard.org or www.bringtheguardhome.org.

People can also sign a petition supporting SJR 55 and contact their state legislators to demand the Guard be brought back from Texas to New Jersey, by visiting www.bergenjustice.net.

NJ National Guard Update

2008-08-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

On Friday, a delegation from around NJ went to Trenton to deliver petitions with over 4000 signatures calling on Governor Corzine to take a stand NOW to keep the NJ National Guard here in New Jersey. After months of trying to set up a meeting with the Governor or his staff, there was no one at his office who would meet with us about the issue or even accept the petitions. One staff member, after much prodding, agreed to help set up a meeting. While the Gov claims to oppose the use of our National Guard in Iraq, he has done nothing at all to try to keep them here to serve the needs of the people of NJ. What a disgrace!

Please take time in the next several weeks to collect signatures on petition and flyer for the campaign cancel the deployment of the NJ National Guard and to bring them back to New Jersey where they belong. It will be available at the Wednesday vigil and at www.bringtheguardhome.org. We hope you will make copies and go with friends to supermarkets, street fairs, concerts, etc. to collect signatures. On Tuesday, September 23, we plan to go to the Teaneck Town Council to urge them to support the NO New Jersey National Guard in Iraq – Keep NJ Safe! resolution which has been introduced in the NJ State Legislature. If you want to introduce a resolution in your town council, please let us know, and we’ll support that effort.

Peace NOW!

Paula Rogovin,
Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County
www.mfsobergencounty.org

New Cold War

2008-08-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

The administration has been poking a stick in Russia's eye for years. Why do we need missile sites in Poland and Czechlovakia? The stated justification is "protection from Iran." Ludicrous. Has Iran got a beef with Poland? More likely, it is the neo-con policy of continuing projection of US power; yes, let's get another war going.

Abolish NATO Now!

2008-08-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Chapter 21 Members and Friends,

Not long ago somebody asked me what we'll do once the Iraqi situation is resolved. My reply was that ending the Iraq war is only the beginning. We would still have a tremendous task ahead of us like ending militarism in the U.S., promoting peace and justice, etc, etc.

One thing that was on my mind at that time was the NATO problem. To begin with, NATO was formed during the "Cold War" to check the alleged expansion of the Soviet Empire and counter the combined military might of the Warsaw Pact. As all of you know, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact are now relics on the junk heap of history. One would have thought that NATO would been on that same junk heap, but that was not the case. Instead, there's been a bipartisan effort by the U.S. Government to expand NATO into Eastern Europe and beyond, including former Soviet Republics like Georgia. Please note that the cost of this expansion is being paid for by U.S. taxpayers. In addition, Georgia was slated to become a NATO member in the very near future in return for supplying two thousand troops to Bush's war of aggression in Iraq.

The question I have is what would have happened if Georgia were already a NATO member? Would the United States be required to declare war on Russia? Would the Caucasus be the ignition point of a global conflagration like Bosnia was in the last century. I for one believe that expanding NATO into that part of world, or for that fact anywhere, makes the likelihood of a much larger war a very serious possibility. Therefore, I hope all of you will seriously consider adding the abolishment of NATO to your list of things to do as far as promoting peace and justice worldwide.

Peace, Justice and Solidarity,

Ken Dalton, President
Alan Reilly-Gene Glazer Chapter 021 Veterans For Peace, New Jersey
Life Member,Vietnam Veterans Against the War
EN2, U.S.N. 1970-74 USS Monticello LSD 35 USS Grand Canyon AR28