From The Boston Bradley
Manning Support Committee Archives (Memorial Day 2012)
A Remembrance Worthy Of The Day- A Memorial Day for
Peace-Join The Smedley Butler Brigade-Veterans For Peace In Boston-May 28, 2012,
1:00 - 3:00 pm
I stand in solidarity with the alleged actions of Private Bradley Manning in bringing to light, just a little light, some of the nefarious war-related doings of this government, under Bush and Obama. If he did such acts they are no crime. No crime at all in my eyes or in the eyes of the vast majority of people who know of the case and of its importance as an individual act of resistance to the unjust and barbaric American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I sleep just a shade bit easier these days knowing that Private Manning may have exposed what we all knew, or should have known- the Iraq war and the Afghan war justifications rested on a house of cards. American imperialism’s gun-toting house of cards, but cards nevertheless.
http://www.facebook.com/smedleyvfp?ref=ts#!/smedleyvfp
To The Fallen-In Lieu Of A Letter
The mere mention of the name Veterans For Peace evokes
images of hard-bitten ex-servicemen and women, many old, ramrod straight
holding their beloved black and white peace dove-emblazoned banners flying
proudly in all weathers. Of urgent and militant calls for withdrawal of
American military personnel from conflicts somewhere in the bewildering number
of places that this government has planted its forces. And of relentless
exposure of the thousand and one ways that this government (and not just this
government) tries to hide its atrocities against overwhelmed opponents and the
innocent civilians who get caught up in the juggernaut. Those exercises of our
democratic and moral obligations are what drive us most days but I want to put
politics aside this day, or put them aside at least long enough to speak of
another role that we have taken on over the past several years here in Boston
on Memorial Day, a day of remembrance for our fallen.
Others can address, and eloquently, the origins and purposes
of the day, a task that usually would come easily to this writer. Others will
throw symbolic flowers into our beloved homeland the sea to give somber
recognition to the fallen of current conflicts. Still others in other
commemorations can, and will, speak of valor, honor, duty and unquestioned
obedience to orders accompanied by the far-away tattoo of drums, the echo of
the distant roar of cannon, cannon headed to some unmarked destination, and the
whish and whirl as an unseen overhead airplane unloads it sacrilegious payload.
Today I choose though to speak of long ago but not forgotten
personal remembrance, and to give name to that remembrance. To give name, James
Earl Jenkins, old North Quincy rough-house Irish neighborhoods friend and
fellow of many boyhood adventures not all fit for public mention, a name now
blood-stone etched in black marble down in Washington, D.C. To give name,
Kenneth Edward Johnson, my brother and James’ friend also, a name not etched in
black stone but a causality of war nevertheless who, despite his fervent desire, “never made it back to
the real world” and spent his shortened lonely life reliving the past.
James and Kenneth, what happened to each of them and why,
take on special meaning today as I utter their names publicly from the misty
past for the first time in a long time because those names link to those we
remember today. Not just those, like James, who served under whatever
conditions and for whatever personal reasons, those seem beside the point just
now, or like my brother, those who do not show up in any official casuality
report but all those nevertheless damaged by the close-hand experience of war.
But enough of this, as it only brings another saddened tear.
But, as well, enough of war.
****************
<b>Memorial Day for Peace
May 28, 2012, 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Christopher Columbus Park, Boston, Massachusetts
(near the Long Wharf
Marriott on the waterfront - Aquarium stop on the MBTA Blue Line and a short
walk from Haymarket on the Orange Line)
Please join us
</b>
Please join Veterans For Peace, Smedley Butler Brigade,
Chapter 9 and Samantha Smith, Chapter 45, Military Families Speak Out, Mass
Peace Action, United for Justice with Peace as we commemorate Memorial Day on
Monday May 28, 2012
There will be no parade, no marching band, no military
equipment, no guns and drums, no Air Force fly-overs.
There will be veterans and supporters who have lost friends
and loved ones. Veterans who know the horrors of war and the pain and anguish
of loss. There will be friends and families of soldiers, remembering their
loved ones. There will be Iraqi Refugees who have suffered terrible losses and
will join with us as we remember and show respect for their loss.
There will be flowers dropped into the harbor for each
fallen U.S. soldier from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Flowers will also be
also be dropped into the harbor remembering the loss of Iraqi family and
friends.
Additional information will follow as the program is finalized
Veterans for Peace proudly stands in solidarity with and
defense of Private Bradley Manning.
We of the anti-war movement were not able to do much to
affect the Bush- Obama Iraq War timetable but we can the one hero of that war,
Bradley Manning.
I stand in solidarity with the alleged actions of Private Bradley Manning in bringing to light, just a little light, some of the nefarious war-related doings of this government, under Bush and Obama. If he did such acts they are no crime. No crime at all in my eyes or in the eyes of the vast majority of people who know of the case and of its importance as an individual act of resistance to the unjust and barbaric American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I sleep just a shade bit easier these days knowing that Private Manning may have exposed what we all knew, or should have known- the Iraq war and the Afghan war justifications rested on a house of cards. American imperialism’s gun-toting house of cards, but cards nevertheless.
I am standing in solidarity with Private Bradley Manning
because I am outraged by the treatment meted out to Private Manning, presumably
an innocent man, by a government who alleges itself to be some “beacon” of the
civilized world. Bradley Manning had been held in solidarity at Quantico and
other locales for over 500 days, and has been held without trial for much
longer, as the government and its military try to glue a case together. The
military, and its henchmen in the Justice Department, have gotten more devious
although not smarter since I was a soldier in their crosshairs over forty years
ago.
These are more than sufficient reasons to stand in
solidarity with Private Manning and will be until the day he is freed by his jailers. And I will
continue to stand in proud solidarity with Brother Manning until that great
day.
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