Reports Back from 2008 Convention / RNC Protest
Marchin'
So privileged to be a marshal
One of thirty or so Veterans For Peace
Providing security and safety
For two platoons of sharply uniformed
Desert camies, dress blues, Class A greens
Iraq and Afghanistan War Vets
Young men and women my children's age
Another generation wasted and lost
In the follies of armchair warriors
Most who shirked duty during their war
Earlier in front of St. Paul State Capitol
While adeptly forming up they chanted
"Non Violence!" "Non Violence!" "Non Violence!"
Marching in cadence with them
To the Xcel Center to deliver an IVAW letter to McCain
The street reverberated with the steady pound
Of ninety or so soldiers and veterans in the cadence
"Left, Left, Left, Your Right, Your Right, Left," called out
By Kris, a young Iraq Vet from near my Long Island home
A thrill of gratitude coursed through me
That I survived my jungle war, they their desert war
So we could march together to end this and all war
And bring healing within our traumatized souls
I was deeply moved that they are teaching us older vets
The true meaning of being peacefully non violent
Thomas Brinson, September 8, 2008
I got back late Monday night from spending 5 days in St. Paul. One of the literary stories that we have received from Persian literature is the story of the elephant in the dark room. People go into the room and everyone who comes out has a different view of what an elephant is. With all the lack of coverage by mainstream media of reporters being roughed up and detained and the heavy provocative police/military presence, I feel that I need to tell what the elephant was for me. I will only mention the first hand experiences and not the stories told to me. Democracy Now's website is a good place to go to get some of those stories.
The first three days were spent in a hotel by the airport at the annual Veterans For Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War conventions. It was also the hotel where the Alaska and Tennessee delegations stayed. During this time preemptive raids were being carried out on the locations of organizers of activities planned outside of the convention. Jeremy Scahill told us Saturday night about covering the raid on the "eye witness video" group who bear witness by recording events. The next morning a team of 20 swat members with automatic weapons came to our hotel to go through our conventions with a show of force to heighten fear and discourage anyone from exercising our Constitutional rights of free speech. Betsy, a young staff member of Veterans For Peace, refused to let them enter and they left. The majority of the attendees at our convention are war vets. We may be carrying a lot of war related mental baggage, but there is no show of force that is going to intimidate us.
Later that day, the Veterans For Peace had a permitted march from the capitol building to the RNC and back. While we were on the capitol steps listening to remarks by a few vets and a song by the Code Pink ladies, 6 military helicopters were constantly circling overhead. The march was designed to be a solemn quiet march with the names of the dead US and Iraqis being read. It was to be completely nonviolent as are all of our events. The police were informed before the march that some would continue on beyond the permitted route towards the RNC as a civil resistance in support of defending the Constitution. I had no desire to be arrested since I had volunteered to help the Iraq vets with their march Monday morning, but had decided to stay with gold star parents Carlos and Melida Arredondo. Carlos was pulling a coffin draped with the US flag from his son's unit and his son's uniform as his way of honoring his son and making people aware of the cost of war. I told retired Lt. Col Leah Bolger who was holding the other end of one of the VFP banners that I was following the coffin. At the turnaround point Carlos, Mel and another gold star parent from Chicago turned towards the RNC. Ret Col. Ann Wright who was holding the US flag also turned and Leah decided to follow the flag towards the RNC also. There were about 6 Vietnam vets and a dozen other vets and supporters who also decided to use civil resistance. During the entire march we were surrounded by media who were literally tripping over each other at times. When we reached the cages blocking entrance to the RNC, we were surrounded by national guard troops and police. Nine of the group decided to go under a fence to willingly be arrested.
