It's Starting To Get Personal.

Some military men are coming around to an anti-Iraq War perspective, while some not in the military but like to pretend they are are hoping to bring the fight into the streets of America.

From gulfnews.com

'In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Major General John Batiste, who resigned last year after 12 months stationed in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, said the Pentagon chief [Rumsfeld] had caused "unnecessary deaths" by committing "strategic blunders of enormous magnitude".'

From poughkeepsiejournal:

(Per protest at West Point graduation)
Wearing sergeant chevrons and shouldering a large American flag, Jason Peterson of Albany said he believes Bush intentionally lied about the reasons for the war, betraying service members who signed up to defend their country. ‘‘That sort of thing is not what people should be sacrificing their lives for,’’ said Peterson, a former Marine who served in the first Gulf War.
And Peterson expressed concern for soldiers and Marines returning from combat not only with physical injuries, but the psychological trauma associated with deployment to a war zone: ‘‘You can’t just switch it off.’’

We need some of these brave and gallant officers to come to Tucson to protect our protestors from the Freeper Goon Squads whose behavior here is getting more and more and more threatening and aggressive with each passing day. Today I went down to the main recruiting office on Speedway to participate in the weekly peace demonstration (okay, anti-war), and, as has been the case since last summer, the counter protestors were there with their huge flags, and their expensive professionally printed banners, foul mouths, personal insults and generally reprehensible behavior. They purport to be patriotic Americans who are just "counter-protesting" but interaction with them has proven that this is not the case. Whenever there is not a police presence these purportedly patriotic individuals that I choose to call "pidiots" (cause they sure as hell aren't patriots) surround peace protesters, step on toes, push and bully them. Today individual thugs threatened women protestors by saying that the peace protestors' time "was comin'" and that he and others (the militia type thugs) were going to clean up the border and rid it of traitors on both sides of the border. They have been escalating their aggression and rather suspiciously police have chosen to stay away. These pidiot bullies jab the sharp metal ends of their 10 ft. flag poles within a couple inches of the faces of elderly women. They get within inches of protestors and come from "their side" of the street to stand literally over them (these thugs are much larger than the women and elderly men protestors) and cover the peace signs and placards with their flags. This morning at least one of the "pidiots" was using such lewd and liscientious sexually explicit language and graphic insults and threats that it was nauseating and frightening to those who could hear.

We need calm matriotically inclined people to join with us to document these attrocious threats.

The police will do nothing. They have chosen to advise the peace protestors that until someone is hurt, that they can do nothing. They are clearly buddies of the recruiters and the lines between police and military are very blurry here near the border. Remember this is the same police department that ordered the Raging Grannies onto private property so they could arrest them.

The zeitgesit here in Tucson is weird to say the least. We are in the heart of the battle zone that is being created by the campaign to create an "other" from the migrant laborers so that the uniformed and easily influenced people of the US have someone to label as "enemy." Activism here has been such a staple in the community for so long that people who might be out in the streets if they lived in other places think that others here in Tucson are "already taking care of it."

The disturbing things about these "Freepers" is that they attack individuals, have come to people's homes, gang up on individuals, take encouragement from the neo-nazi element of the vigilante groups on the border and are bouyed up by the fervor of Memorial Day weekend, and the knowledge that the Tucson Police will be conveniently absent on Wednesday mornings although they were there almost every Wednesday before the Freepers started showing up. These for the most part are powerless males (mainly white) who feel that the power they were raised to believe they would have as adult white men in America has been unjustly denied them. These are the folks who grasp at and gobble up the rhetoric of the rulers of the government, media, and such. They believe they have a right (possibly grant by the Divine) to power, and will attempt to assert dominance over anyone they see as weaker than themselves or who just happen to be in vulnerable or physically isolated at the moment. These folks are potentially very, very dangerous.

Remember Greensboro, NC -- Nov 3. 1979? If not you should look it up. Start here. Or just read this excerpt:

Police - who had left the demonstration at 10:30 a.m. to take a "lunch break" - arrived only after the shooting had stopped, even though an informant for the Greensboro Police Department and a federal agent were with the Klansmen and knew their plans.

