VFP CHAPTERS
Editor: Woody Powell
woodypowell@gmail.com
August 4, 2008
In the last newsletter we proposed the creation of some sort of SIGNATURE project or program that would stand to identify the essential nature of Veterans For Peace.
I'm sorry to say that the response was anemic; though certain concepts were put forth with more frequency and vigor than others. On the whole, however, it seems that the respondents presented their own projects as THE ONE; which I suppose could have been expected. That's where their passions reside, after all.
For the record, here is a digest of the ideas put forward:
- Being ‘FOR PEACE" by performing reparations and healing projects. Iraq Water Project elevated to a National Project. Sending reparations teams into Iraq & Afghanistan. This one was presented by the most respondents (4).
- Sending humanitarian aid teams into potential battlegrounds (Iran, Darfur, Venezuela, Colombia.)
- Engagement (with active duty military) and Counter Recruitment.
- Providing sanctuary and support for military war resistors.
- Exposing neocons who send people to war, but do not themselves participate.
- Working to heal the effects of war on our veterans and to attack the root causes; homelessness, poverty, drug and alcohol addiction, gangs, the hopelessness that makes cannon fodder of the young.
- Supporting the troops, bringing them home now and taking care of them when they get here.
- Re-establishing the values of the constitution.
- Joining the "No Base" movement to remove US military bases from their overseas locations and keep them out of space.
Idea number one had the most support. And I have to confess that it is the one I think gives us the best opportunity to make peace in sharp contrast to those who are making war. Number two is much the same idea, but in anticipation of attack.
Not that the others should not be pursued, and especially by those who have a strong calling to do so. They are all positive responses to war making.
I think it is useful to all of us to tap in to the thinking of our brothers and sisters - so this issue will be devoted to those who responded.
I shall start with one long piece by Ed Hart, President of Veterans For Peace in 1995. Ed was a Marine pilot in the Pacific during WWII.
He writes:
What do people who are opposed to war do, anyhow, Woody?
Seems to me it would be logical to respond to the problem the same way people who are bothered by hurricanes respond. Try to avoid them, insulate ourselves from them, reduce their intensity, create a climate that doesn't generate them. None of us believes it's likely that a small number of us will be able to actually prevent one when the forces of nature are set in motion, or reverse one after it's been stirred up.
Most likely, the best we can do with one that's already underway is to care for its victims and help them rebuild. And we need to study and document the causes of these deadly forces and learn to avoid future ones. We need to learn what causes them and make certain we don't overheat the planet in a way that is likely to generate another in the future.
Wars develop pretty much the same way that global warming breeds storms, flooding and general uncontrollable disaster.
We have evidence that our belligerent behavior and the wars that grow out of it generates wars, and that wars damage both participants and innocent bystanders. We train kids to hate and to kill that a few years earlier we hauled to Sunday Schools. The result is PTSD, epidemics of suicides, street gangs, parks and neighborhoods filled with homeless men and families, self-medicating alcoholics and drug addicts, densely populated prisons, and wrecked families.
And, instead of learning from our mistakes we glamorize them on movie screens and in comic books, our weapons of mass distraction-and destruction.
We generate whirlwinds and reap storms we can't control. Cursing wars is about as fruitful as cursing the lightening or funnel clouds or hurricanes. Global warming spawns uncontrollable forces, whether we're using environmental terms, commercial terms, military terms or entertainment terms.
But PTSD, suicides, street gangs, alcoholism and drug addiction, and homelessness are of a scale we could have some effect on. Perhaps we could even affect commercial exploitation at home and abroad with about as much success as we can expect in our resistance to global warming.
We can work with war veterans, both military and civilian, to identify the damage we're doing to them and make whatever repairs we're able to make. And we can publicize the damage we're doing to ourselves and our victims-and come to recognize that the injuries we cause in this aggression will cause the next one we're forced to defend ourselves against.
Our programs once included anti-war-toy campaigns,children-of-war rehabilitation, and work with the veterans we've driven into our prisons. We still send counter-recruitment teams into high schools and work to assist victims of Agent Orange, land mines, cluster bombs and depleted uranium. Perhaps more of our attention should be turned in those directions.
Why don't we pick on problems our own size? We could outgrow them and begin posing real threats to the forces that threaten us with war. Small victories could become great ones.
It's better than crippling ourselves by banging our heads against forces that exhaust us and leave us panting on the pavement.
Sometimes we remind me of the ignorant president who assembled a task force to combat terrorism and instructed his team at their opening session not to concern themselves with the causes of terrorism, but to invest their efforts in finding a cure.
Ed Hart - Chapter 64 - AL
Iraq Water Project
Thanks for this Woody. It has occurred to me more than once that the Iraq Water Project could be developed into something bigger and a lot more effective if we could find people willing to serve as an actual staff. If the project were run out of the national office instead of my kitchen it would probably do a lot better too, but I know that's impossible without driving already overloaded staff people into the daffycages.