Once we stopped the media came in for interviews. After several minutes the sirens announced the arrival of several squad cars to further surround us. I was pleased to be interviewed by my favorite reporter, Jeremy Scahill. I also did a long interview with the Al Jazeera news organization. They were taping the entire event entire event and I am sure they can show their Middle East viewers what US democracy really is like. After a while you could feel the ground pound as the storm troopers marched in from a side street. They had the all black heavily padded Darth Vader suits with every part of their bodies covered including full face shields. They had no individual marking to identify who they were individually or collectively. I do not know if they were Blackwater, police, FBI, CIA, homeland security or some military related group. At no time could we get any of them to talk to us, so we could tell them that we were just walking in public areas and were ready to walk back to the capitol. They lined up in military formation behind us in rows with their extra long clubs at the ready across their chests. There was no communication from any of them about what they wanted us to do. No communication, just force. When their leader gave the command to march forward, we knew that they were there to clear us out. Carlos had to turn the casket around, so when they got to us I went up to them and told them that we were getting ready to head back to the capitol. They halted and then stomped behind us as we slowly and reverently followed Alex's casket back to the capitol.
That evening we older vets went over to the Sacred Heart church to meet with some of the Iraq vets and practice our assistance as marshals for the Iraq Veterans Against the War march. Our job was to assist by walking with ropes on all sides to insure the integrity of the marchers and to keep the media from going into the platoons of Iraq vets. All aspects of the march were shared with the police and McCain's people. The plan was to march to the gates of the RNC and demand entrance by a representative of the group to present a letter of demands for veteran's care to the McCain campaign. In Denver the Iraq Veterans Against the War were able to march without a permit along with 5000 supporters to the DNC to have a couple of their members go inside to give a letter to Obama's representative. Obama's people did meet with the representatives of IVAW and a meeting is being set up with Obama's vet coordinator and the Senator himself. If the McCain people were unwilling to meet and be given the letter, the IVAW had one platoon of arrestables. One vet would walk to the police line and continue until subdued and physically stopped. Every minute another vet would step forward until all 40 were physically stopped. The McCain people were wise enough to let in a representative who was arrested for a short time but released. The first few of the arrestables carried a US flag that had flown in Iraq and a copy of the Constitution. The image of bloody Iraq vets and scattered flags and copies of the Constitution on the ground would not have enhanced the Republican image. As the Iraq vets marched back to the capitol after their successful mission, they did so while calling cadence. Democracy Now's Amy Goodman was walking a few feet behind me next to the rope recording the cadence. I could not help but notice how frail she looks. Two hours after I left the next day, she was roughed up and arrested by police.
The major march of some 70 groups started about 1 pm. It was led by the Iraq Veterans Against the War and then followed by Veterans For Peace and Military Families Speak Out members. As is normal in these large marches, the people sort of morphed together after a while. Estimates of 5 to 40 thousand marchers have been reported. I only saw one policeman that lost control. After trying to catch some young protestors who ran away from them into the crowd, one of the policemen lost it and hammered down one of the marchers. Most all vets feel a sense of empathy because most of us were at one time doing jobs similar to the police. The police were obviously instructed to not say anything to us, but when we talked to them many would give us a smile. The local St. Paul police could not have been nicer to me. The Iraq vets reported that at Denver when their unauthorized march reached the DNC, some of the police on the line had to leave their posts with tears in their eyes because they knew they could never arrest their brothers and sisters who had served their country and were exercising their Constitutional rights.
Paul Appell
Personal Reflections from the 2008 VFP
Convention
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
We arrived Friday morning at 3 a.m., and I was unsure of whether or not my
remarks on the day's panel would be cohesive in the least. I was right to expect
to meet many more amazing anti-war veterans-from Iraq and Vietnam-that I hadn't
yet had the pleasure and honor of meeting, and their supportive, deeply
insightful families.
After setting up our Military Project table, talking
to a bunch of folks, and eating a greasy but satisfying lunch at the eyesore
known as the Mall of America, I headed to our 2:30 panel, meeting Elaine in the
conference room. IVAW, MFSO and VFP members participated on the panel and in the
audience, and together we talked about successes, failures and opportunities to
collaborate and improve the frequency and quality of our outreach work to
armories and bases.
Though attendance could have been better-we had
about 40 people in the room-the end product of the session was valuable: we made
more links in the chain that connects us to each other and to anti-war service
members that we want to reach. Cathy S., an amazing MFSO member from Seattle,
talked about her experiences distributing literature packets near Ft. Lewis. I
talked mainly about our work at the Harlem armory and how it's important for
civilians to familiarize themselves with ranks and insignia so we can know who
we're talking to. It was an empowering experience for all of us to compare notes
and make plans for future outreach coordination. Camilo's supportive presence in
the front row was nice, too. Thank you, sweetheart.