One of the first things police did after their arrival was to arrest demonstrators - including Willena Cannon, who tried to stop their frenzied attack on Nelson Johnson, a fellow organizer, who had been stabbed in the shoulder by a Klansman. "I knew if I didn't do they'd kill him," she said. She was arrested and charged with interfering with arrest; then she was taken to jail and interrogated. "They'had me in this little room," she said. "I didn't know where my children were. My body literally shut down."

When did this happen? Not in the 1940s, '50s or '60s, but in 1979. Emily Mann's new play, "Greensboro: A Requiem," now playing at McCarter Theatre tells the story of that day, Nov. 3, 1979, and the events leading up to it.

Klansmen and American Nazis shot 13 people that day - several of them right between the eyes. Five died. Others - including Paul Bermanzohn, who was paralyzed - were permanently injured.

Even though the video coverage showed the murders clearly, an allwhite jury acquitted the Klansmen and Nazis of all charges. A civil trial eventually determined collusion between the Klan and Greensboro police in the slayings and ordered the City of Greensboro to pay damages to the widows and children of the victims.

But no Klansman ever paid a penny in damages. Nor did any Klansman ever spend a day in prison for the murders - not even Dave Matthews, who admitted to police that he thought he had shot three people. "There were some innocent people shot, I reckon," he said. "But I was shooting at the niggers."

Any ideas how to disarm these pidiots?

Negroponte Afraid of Protest

I received an email this morning that got me to thinking about the lily livered cowards who are responsible for the deaths and torture of hundreds of thousands of my co-habitants of this planet and how we all need to be protesting in front of the houses of the slime who "rule" here in the U.S. Unfortunately many of the fascists who live in AZ live in gated communities, so you really can't get very close and the rent-a-cops who guard such secure palatial estates are often inexperienced, untrained, and far more likely to shoot.... but we still need to be doing these actions all over the country. The comfort these war criminals enjoy must be ended.

Isn't it amazing how quickly Negroponte screams that he needs someone arrested when his space is compromised? I wonder is he now sees how his victims might have felt at the onset of his evil practices --- before the actual torture or murder was carried out. I cannot condone violence, and such demonstrations are perhaps psychically violent, but there is a part of me that is actually happy that these "leaders" have probably begun to feel some of the same sort of fear which they have so casually injected into the lives of so very many people in so very many places.

Anyway, here is a portion of this a.m.'s email that discussed the DAWN action.

We in the DC Anti-War Network (DAWN) Weekly Action Group returned to

Director of National Intelligence's Negroponte's 3100 Cleveland Avenue NW

home last night for a silent vigil in memorial for the dead and tortured

throughout the world (specifically, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua,

Iraq) and instead were welcomed to the strange security world of John

Negroponte. Ten days previously, a DAWN activist had been detained for

half an hour by a CIA police officer, though was subsequently released by

the DC police without charges. The activist had been on public ground

protesting and had not committed a crime, but the CIA police officer had

explained that the Ambassador wanted someone arrested for this, a quote

that has been corroborated by audio tape. (For last time, see jsmacdonald.blogspot.com.)

This time, a security person (didn't identify himself this time except

over his phone as "John" - and we didn't ask being that it was a silent

vigil - but may have been CIA like last time) immediately came out of an

SUV to announce upon the arrival of 12 of us (ultimately 15) that he had

called the police and that they were on their way.

We set up outside of his house and were as quiet as could be, holding

signs and banners and lighting candles. Inside were John Negroponte and

what appeared to be a wife and someone else. Within a few minutes, they

looked out the window, put down their shades, and turned off the lights.

Occasionally, we could see them peaking out the window at the spectacle

below.

Several MPD (DC police) showed up, a secret service agent, another

security person related to the home. If they were CIA like last time I

can't say, but they were belligerent and as nasty as one might expect.

They went around with notepads taking notes on each participant (and later

photographs), saying out loud their description, sometimes with derogatory

things to say about people's weight or their hair color or what was on the

signs. They had to admit that we were being "very peaceful," "very quiet",

though the security man John was quick to point out, "with a lot of

attitude."

As mentioned, several DC police showed up. One higher ranking one

attempted to engage us in conversation, but we stayed silent. Another of

our group was getting concerned by police presence and was trying to

protect others in the group by keeping his bike between John and the rest

of the group, which led to a testy moment. Our friend thought it best to

get himself out of the situation, and he did by leaving the vigil.

