John Luvender
Rest in Peace dear comrade!
From Your Old friends in Beantown who will sorely miss you and send heaps of love and Solidarity to both your widow Victoria and your beloved daughter Molly.
Charter Member of the Gen Smedley Butler Brigade (Veterans for Peace Chapter of Boston, Massachusetts) and late husband of Victoria Luvender and father of Molly Luvender died on March 30, 2002 in Santa Rosa, California. John's remains are to be cremated on Wednesday, April 3rd and a memorial service is planned for Sunday April 7th. His Memorial
Service will be at the Santa Rosa Community Center, 1075 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA.
John was a member of a drumming group who will perform a drumming ceremony for our late comrade. John was a tireless activist whose great talents in the realm of community media on both coasts are now left with a void. John served with the US Army in the late 1960's, and was a combat veteran of the late war in Viet Nam. John and Victoria were key activists within the working class and minority communities of Boston and struggled for peace in Viet Nam, and in Central America in particular during the late 1980's.
One of John's many legacies was the following media project.
About Face: Soldiers, Refugees and Other Victims Of War. This program documents the effects of war on those who fight them, those who escape them, and those who are its victims. Militarism is viewed, not with sensationalist awe, but from the perspective of human beings who are personally affected. Refugees talk about their attempts to escape the violence of US supported governments in Central America, and the efforts of Vietnam Vets to deal with the still painful memories of the war and the difficulty of their return home are portrayed in several moving works.
written and posted by Joe Bangert
Fellow Traveller! ;-)