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Trees planted to honor VFP members in Binghamton NYDecember 06, 2012 he Stu Naismith chapter of Veterans For Peace (formerly known as Broome County VFP chapter 090) made local news planting trees in Binghamton. That was the 'adopt a highway spot' originally organized by Floyd West./p> 3 Red Oaks were planted in memory of 3 Veterans (Floyd West, Stu Naismith and Eric Loeb) Categories: Chapter 090
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Chapter 61 Participates in Stand Up E.St. LouisNovember 28, 2012 The East St. Louis Stand-up was a solid success. On October 20, at least seventy women veterans from East St. Louis were served. They received social and educational services from a number of participatingorganizations, including St. Patrick's Center, the Employment Connection, the Veterans Affairs Administration, Hence Foreland's Windsor House and many more. Army Reserve Brigadier General Cassie Strom was the tremendous moving force behind it all. Veterans For Peace, chapter 61, was represented by Bob Crecelius, Casey Stinemetz and Woody Powell along with local intern, Kellie Jones. We manned a booth and cooked hot dogs. A lively interest was shown by the participating women in what VFP does and what we stand for. A lot of literature and bumper stickers were distributed. Mayor Alvin Parks was present and was very pleased that his City was able to host the event in the East St. Louis City Hall. He graciously expressed his appreciation of the efforts made by the organizations putting on the event, including, specifically, Veterans For Peace. He felt it was good for the City to acknowledge the service of these women in a positive way, a caring way. Wilson (Woody) PowellCategories: Chapter 061
Tags: E.St. Louis Chapter 61
VFP Members in Florida Educate on Military SpendingOctober 01, 2012 Vice President Biden came to the Wa-Ke Hatchee Recreational Park, Fort Myers,FL to pound the lectern, with about 2,000 attending. Flyers passed out included handout "Where Do Our Income Tax Dollars Go?" This was a real eye-opener for recipients,showing aggregate military dollar spending of $1.2 Trillion Dollars in 2011. You can get a copy of this document at http://fcnl.org/assets/flyer/taxchart11.pdf Thanks to Matt Southworth, VFP member and Iraq veteran. Most people just accept the Pentagon Budget figure and are surprised that there's an additional $400 to $500 Billion in costs as well. The other flyer was DOD Casualty Statistics though September 28th, 2012. This is a daily report issued by the DOD on KIA and WIA since 2001. It shows that we've taken casualties in 23 foreign countries. Again, a real eye-opener, as the general public has no idea of the scope of our mailed-fist diplomacy.
(Pictured: John Battin of Fort Meyers, FL. John is currently working to start a VFP chapter in Fort Meyers. If you are intersted in joining, please contact him directly by phone at (239) 437-6338 or by e-mail at jbattin@nycap.rr.com.) Category: Uncategorized
VFP San Diego Tables at Cosby Stills and Nash ConcertSeptember 30, 2012 VFP members of the San Diego Chapter #91 and San Diego City College Chapter #500 were present at the Crosby, Stills, and Nash concert, bringing awareness and support for the San Diego VFP Compassion Campaign for Homeless Veterans. The San Diego Veterans For Peace “Compassion Campaign,” an outreach effort to give a sleeping bag set to each of the 9000+ homeless in San Diego, began in December 2010 and continues indefinitely. The outreach effort began after active veterans in the San Diego Veterans For Peace chapter became alarmed at the life-threatening living conditions homeless veterans and others endure on the streets and under the interstate overpasses in downtown San Diego. The cost to the chapter of sleeping bags sets, originally $35 wholesale, was lowered to $27 per set in mid-2011 after chapter members were able to buy all products directly from the Coleman Company in Colorado, instead of locally from several vendors in San Diego and Los Angeles. The Compassion Campaign has provided over 1,000 sleeping bags and winter gear to the San Diego homeless community, to both veterans and non-veterans who need assistance. VFP veterans of all five services and supporting associate members continue to provide this extremely important outreach to the homeless population each week, and hope to expand the scope of the effort as donations allow. Categories: Chapter 500 Chapter 091
Iran, Israel, and Existential ThreatsSeptember 26, 2012 David Swanson is a staff writer for the VFP national office and associate member of VFP Chapter 962 in Charlottesville, VA I had dinner with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday night in New York, along with dozens of other peace activists. This is an annual event, and I've taken part in it more than once. There's some divergence of opinion on Ahmadinejad. The New York Daily News on Tuesday called Ahmadinejad "a pure evil crackpot Holocaust denier who wants to see Israel obliterated from planet Earth." In contrast, a Jewish lawyer addressing the dinner gathering said that a friend had told him not to come on Yom Kippur when he should be home atoning for his sins. "I'm going to go," he said he told his friend, "and atone for the sins of Israel." The media tells us that Ahmadinejad is "an existential threat to Israel." Let's consider that. I start from the assumption that an existential threat to a human being is a greater concern than an existential threat to a government. Denying a past existential threat to millions of human beings is offensive and dangerous. Creating a new existential threat to millions of human beings is worse -- is, in fact, the danger we try to avoid by properly remembering the past. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that no speech, not even a video attacking Islam, should be censored, and no speech can justify violence. But the absence of speech, in Obama's view, can justify war. The Democratic Party Platform calls for war on Iran if Iran does not cease violating the nonproliferation treaty. Obama declared on Tuesday that if Iran were to develop nuclear weapons it would destroy the nonproliferation treaty. It would start a nuclear arms race. Iran would be, or rather it already is, a threat to Israel's existence. Category: Uncategorized