As for the neighbors, one set of neighbors called us derogatory names, but

another set toward the end drove up and asked if we were protesters. One

of our group came up and told her that it was a silent vigil aimed at

Negroponte to which she exclained loudly, "I'm so glad! It's about time

somebody protested him!" Then, police quickly whisked her away while John

said, "That's rude."

At times, while most of us continued to aim our stares and our signs

toward Negroponte (and thankfully, the security/CIA? wrote down what every

sign said, not to mention what people's t-shirts said, what brand of bag

people were carrying on their backs, etc.), it was absolutely impossible

not to notice the darkness of 31st street glaring with several police

cars, with officers walking amongst and between us, attempting to bait

people out of silence.

The police chummed up to John and his co-worker having banter. Early on,

one police officer asked John who lived here. He quietly said something

like, "Ambassador John Negroponte." The cop quizzically said, "Who's

that?" Then, a very quiet inaudible explanation, followed by a look of,

"Oh, that's who it is" on the police officer's face.

At the end, one officer told us we needed to be off the road we'd been on

for one hour. So, we walked onto the sidewalk in front of his house, which

forced the police out of the way. A few minutes later, an hour having

passed (which was the generally pre-agreed upon target time for staying)

we left as a group or in small groups of two, as John for a short time

decided to follow us down the street. He wasn't done taking pictures and

was frustrated that some hadn't given him a clear shot. Of course, they

could see us through security cameras, so I don't know why they needed the

mug shots in addition.

We took our own pictures, audio, and video to document what was happening.

We've had very noisy protests that drew almost no police presence. This

one drew an enormous amount, probably due to last time or out of boredom -

who knows?

We were there to disrupt John Negroponte and express to him our outrage,

albeit this night silently. We were also there to remember the dead and

tortured, which despite the police, was how I spent most of my time. I

noticed a huge, beautiful tree in Negroponte's yard and wondered how he

would feel if someone had destroyed it. What a tragedy that would be, and

I became sad at the thought. And, yet that tree serves to mask the

murderer and torturer that is John Negroponte, a man who has no qualms

about spying on any one of us. I went to think of people killed by death

squads and was forced to confront a lot of intimidation tactics. Perhaps,

we were the intimidators last night. The truth hurts, and in this case, it

should.

DAWN & The Essential Nature of Activist Reporting

My recent trip to DC connected me with some signigicant sources of information. I feel these channels are essential to liberty. Jim's Eclectic Blog by a DAWN (District of Columbia Anti War Network) member illustrates the fanstastically informative nature of blogs. I need to be reading blogs from D.C. that cover, as in reporting, demonstrations, protests, and CD (that's activist lingo for civil disobedience... you know like those trouble makers Ghandi and King engaged in.)

We should not have to be the media, but we do have to be. We have to issue press releases, do our own photography, videography, and write our own articles. Where the hell is the media, the press, the fourth estate??? We should not have to do all this documentation for the public record. I try to cover aspects that are not being covered, but I'm not impartial. I really don't have time to cover all sides of issues. That is the purpose to which the press evolved. Doing all these jobs drains us energetically, but we are up to the task. We allow other aspects of our lives to slide... for me it is a biography of Gene Stratton-Porter that isn't getting written, and developing a Greening of Management Training Program for my consulting business, and cleaning my house. But I digress....

Anyway, this morning as I was reading a forwarded email about the continuing harassment of DAWN activists for legal, protected forms of demonstration, I clicked through to read Jim's blog, I realized that I had digital photos that no one else was apt to publish from the action at Rumsfeld's house on May 18th. So, for free flow of information's sake, here is a bit more info about the impromptu action at Rumsfeld's house.

DAWN first came to my attention when I marched to Rumsfeld's House with a few dozen other folks after the Network for Spiritual Progressives Prayer Action. My CODEPINK friends Katie and Toby were arrested with two guys from DAWN. Katie just wanted to deliver a note to Rumsfled and Toby was going through the hedges after Katie as she didn't want Katie to be arrested alone. I think Toby might have gotten her pink umbrella hung up in the hedge. --- Note to self: drop props before any stealth operation. --- This was a first time arrest for both women.

