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VFP CHAPTERS

Editor: Woody Powell
woodypowell@gmail.com
October 9, 2008

PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF SHORT SURVEY

To-date I have received 79 responses from 131 chapters. Of that number:

52 VERY ACTIVE

9 ACTIVE

7 SOMEWHAT ACTIVE

11 INACTIVE

Here is a list of chapters not yet heard from:

If you are on this list or know anyone from these chapters please contact them and me so we can get this survey completed.

NEWLY FORMED ROGUE VALLEY CHAPTER 156 --- comes on the scene with vigor and imagination. May I suggest we send them a note of welcome from each chapter? 

Here is their story in the words of Chapter contact Hal Anthony, threepines@jeffnet.org

Dear Veterans for Peace Board and Staff:

Thank you all for your patience, support, and help getting our Rogue Valley VFP Chapter 156 (RV-VFP 156) chartered. The presence of a VFP chapter in our two counties is already a welcome addition to the interdependent peace workers and organizations in Rogue Valley. Peace groups here have been working hard for many years to offset the fundamentalist neoconservatism of this region.

Fellow VFP have had a hand in scores of actions here in Rogue Valley alongside local groups such as Citizens for Peace and Justice (CPJ), Jobs with Justice (SOJwJ), Applegate Citizens for Political Change (ACPC), Social Justice Alliance, Students for Truth, Universalist Unitarians, Methodists and Christian Scientists, and Peace House. We have also worked and campaigned with many other groups and organizations throughout Oregon and the U.S.

A small sampling of the peace actions we have participated in have been:

• lobbied and rallied at Gordon Smith's and Greg Walden's offices many times;
• demonstrated and lobbied against the war publicly on foot, and via all forms of media, scores of times;
• attended and submitted testimony many times at city and county business sessions regarding fairness in land use, protection of resources, separation of church and state issues;
• co-hosted special events for individuals and groups such as Gerry Condon, Dennis Kyne, Collateral Repair Project, Kamal Hassan, Jeff Golden (at the home of VFP 156 member Loree Arthur), and others;
• donated many days to the Iraq Body Count Exhibit (where my good friend and fellow VFP Ruth Dailey would not quit planting memorial flags after her hands blistered, and then kept going for several more  hours after her blistered hands began bleeding); 
• worked with CPJ in hosting a miles-long march through Medford that culminated in the Medford library with State Representative Peter Buckley and other speakers testifying and lobbying for truth, action, and a world that works for everybody;
• co-sponsored and labored in many other events and actions, including Eyes Wide Open in Grants Pass and Medford;
• walked door to door for signatures on petitions to end the war, fund libraries, and demand accountability from government leaders, many times and many miles;
• VFP introduced, at the 5th Annual Grandmother Council in Ashland in 2007, our national treasure Doris Haddock, "Granny D," a leader unsurpassed in her dedication to the wellbeing of all and of this planet.

In addition, with a lot of support and hard work from these friends and individuals, VFP has been the predominant force in organizing and maintaining a monthly "Stand for Peace" in front of the Josephine County Courthouse for 24 months consecutively. And now, thanks to my friend Jerry Reed, our "Stand for Peace" is bi-monthly, and on last Thursday 9/11/2008, we had 32 people show in front of the courthouse to promote peace, help stop the insanity of war, and plea visibly in public to bring home our troops.

I regret not having documented the immense number of hours and actions our peace advocates have collectively given to peace and social justice awareness from our little corner in Rogue Valley in the past few years. Much of this work has been duplicated, and often led by, fellow RV-VFP 156 member Allen Hallmark, who is also the organizer and leader of CPJ-Medford. Allen has been instrumental in networking the interests of our two counties, and his example prompted me to proffer the name "Rogue Valley" to unify our VFP chapter and region.

We will be a consensus chapter for now. We will be slow, but steady. We are a ragtag bunch, and most of us work (me, too) every day, struggling to make our community activism possible. However, regardless of how outnumbered we may be in contrast to the extant aggressive militant corporatism predominant in the U.S., we are simply not stoppable. We will be there for VFP, and for each other, and regardless of how far we may get, we will persistently continue our non-violent efforts for world peace, have no doubt, as long as we breathe.

Congratulations to the Rogue Valley Veterans for Peace #156 members. I am exceedingly proud of them, and of all the individuals who make up the peace community in Jackson and Josephine counties. There are hundreds of people here deserving credit for their good works, and they are all heroes.

Thanks again, VFP Board and staff, for being there for us. May the happiness and joy of waging peace transform and heal our world, and energize us all, --Hal