From the Executive Director
Michael McPhearson
Before news of the horrific mass
shooting in Orlando FL, I planned to
write about two things. First I want
to highlight Veterans For Peace activities on May 23-30 in Washington
DC. VFP members lobbied Congress, educating them about deported veterans, the continuing impact
of Agent Orange and the Smarter
Approach to Nuclear Expenditures
(SANE) Act which will cut $100 billion over the next decade from the
bloated nuclear weapons budget.
We also challenged them to speak
out against Islamophobia. VFP
members in communities across the
country likewise visited their congressional delegation in their home
offices. That same week we participated in Advisory Board member
Ralph Nader‘s Breaking Through
Power event, commemorating the
50th anniversary of the release of
Unsafe at Any Speed and challenging the control the rich and powerful
are exerting in our nation today.
Members also participated in a Memorial Day observance near the Lincoln Memorial. Peace was present
as VFP supported the Swords to
Plowshares Bell Tower monument prominently visible near the
Lincoln Memorial. We laid letters at
the Vietnam Veterans Wall and we
solemnly carried a banner around
the reflecting pool calling on people
to remember the 3 million Southeast
Asians killed in the Vietnam War.
It was a good and productive
week in the nation‘s capital for
Veterans For Peace.
I feel it is important to briefly address the political races, the acrimony between the Clinton and Sanders
campaigns and our work for peace.
Elections are important, but what
happens in between elections is
more important. Or another way to
put it; who is elected is important,
but there must be a movement to
push for real change. We know that
after Barak Obama was elected a lot
of people demobilized and gave him
what some call a honeymoon period
or a chance to do the right thing
without being pushed. In part, because of the lack of immediate
agitation and a recalcitrant Congress, what we wanted to see
happen did not happen. So we
must remember and we must tell
people that no matter who wins,
we can‘t give them a kind of honeymoon or chance to do what is
right. If it‘s Trump, Hillary or Bernie; it doesn‘t matter. It‘s going to
take a movement to make the real
changes we want take place. And
we need each other to build the
movement. So while it is good and
healthy to struggle with each other
about for whom to vote, do not
fight to the point you destroy the
relationships you will need to build
the movement we all need for
change. Do not play into the
hands of our opposition. Dividing
ourselves is exactly what they want.
For years now we all have
talked about war at home and war
abroad. The killing of 50 people in
Orlando is an example of what is
meant by a war at home. The
mass shooting is also an example
of troops facing harm‘s way
abroad and then having to face it
here at home. Imran Yousuf, a
Marine veteran of the Afghanistan
war, is a bouncer at Pulse, the site
of the killings. According to Stars
and Stripes, he acted quickly to
help others to flee. And Army Captain Antonia Brown, who deployed
to Kuwait in 2010-2011, was killed
in the massacre. However, as we
know, high profile mass shooting
is not the only violence people
face here at home. The Friends
Committee on National Legislation
sent me an email today stating:
This isn‘t just about one killing, or
even a series of mass killings.
Gun violence permeates our society. The current stats are already
alarming:
1,500 shootings in Chicago so
far this year.
On average, 51 women in the
U.S. are shot and killed by an
intimate partner each month.
20,000 gun suicides in the U.S.
every year
It is clearer to me than ever before that the only way we will succeed in confronting and ending war
is through working for peace at
home and peace abroad. We cannot have one without the other.
They are inextricably linked. Can
we really expect the people of Chicago to act to end wars abroad
when they face extreme levels of
violence and see no path to peace
in their own neighborhoods? Can
the LGBTQ community be expected
to join us in the streets to end wars
abroad if we are not addressing the
violence they face here at home?
But most important for us is to understand for ourselves that this violence is linked. That there are direct
connections between U.S. foreign
policy and the mass shooting in Orlando, and m