My goddess, I am so inspired by these women who were both at a time in their lives when they were willing to be arrested to draw attention to the war criminals who are waging for profit corporate warfare and writing off the murder of hundreds of thousands of people as a necessary expense of their ill-gotten gains. These women are peace soldiers. Katie could have been hurt or killed. DC jails are not fun places. Neither my friends nor the other women with whom they were held who had been arrested and were being held for a myriad of charges were given water or food for over 24 hours. This is apparently standard procedure. Denying fluids can kill people -- it is torture. There is a war on our own people and torture is being used on us just like it is in the bases used in extraordinary rendition, in GITMO, in Abu Ghraib... it may be a tad more sublte, varying in degree, but it is just as immoral and reprehensible and a classic example of a slippery slope. We apparently tolerate torture in our lots of our jails, such as in Chicago.

I think we need to bring back the common usage of terms such as ill-gotten gains, profiteer, carpet bagger, yellow journalism, jingoism, propaganda and sensationalism -- and thus the nuances of meaning between motive and reporting. Just a thought.


Photo credits: All photos © Julia Field, 2006 excluding the photo of the Ghandi and King section of a wall at Busboys and Poets that is mine and which you may use but which I would like an attributive link back per the creative commons license for all non-copyrighted materials on this site.

It Is About Honor, Matriotism and Truth.

As I begin writing this I am watching Bush lay the Memorial Day wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Arlington. Rumsfeld is there with him. I'm incensed. I take Memorial Day very seriously.

As a child I always accompanied my mother as she went to the cemetary on this day. We would take flowers and care for the graves of all our relatives who were buried there. At each grave I would learn the story of the life of that ancestor. There is a lump in my throat as I think that no one back in that rural area I call home will move the flags stuck in the ground in a clump at the edge of the cemetery to the graves of the war dead. Today no one will pay respects at the grave of my Uncle Carl who fought in WWII, joining the Army Air Corps even though he was in his 40s when we joined the fighting of WWII. He was wounded, lost the hearing in one ear, but survived to eventually retire from NASA where he worked on optical technology that went to the moon in Apollo missions.

My brother, a Marine serving in Vietnam, caught the brunt of a morter round explosion under his flack jacket in the battle of Khe Sahn. He was bent over lifting a wounded buddy into a medevac helicopter when shrapnel sliced through him. He probably lived only because they pulled him into the chopper and could begin life-saving care immediately.

Several branches of my family came from Anabaptist, or Brethren, communities and as such were pacifist. I was not raised in this faith, but I was raised to believe in the principles that informed this faith. While I may not believe that war is ever the answer, neither do I disrespect those brave soldiers who were and are ready to give their lives for principles in which they believe. There are principles for which I would give my life. And I'm an imperfect pacifist, if my life or the life of any one I love were directly threatened I would probably fight and kill.

I am disgusted by the war criminals Bush and Rumsfeld who sully the honor and memory of women and men who were willing to fight and die for liberty. Bush went AWOL. He's never faced danger. He comes from people who fancy themselves aristocrats when they are nothing more than corporate oligarchs. Rumsfeld wanted to create a machine-driven killing corps to assure himself a place in history as the implimentor of a kind of warfare conceived by the Nazis. This melaglomania, unchecked by an administration for which war was an abstraction, created wars and killed well over 100,000 thousand people for financial gain, sent in far fewer troops than were needed to accomplish the ill-conceived and largely strategically unplanned war.

These men are not fit to tread on the hallowed ground of Arlington. I am offended, saddened, and hurt not only by the actions of this corrupt cabal, who speak of volunteer forces but enforce a stop loss program that uses up our troops humanity on mandatory third tours of duty in Iraq. I am also disappointed by the success these men have had in pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people. I sometimes feel that patriotism has been irreconcilably tainted by this administration's abuse of the term and the people who identify with the now tarnished term. I have begun calling myself a matriot -- loving of my place of origin but tempered with a mother's vision and wisdom. Men could be matriots too. It makes as much sense as women being called patriotic.

On this Memorial Day 2006 I am honoring all the dead of our nation's wars rather than barbecuing and celebrating the de facto arrival of summer. I am also honoring those women who are the core of the peace movement this time around, those women who risk imprisonment, physical harm, the loss of all private communication, firing from their jobs, separation from or loss of families and a normal life to keep the truth about this oil war and the criminals who create and fuel it in the public consciousness. So many people and the media, traditional channels of information, have fallen into a silent chasm of the oppressed. Thank you women from Gold Star Families for Peace, thank you Grannies, thank you WILPF, thank you CODEPINK, thank you Women Say NO to War, thank you Women Say Enough... thank you women who rise from that bleak fear-filled place to wage peace and speak truth.