Why I Will Be There October 7: Awakening from the Nightmare of WarSeptember 20, 2012 Statements From Veterans about Oct. 7Why I Will Be There I, too, am a Vietnam veteran who volunteered to serve there for specious reasons. My awakening came late which has made me all the more deeply committed to demand accountability---of myself, but also, of our leaders who take us toward more violence and militarism. Those of us who will be in NYC object to the 10pm closing of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza, a closure that clearly symbolizes the blatant forsaking of veterans and other victims of war. But, on a grander scale we will be continuing our campaign, per the Veterans for Peace Statement of Purpose, to abolish war as an instrument of national policy. For more statement frrom vets go to http://www.stopthesewars.org/veterans-statements-about-october-7/ Categories: Chapter 001
Chapter 26 Supports Chicago Teachers UnionSeptember 17, 2012 Chapter 26 supports the Chicago Teachers Union in their strike for equality of all students and improved services for all students. Mayor Rahm Emanuel got laws passed limiting the teachers right to strike to economic issues. The teachers had to strike to bring all issues out into the open. Over half of Chicago Public School students live at or below the poverty line. 160 schools have no libraries, and 140 of those are on the south side. 17,000 students are homeless. The schools, especially on the south and west side are falling apart. Elementary school classes, especially in the non-white areas have 40+ students. Social workers and nurses are almost non-existant. Chicago is the most militarized school system in the country with some high schools dedicated to branches of the military. The strike is aboutthe effects of poverty. Emanuel's "solution" is closing neighborhood schools, adding charter schools and evaluating kids and teachers on test scores. Categories: Chapter 026
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War Resister Represents VFP at the Republican National ConventionSeptember 10, 2012 By: Steve Yoczik This isn't about me, or the things I've done as a War Resister and veteran activist. I'm not writing this as a shameless self-promotion in an attempt to “get my name out there”. This is about what I like to call “The Big Picture”. I will speak about myself in this essay in the context of what I've witnessed and participated in during the RNC, but I am just one being on this earth, and I hope the lessons I've learned can be shared throughout the world, if possible. I'm sure it's no mystery to folks reading this that the world is being shaken hard by the descendants of the Industrial Revolution. I consider it economic slavery. With the GOP coming to Tampa, to celebrate a candidate for president that had apparently already been chosen, the votes for other candidates were read aloud due to polite routine. The convention itself was shown to be a sham due to this, and an otherwise logistical failure. In part due to tropical storm Isaac, but mostly thanks to the greedily excited city planners that, for example, forgot to schedule charter buses to bring delegates from their hotels to the actual event. The homeless that were shuffled out of the downtown area, and the attempt to shove the homeless activist camp out of the event zone. These and a few other examples set the scene for a seemingly backwards mobilization. The subject I will expand on will be about the interaction between law enforcement and protesters that were present. This was another backwards situation, due to the expected negative interaction protesters have come to know, especially in the past year. Many came from across the country expecting a heavy hand to “deal with” them, but instead there was simply an overwhelming wave of khaki uniforms – on every corner, the sides of every street the protesters gathered, and even in surrounding towns. With a 10 to 1 ratio of police to protesters, there weren't many antagonizing gestures, either physical or verbal, from either side. While this was an unfortunate situation to be in, being almost completely suppressed from expressing grievances with government representatives and their constituents, the overwhelming presence of police forced people to downgrade their level of anger and frustration, and think otherwise about expressing their opinions to the only official physically in front of them: the police. Most people I spoke with were disappointed and disturbed at this aspect, and many thought they should probably have not come at all (There were about 7 other buses of protesters that simply didn't come at all because of the storm scare). Category: Uncategorized
Chapter 34 NYC and Bradley Manning Support RallySeptember 07, 2012
Categories: Chapter 034
Iraq Water Project UpdateSeptember 05, 2012 In April our friends at the Nassiriya NGO placed a reverse osmosis (RO) water unit at a vocational institution called Ur school, Thi Qar Province. They also provided a stainless steel reservoir for drinking water, a new handwashing basin and a toilet. The floor was retiled. This installation was a replacement for alFihood school, described in the previous update. When the team arrived at alFihood with tools and materials, they were told the local ministry of education had forbidden the school’s principal to accept any manner of outside help. Draw your own conclusions. Our regrets to the luckless students at alFihood. In June we sent some funds to our contact Ahmed at the aforementioned NGO to carry out repair work on previous installations. I must painfully report that returning home from this work Ahmed was killed in a car wreck. His brother Asaad, also with the NGO, was seriously injured. This misfortune supplied one of the rare exceptions where IWP funds were used for something other than water improvements: we wired Asaad money both to help him cover medical expenses and pay some of the costs of his brother’s funeral. All members of our project committee agreed. Asaad has recovered sufficiently---still hobbling with a cane---that he was able to fulfill his brother’s promise to the Nassiriya Technical Institute to place RO units in both the men’s and women’s dorms on campus. This was done in August. Category: Uncategorized
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