Before the Iraq war
started, and when my late father was still alive, he said that "This will be an
un-winnable guerrilla war." It has been from the beginning, to say nothing of
why it was launched in the first place: EMPIRE.
I got involved in this
part of the anti-war movement for personal reasons, at first. My dad served in
Pleiku, Vietnam as a medic. He didn't believe in that war and was against it
before he was drafted...but he went because he was asked to, and he was told that
he would be defending the freedom that this country is supposed to represent. He
took an oath to defend the Constitution-like the sisters and brothers who have
been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in the so-called "War on
Terror."
Imagine how he felt after he got there, on the ground, and
realized even more clearly that there was no doubt about it: his life was on the
line for an imperial lie. This is what he wrote inside the cover of a copy of
the December 1968 Army Digest:
"$3.5 million a day on air strikes in
Vietnam. It's more than irony, it's immoral, and harder to live with now that I
see the people, the beauty of their country, and know what might be done with
the money spent on "national defense."
These words have echoed in my mind
since I found his note, stuffed in a binder with his military records, and I
always think of them (and often share them) when I am speaking about why GI
resistance is so deeply important. Nothing resonates like the words of someone
who has been there and seen the horror and utter senselessness of imperial
war.
Saturday was quieter for me, and a nice time to connect with warm,
genuine people like Melida and Carlos Arredondo and Jane Collins, MFSO members.
Jane gave me a copy of her book, "For the Love of a Soldier," which is a
compilation of interviews with military family members who are anti-war
activists. Dave, a VFP member from Minneapolis, engaged me in a friendly
political debate, and I got to reconnect with my friend Shaun Harkin, who I met
in New York years ago. Finally Camilo finished his Board responsibilities (for
the moment, anyway), and we went to the VFP banquet, where we sat with a slew of
amazing IVAW members. Good times.
 |
| Pleiku, Vietnam in 1968 or 9. |
Then the hard part came: the memorial
slide show and reading of names. When Ward Reilly started talking about Dave
Cline -- his character, accomplishments and personality -- he teared up. That warrior
for peace-with his dark sense of humor and constant solidarity-is someone none
of us ever want to lose, either. I was deeply moved and saddened to think about
losing vets from Dave's generation, our own, and even -- how horrible -- even more
sisters and brothers from future generations.
I missed my dad more than
I could explain, and was also thinking about when I met Dave at a VFP Memorial
Day event back in 2006. I was in the company of other scarred, angry, but still
loving and determined family members, and many vets. We launched our flowers
into the water.
At the end of the ceremony there were so many,
floating...it was so beautiful and so sad.
Maybe we're the flowers...those
that remain. And our absolute commitment to doing what we can to organize to
stop this war is what's beautiful, even if we feel wilted and at sea
sometimes.
I felt like a distraught child. The pain of that loss, and the
collective pain and loss in that enormous banquet hall was palpable. I had to
leave the room, because tears started streaming down my face and I didn't want
to distract anyone from the memorial. Also, I was red, puffy and
embarrassed.
It sucks to be a human being sometimes, but it's also good
to know that you're emotionally alive. Sometimes you know you are because you
feel pain.
I walked around the hotel, then outside for some air. I
introduced myself to Ty, a young Air Force vet and new IVAW member, who was
standing outside, too. He opened up to me about his experience working in
intelligence and the guilt that he still feels because of it. I can only imagine
what he goes through every day.
Talking to this guy was like therapy for
both of us, and we laughed about some things too. Between discussing the GI and
veterans' movement and making jokes about PTSD being my co-pilot, something
special happened. We both regained a little more of our humanity. Nobody at that
convention was really a stranger-just friends and allies we hadn't met yet.
Thank you, Ty, for reminding me of that. This daughter of a veteran thanks you
from the bottom of her heart.
Katherine Gorrell, associate member
Member of MFSO and the Military Project
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