This Memorial Day let us honor the war dead and those who work for peace so that no more war memorials need ever be made.

Coupe d'etats, euthanizing corporations and reclaiming our voting rights.

Okay, it is time to have an absolute blogging onslaught per war, peace, war criminals and how these topics along with vote count integrity roll up into a ball of decit that is the single most important issue of our lifetime. Then we must follow it up in the streets in calm peaceful but decidedly outraged action until our upper level war criminals are in prison and the rationally planned deconstruction of the framework they have built up in our society has begun. We have to reclaim the American Dream and the things that made us great once upon a time: justice, equality, peace. Corporate crime relates to all this but the conviction of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling is just a tiny chink in the armor of a vicious transnational global oligarchy whose practices effectively make slaves of all but the miniscule few who control this system.

Here are some links to help you understand my belief that we have to address the criminal theft of our government by sick, evil men who waged a horrific, totally false war waged by our children, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, and parents on the back of the Iraqi people. Then we need to get to work on euthanizing corporations by getting rid of the rights that corporations have foolishly been given since the noble conception of our country as a place of liberty of people.


First I recommend reading the Rolling Stone article about the criminal manipulation of our votes in order to steal the 2004 election. (Not to mention the 2000 election that was also criminally manipulated to create a Bush II administration in the first place.)

Then go see Sir No Sir if at all possible! Then figure out how to get this movie to the Guard Troops and all those soldiers conscripted via the "Stop Loss" program and the troops who are on their THIRD TOUR in Iraq. Didn't we learn anything from Vietnam? Those soldiers who signed up for a third tour of duty were commonly thought to be damaged goods, slightly crazed, and certainly best stationed in battle where their desire to kill could be channeled. This is why we are having all these attrocities in Iraq now. Men and women can only live under the constant pressure of urban warfare for a short time before the learned cultural behavior we call humanity is so eroded that we begin to operate as killer apes rather than civilized men and women.

Finally go to the Abolish Corporate Personhood section of the WILPF site and begin to teach yourself about the slow erosion of our Constitutional Rights by the creation of corporations that are have been given all the rights and none of the responsibilities of real person. Flesh and blood, mortal people cannot compete against immortal disembodied people.

Oh, one more thing. Do not fall victim to their attempts to divide us into factions. That is all the hoopla about immigration and securing our borders is about. It is an attempt to create hatred and suspicion of all brown skinned persons by one-time middle class folks who have seen their standards of living slip on an economic incline that has been greased by corporate greed. If this administration was concerned about border integrity they would not have facilitated the evacuation bin Laden's family and other Saudi citizens across our borders when all other flights were grounded on 9/11/2001.

Then you can begin to remedy the illicit takeover of our government and the criminal trail of tears that can be found behind the villainous leaders who masquerade as our governmental administration.

Frames for the Military

It is always difficult to determine patterns from within the design...but that is what I spend a good deal of my life trying to do. I am but a fiber temporarily interwoven within a living fabric. Not terribly a terribly important part, but still, over all I am a part of the design. Single actions from single folks can make for perceptible change. All of Fort McNair now knows about the documentary film , Sir No Sir, that deals with military history and Vietnam because of an attempt to suppress the dissemination of information about the film. This is such a perfect example of how feeding information or energy into a process, even by reacting against it, strengthens that original process.

That is one of the reasons I'm not big on protest or anger as those are reactions against something and as such are not particularly effective in creating change. As Gregory Bateson said, "Information is any difference that makes a difference."

The challenge before the progressive community is to make a difference without inadvertantly strengthening the corporate/government stranglehold on our U.S. democratic Republic. Things really don't change very much, very quickly, or very often. But perspectives, both individual and collective, change constantly. Perceptual change, that mental shift in perspective can be thought of as reframing. The reframing that occurred at Fort McNair was inadvertant, but conscious reframing can also effect change.

Spiritual progressives are reasserting value and morality as topics clearly within their ow appropriate domain of discourse. Peace activists are reasserting their right to document military history. Citizens are reasserting their right to have their voices heard in the House and Senate.