We have just sent off $3000 to Faiza for sterilizer units to be installed in southern Iraqi cities. We will also start working with Sami Rasouli and Muslim Peacemaker Teams soon to upgrade water facilities in Najf schools.
Art Dorland - Chapter 39 - NE OH
I'd also like to inspire the notion that we are the "FOR PEACE" organization of veterans... not "ANTI-WAR". I believe this was part of the inception of VFP. It is reflective of our name, and why many of us came to the organization... to work FOR peace, being anti-war is not nearly the same. Being FOR something is a creative force. That creative force colors all of the activities and both strategies and tactics.
Sharon Kufeldt - Board Member
Proposed resolution: Sanctuary City for GI resisters is more than symbolic; it is the public taking a stand in history for GIs and Human Rights. In bringing this resolution forward we engage the public and our elected city representatives into a conversation about our duties and obligations to protect our troops' rights to refuse to be complicit in war crimes.
There are many more things to consider, i.e. How are we to consider a soldier who has served in Afghanistan or Iraq who may have been injured and mentally scarred who may have left their unit role call, or not reported to deploy- not because of a political opposition to serving- but because their PTSD or Brain Injury (which they may not even be aware of) has caused a change in their behavior to wander as homeless vets? Or those who are aware of their injuries and fear they could not properly defend their brothers and sisters soldiers in combat? What of those women (and men) who have been raped or sexually harassed while serving but after reporting said abuses were dismissed with no remedies ever taken against their abusers?
We do not expect GI resisters (those who have take a moral stand in opposition to this war/occupation) to flock to Portland but we do expect some who are already here to feel safer and less isolated in their dissent.
We already have networks of alternative free services to returning veterans and/or GI resisters and hope to find and/or create more until we can get our VA properly funded and staffed to meet the ever growing need of our veterans.
Dan Shea - VFP 72 - Portland OR
Yellow Zone
Woody: for a time I have felt the need for a "Yellow Zone" project. The goal is to identify those
"NEOREPUBLICONS" PLAYING SAFE, HIDING AND LIVING IN THE YELLOW ZONE
Our
goal is to identify and expose those individuals, corporations and
entities that support the war effort but don't have the intestinal
fortitude to enlist, encourage thier loved ones to enlist, or go to war
zones themselves.
David E. Thomas - Chapter 47 - SW PA
Reparations, Department of Peace, Afghanistan, Impeachment
Just
a thought on "what we're doing"...I joined VFP because I learned about
the reparations projects that VFP was doing in former U.S. war zones,
and in that we have now completely destroyed Iraq and are working on
doing the same to Afghanistan, I think that a push towards sending
reparation teams to either or both of those countries would be a
legitimate goal for VFP... so if asked "what we are doing", we could
proudly state that "we are trying to rebuild what we destroyed
militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to rebuild human relations with
those we have oppressed, and to reverse the hatred that we have
created".
I'd also like to see strong lobbying for a "Department
of Peace" in our government, and it would be good to more-utilize our
voice inside the United Nations somehow.
It's also time to shift
our anti-war work towards getting us out of Afghanistan, as there is
the (terribly wrong) sense in this country that Afghanistan is "the
good war" as opposed to Iraq. It isn't....it is no less wrong that Iraq
was, and getting MUCH worse, day by day. We have done our anti Iraq-war
work well, and Iraq is almost over, except for the withdrawal, so now
we must shift the attitude of our country to getting entirely out of
Afghanistan and the Middle East, at least militarily. We can do that by
reminding people that the ONLY reason we went into Afghanistan was to
"capture or kill bin Laden". There is no justification for us to be
there anymore (and there never was any REAL justification to invade
them in the first place)
I personally think we have thwarted the
(planned) invasion of Iran, because we have stopped the "war" in Iraq
(on the verge of) and the neocon's plan was to use a "stable"(occupied)
Iraq as a FOB for invading Iran.
Our impeachment work is also exemplary.
Ward Reilly - Chapter 924
Celebrating diversity
You don't hear much from me because I am more into action. what makes Veterans For Peace unique is the diversity of it's members and their projects/actions/campaigns. We live in different areas of the country and what works in one area, will not work in Utah, the reddest of the red states. I believe we already have a signature campaign: support the troops, bring them home now and take care of them when they get here. We really don't need to reinvent the wheel. I am more into my military counseling service assisting veterans and the g.i. rights hotline. I also am mentoring a new IVAW chapter with 3 members and assisting organizing efforts with the American Indian movement and students for a free Tibet in our local peace and justice community.
Aaron Davis - Chapter 118 - Salt Lake City
Branding VFP
Nice to hear from you, Aaron! I hope more chapter activists will come
forward with their ideas.
I agree with your point about the diversity of our members and their work.
But, I do SINCERELY hope we can pursue "Operation Branding VFP!"
Our detractors are branding themselves as the "good guys." Because we are
not pursuing an identity campaign, our image is blowing in the wind, meaning
we are wide open for negative branding by the opposition while not reaching
those that would benefit from our efforts.
