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Montana VFP and Jeanette Rankin Peace Center sponsored two film showings during the Courage to Resist weekend of action in support of service members who dare to resist the illegal war in Iraq by refusing to serve (or in most cases refusing to redeploy) in actions that support that war. On Friday December 8 we showed "The Ground Truth" and on Saturday December 9 "Sir! No Sir!". We had a small turnout for our showing of the two films, but Montana VFP continues to believe your movement to support war resisters deserves to be publicized. |
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On Friday Dcember 8, a very cold and windy day (20F all day), members of PeaceVermont, AFSC-VT and Central VT WILPF tabled on State St from 11 am - 5 pm and vigiled from 4-5pm. Our banner read "Support GI War Resisters". We also had large posters of Iraqi victims as well as GI boots from AFSC. We had a small but committed group of people for our candlelight vigil. Many people took information on war resisters; many honked as they passed our vigil. |
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On Saturday, December 9, 2006, the Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice held a special vigil in support of war resisters. This event was coordinated with national actions called by Courage to Resist, an organization which supports military resisters. RCP&J’s December 9th vigil honored the growing number of soldiers within the military who are publicly resisting the war including Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refused orders to deploy to Iraq. We produced a flyer featuring the images and words of several prominent war resisters. Our coalition has been holding vigils in opposition to the war each Saturday for over four years. We are grateful to the organization "Courage to Resist" for their leadership on this day.
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 Carolyn Ho, mother of Lt. Ehren Watada. Event in New York City featuring Carolyn Ho, Mother of Lt. Ehren Watada; and, Gloria Pacis, Mother of Refusenik Stephen Funk, USMC
On December 8th at the prestigious “Church to the United Nations” 777 1st Avenue, an evening event was held featuring Carolyn Ho and Gloria Pacis. This event was co-sponsored by United for Lt. Watada and World Can’t Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime. Endorsers included Peace Action of New York State, Vets for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Granny Peace Brigade and the Raging Grannies, Citizen Soldier, New York City Labor Against the War and CodePink.
The meeting room was filled to capacity, probably 180 people attended the event including the press from WBAI, “Law and Disorder” radio program; KPFK from Philadelphia, and others.
The lineup of speakers began with a rousing speech from Carolyn Ho. She explained the entire circumstances from her son’s enlistment to his “Matter of Conscience” moment. He decided that after being an Officer in the Army, he could not command his soldiers to fight an illegal and immoral war. He could not elicit orders that were illegal from the beginning. The audience was totally riveted and enlightened by her speech. After that, we showed the speech that Lt. Watada gave this past August at the Vets for Peace conference in Seattle. This speech should be required viewing! Everyone felt after listening to this, that he was not only a man of his convictions, but a true leader that should not spend one minute behind bars. He is greatly needed to continue leading the movement of resisters within our military.
Margaret Prescod of KPFK, Philadelphia and leader of the Global Women’s Exchange, gave a rousing speech following this. She is totally committed to supporting Lt. Watada and asked that we all follow her lead.
Gloria Pacis spoke about her son Stephen Funk, who refused deployment to Iraq. He continues to resist and works closely with others in the movement. She also asked for our support for her son.
The audience was involved, asked many questions and showed complete support for both mothers and their sons. The speakers followed up after the Question and Answer period and each organization who endorsed this event was humbled by the courage of Lt. Watada, and pledged complete support in his fight that is upcoming this January.
Report by: Elaine Brower, World Can’t Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime Steering Committee |
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On Saturday December 9, South Bay Mobilization , UFPJ in San Jose set up tables in front of Martin Luther King Library from 11:30am to approximately 3 PM when the winds began to whip our canopy away and dispersed all of our printed material. We had many people stop to speak to us and got more signatures on the petitions to support Lt. Ehren Watada. We didn't take any pictures.
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"We all need to support those...who speak up and stand out and say no to the meatgrinder! Courage to Resist is already doing that..."
— Paul Cox, Veterans for Peace (Chapter 69-SF Bay Area); American Legion Post 315
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