Now if we could only frame the highest high ups responsible for the torture at Abu Ghirab rather than the low level non-commissioned folks such as Cardona whose trial ended today (verdict has not been determined) who are taking the fall for indemic corruption at the highest levels of government in the U.S. (also non-coms, but in a very different way.)

How much does the war & nuclear weaponry cost your community?

A great data source for examining government expenditures by various geographic zones (from zip codes and school districts to states) by spending areas.

http://database.nationalpriorities.org

May 17 and May 18 Action Pics from DC

We weren't sure if this was really the trash being picked up or an NSA vehicle picking up the Pink House's trash for scrutiny.


Me (in the pink of course!) with Vietnamese dignitaries and the young American translator who made conversation possible about the similarities of Vietnam and Iraq Wars as well as the environmental and economic degredation that is only now being transcended in Vietnam. We also spoke of my daughter's trip through Vietnam last summer and how she loved the land and people.

This was after I was tossed out of the Senate. 21 minutes or so into this video.


Whole lotta folks attend the Network of Spiritual Progressives "Pray-In" or Prayer Vigil in Lafayette Square Park across from the White House.


Blurry but peaceful sea of Peace Signs at the Prayer Vigil. It was beautiful.

This was followed by the attempt to deliver the no bombing of Iran petition signatures to the white House and the march to Rummy's house. You can see a video of these actions at politicstv.org.

Spying has no impact on our trying....

My DC action updates/coverage are still being posted at pinktucson.livejournal.com with when I can... but this email that was forwarded to me from a friend seemed more appropriate for this blog. Why? Because so many of the activists I've recently spoken to have experienced the same thing of which this woman writes. And several of us who were doing the Mothers Day 24 hour vigil had our hard drives crash multiple times within a couple weeks before the event. I try not to live in a world of suspicion and paranoia.... but it makes one wonder.

Here's the email Ellouise recieved and forwarded to me.

(Prior to this email of today, she was unable to get into her yahoo account even though her children using the same computer had no trouble with theirs) Soooooo, this is a little spooky...

----

I got a new modem today. My internet connection seems faster but
loading my email is still slower than other sites. I'll bet you
thought I would never wonder about that. Well you thought wrong.

I also opened up ANOTHER new email account. Having no access to my
email for most of last week was more than a tad inconvenient. It did
put a bit of a wrinkle in organizing our Mothers Day Peace Vigil, but
I did that the old fashioned way by using the telephone. I figure it
will take you awhile to find this new email account and I will enjoy
it working as fast as it does for everyone else on that site until you
find me there.

I spent the morning emailing my political contacts, fellow peace
activists and reporters and gave them my work email to use in case of
emergency. I figure you can't shut down that email without a flurry of
court orders or some such hassle that I am really not worth.

I have turned off my home phone. An added benefit to that is the money
I am saving. Besides, every time I answered it lately it was either a
hang up or a wrong number. So no great loss or inconvenience there.

I got a new ATM card too. Funny, I had that card for years and never
had one problem with it. I also rarely used it since it is for my
savings account and I do try to be a good girl and leave that account
alone. But right before I went to Crawford for Easter, I transferred a
bunch of money into that account and used that card while I was in
Texas. Then I used it in New York two weeks later when I was there for
the UPJ rally. Imagine my surprise when all of a sudden it stopped
working right after I got back from New York two weeks ago.

I was on the radio today! Did you hear me? Oh I know, that is most
likely a dumb question. I hope you paid attention to the part where we
talked about the loss of constitutional rights. The host of the show
told me she wants me back! So free up your Saturday afternoons. I may
even say hi to you at some point.

You see, agent mike, you don't scare me. My dad was a history teacher
for 40 years and I was the only kid in my kindergarten class who not
only had memorized the preamble to the constitution but could also
explain it and the Bill of Rights (well, as well \ s a 5 year old could
explain it). Point is, I could have told you when I was 5 that spying
on American citizens who are political activists is WRONG.