Aaron - you've put a spotlight on the real issue here -- branding is an
identity that is easily misunderstood. It does not take place at the
tactical level, which is where projects and events take place. Branding
must be pursued at the strategic level, defined by the many events and
projects that we undertake.
SOME BACKGROUND:
BRANDING is the organization's representation of what it stands for, often
based on cumulative impressions and positive reinforcement. Like a cattle
brand, a business brand can be identified readily and is used for increased
awareness of the business. ..."
BRANDING: creating an instantly identifiable image.
Brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image
associated with a company or a product. ...
Thank you, Woody, for getting us all to think about this important issue.
But as Aaron says, what works in Tampa won't work in Salt Lake City.
More importantly, we don't need more activities to support - we need a
communications program to create a VFP brand and then promote it and
maintain it.
Debra Hedding Chapter 119 - Tampa FL
A Savaged Constitution
It seems to me that one issue we need to address as an organization is the Constitution; how it has been savaged, not just with the Bush disaster but ever since it was written. It was never intended to be a protection for us citizens but for the wealthy and propertied. The few gains we citizens have received have been at the cost of severe struggle and bloodshed. If we point to the Declaration of Independence and it's language written in radical times and think, wow! here's how we should live, let's throw the bums out, we need to remember that the Constitution says, uh uh, no you don't, it's not Constitutional. A stray thought; maybe as a corporation we could get equal rights. Jay Wenk, Chapter 058 - Catskill MTs, NY
"Two Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson
I read "Two Cups" last spring; it really floored me and left me with such admiration for the man and his work. I told my girlfriend that it was the most inspiring story I had ever heard and we shared it with a dozen or so friends.
As a signature project, I like the idea of Active Duty Engagement or Counter-recruitment or some other project where we are working directly to build on the notion that we do not have to submit to our leadership's compulsion to go to war, rather than one that takes us into yet another humanitarian project in the wake of another war. I do not reject humanitarian projects like the Water Project; I would just prefer a signature project that is pro-active rather than re-active.
Maybe we could consider going into places where the elites are planning to start more wars (Iran, Dafur, Venezuela) in some way.
Doug Zachary - Chapter 66 - Austin TX
No Base Movement
National board member, Michael Uhl, and I have had some conversation with Michael McPhearson regarding the No Base movement in which we are both involved. I think this would easily qualify as a "signature program or project". Those of us who are paying attention to the military garrisoning of the planet (not to mention outer space) by the U.S. are pretty familiar with the parameters of the phenomena and with its consequences, yet many engaged anti-war activists remain somewhat unaware of it or of the wide-spread resistance and outright protests.
There is an international network developing (no-bases.org) that is providing a forum and united front for engaged activists from around the world. The network includes a coalition of people here in the states who are organizing a conference to take place in D.C. late next winter or early spring. Michael Uhl and I are involved in this initiative along with prominent leaders Bruce Gagnon (who also is a member of our VFP chapter) and Mary Beth Sullivan of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Leslie Cagan of UFPJ, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, Phyllis Bennis of the Transnational Institute, John Feffer of Foreign Policy in Focus, and John Lindsay-Poland of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and others.
Chalmers
Johnson has illuminated the breadth and depth of the U.S. military's
impact around the world in his trilogy, most notably in The Sorrows of
Empire. The more we know the more we have come to appreciate that this
could be a program that defines VFP. It could evolve that a strong
coalition of many prominent organizations may coalesce around the
NoBase Campaign. I think it represents an opportunity for VFP.
Dud Hendrick - President - Maine VFP Chapter 001
Thousands of Voices
Ultimately,
there is no way around the truth that it takes immense amounts of money
to achieve public office which money must come from those that have
immense amounts of it and don't part with it without a promise of
having their interests met by those to whom they have given it. That's
my long way of saying that you cannot appeal to the conscience of the
Congress. You have to threaten them with a credible assault on their
voter base. That's why we mounted massive demonstrations in the sixties
and seventies to call the important issues to the attention of the
voters that constitute that base. That's why it worked for civil
rights, then and can work for peace, now.
This president is worthless in the quest for peace and Obama's speech the other day marks him and no better that McCain on the issue of peace. He just wants war in a different place.
Congress
is the place where the will of the people is supposed to be codified
into the law of the land. That is the place where we must manifest the
nature of that will. We need to let them know in very certain terms
what we demand of them if they are to remain the representatives of
those demands. We need thousands of voices yelling very, very loud and
clear that we demand and end to war in our name. We need to be the loud
voice of reason against war as a barbaric and antiquated solution to
the problems of modern humans on the brink of self annihilation. We
must shout at them until they can no longer ignore us that we must use
our brains constructively against our problems or we will surely have
them blown out by our own massed munitions. If this doesn't become the
age of reason very soon, it cannot help but become the end of the last
of ages.
Harold R. Pettus - VFP chap. 143
I expect this discussion will continue during the up-coming Convention in August. Hope to see you there!