I think about my dad a lot these days. He was a proud Democrat. He was
very active politically and had all of his kids knocking on doors for
JFK in 1960. But Dad was somewhat conservative. He called me his
looney leftist daughter. He never did understand the need for a
feminist movement, as he always treated women as equals. He never
agreed with me about abortion but he thought the Vietnam war was
wrong. When he realized that he was most likely on one of Nixon's
enemies lists, he was furious. He also told me in 1967 that I had
better hope the USA NEVER got involved militarily in the middle east,
that we would never be able to get out once we got in. He disagreed
with Carter getting involved even though it was to negotiate a treaty.
And he was livid when bush sr went to war with Iraq in 1991.

See, Dad was really proud of his days as a soldier in WWII. But he
hated war. He had night terrors for the rest of his life. I can
remember many times seeing my mom or my dad sleeping on the couch in
the living room when I was a kid and I thought that was normal for a
long time. When I was finally old enough to realize it wasn't, I asked
my mom and she told me my dad tried to kick her out of the foxhole in
the middle of the night at least two or three times a week. My dad
also didn't let us watch war movies. He was a huge John Wayne fan, but
we only saw his cowboy movies. Dad said he had fought in a war and he
saw nothing entertaining about it. He thought it was wrong for
Hollywood to make money from war movies. So I guess you can say he
planted that peace activist seed in me when I was very young.

My dad was the smartest man I have ever known and he didn't raise no
fool. I know he would be proud of me today. I think of him every time
I stand with my fellow peace activists, holding signs to protest this
despicable war. I know he would worry about me and I doubt I would be
able to tell him about my phone and email and bank card problems, as I
would not want to worry him. But I know for a fact that if he were
alive today, he would most likely be right there next to me,
protesting this war and demanding the impeachment of this monster of a
president.

So I am not afraid of you or of my government. Bring it on. Oh, and I
will be back at the park tomorrow at 4:00 and again on Tuesday at
5:00. (I am thinking of making a new sign that says "HI AGENT MIKE!")
I also have a meeting on Monday night with those subversive Quakers.
We are going to plan our rally for the 28th. That should be a nice day
for you, as we expect a good turnout and it will be easier for you to
blend into the crowd.

As always, PEACE!!

Pics from Pink Mother Vigil

This Weekend I'm blogging on another site!

Heyo Peoples,

I'm in D.C. for the Mothers Day Vigil at the White House. Woo ha.... and as I'm doing CODEPINK stuff, I will be posting from pinktucson.livejournal.com. Tell your friends! This is gonna be great!!!!!

See you on livejournal for a while.

Peace,

Nancy

Watch out if you are a female in army who was born in the spring or early summer.

This is a rather bleak subject but the following two articles both came to my attention today.

The Increase in Army Suicides Is Not 'Slight'

A letter to the Editor published Tuesday, May 2, 2006 in the Washington Post.

In an April 22 Washington in Brief item, an Army spokesman called the increase in soldiers' suicides from 60 in 2003 and 67 in 2004 to 83 in 2005 a "slight" increase. But in public health terms, this is an epidemic, representing a 30 percent rise.

This statistic fits with a striking increase reported last month in mental health care by U.S. veterans of the Iraq war. A third of veterans are seeking psychiatric help, but military authorities refer only 5 percent of those on active duty for such evaluation.

Our soldiers must learn to kill and destroy. They endure difficult conditions in Iraq, and they have no say in their assignments. Yet they are expected to return home to resume civilian status without incident.

The job of mental health professionals is to address such serious internal conflicts, suicide being only one result. Post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism, family dysfunction and antisocial behavior are others.

E. JAMES LIEBERMAN

Potomac

The writer is a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University's School of Medicine .

If you are born in April May or June you may be at a far greater risk of committing suicide than if you are born during seasons other than spring/early summer according to a British study reported by BBC News. Here are some excerpts from the article.

"Scientists have established seasonal birth trends for a number of diseases including some cancers, heart disease and brain tumours.

Other research has found more patients with schizophrenia, brain degenerating disease Alzheimer's, epilepsy and sleep disorder narcolepsy are born in December than any other month.

Equally, mental illnesses like depression and mood disorders and alcohol dependence are more frequent among those born during the spring and summer.

And 10% of suicides in England and Wales occur among people with these disorders."

And risks for women are even greater.

Among women, nearly 30% more suicides were committed by people born in the spring while among men the rate was nearly 14% higher than those born in the autumn.

Overall, the risk for people born in spring to early summer was increased by 17%.