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The
Peace Movement....
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Veterans For Peace :
http://www.veteransforpeace.org
is a national organization founded in 1985. It is structured
around a national office in Saint Louis, MO and comprised of members across the
country organized in chapters or as at-large members. There is an annual convention
each year attended by our members, families and supporters from across the nation.
Members receive periodic VFP publications.
The organization
includes men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations including from
the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and
current Iraq wars as well as other conflicts. Our collective experience tells
us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the
innocent. Thus, other means of problem solving are necessary.
Veterans For Peace is an official Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) represented
at the UN.
Whether
or not you wish to participate in chapter activities, please consider becoming
a Veterans For Peace member. As an organization, we are what our members make
us. You can be part of that effort. Help us put an end to war.
We draw
on our personal experiences and perspectives gained as veterans to raise public
awareness of the true costs and consequences of militarism and war - and to
seek peaceful, effective alternatives.
Some major
areas of concern and involvement are:
WAR IN
IRAQ:
http://www.ivaw.org
When our government threatened invasion, we conducted public forums, met with
elected representatives and participated in marches to express our opposition.
As the war began, we gathered in Washington, DC, with other veterans groups
for Operation Dire Distress. Since then, we joined together with Military Families
Speak Out and others in the Bring Them Home Now campaign and supported recently
returned vets who formed the Iraq Veterans Against the War. Local chapters continue
to conduct educational forums, demonstrations and ongoing Iraq memorial displays,
such as Arlington West, to remember the growing human cost of the war, to end
the occupation and to bring our troops hone now!
AND AT
HOME:
Members and chapters actively participate in efforts to save VA healthcare and
defend of veterans rights; to protect our civil liberties threatened
by the Patriot Act; and other repressive legislation; to provide
counseling through the GI Rights Hotline to active duty military needing assistance;
and providing alternative information to counter military recruiters in the
schools.
VIETNAM:
VFP has worked with other Vietnam veterans to bring medical supplies, help build
clinics, hospitals, and schools, advocate for Agent Orange victims and promote
reconciliation and friendship between our two countries and peoples.
SOA WATCH:
Each year VFP members from across the country go to Fort Benning, Georgia, to
demonstrate for the closing of the Army's infamous School of the Americas, a
training center for thousands of soldiers from repressive regimes in Latin America
with long records of human rights abuses.
KOREA:
After revelations of the massacres of civilians by American soldiers during
the Korean War, we sent several fact-finding delegations to investigate these
allegations and bring the hidden history of that war before the public. Today
we continue to work for an end to that conflict through our Korea Peace Campaign.
VIEQUES:
Along with other veteran and community groups, we actively supported the people
of Puerto Rico in their struggle to end the US Navy's six decades of bombing
and shelling on the island municipality of Vieques. We continue to support current
efforts for cleaning up the environment and return of the land to the people
of Vieques.
COLOMBIA:
VFP sent fact-finding delegations to this violence-torn land and educated U.S.
citizens to the US military involvement, the murder of union leaders by para-militaries
and other human rights abuses, including the harmful effects of chemical defoliants
used in the "war on drugs".
CENTRAL
AMERICA:
In the 1980s, we opposed US sponsored wars and continue to support people struggling
for their rights and dignity. We regularly send election observers to Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador in support of justice and peace. Veterans
For Peace was founded in 1985, as a non-profit 501c3 educational organization
and recognized as a United Nations Non-Governmental Organization in 1990. Chapters
and members are active in communities throughout the United States and Puerto
Rico. National conventions are held annually and members communicate through
quarterly newsletters as well as daily list-serve news, on line discussions
groups and the national and many chapter websites.
The
Adirondacks....
Adirondack State Park - 6 Million Acres.
Adirondack Forest Preserve - 2.3 Million Acres.
8,000 Sq. miles of mountains.
2,000 miles of foot trails.
240 lean-tos.
35 state campsites.
200 lakes at least a square mile area.
Over 2,300 lakes and ponds.
There are over 2,000 high peak mountains.
There are over 46 high peak mountains over 4,000 feet.
The highest peak is Mount Marcy at 5,344 feet.
There are over 50 species of animals.
Over 220 Birds. Over 30 species of reptiles and amphibians.
66 species of fish.
1,500 miles of rivers.
30,000 miles of brooks and streams.
Teaching
kids take control of their education...
my
Golden Retrievers....
and
always my family!
I'd like to meet:
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Progressive Educators.... Anti-War Veterans (especially
from Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan.... Persons that are working to change the cycle
of poverty and racism in our society....
Music:
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CS&N .... Neil Young.... Pink Floyd.... The Dead.... Dixie Chicks.... Derek And The Dominoes.... Old School Rock ... Funk.... Taj Mahal.... Stevie Goodman.... Joe Cocker.... Leon Russell.... Tupac.... John Fahey
Heroes:
Edward A. Reynolds, Gandhi, JFK, MLK, Mohammed
Ali, Jimmy Carter, Young People that return from Iraq and work to help their brothers
and sisters, Conrad Lynn, Jan Scruggs, Charles MacMathias, Saul Alinsky, Jonathan
Demme, Frances Pratt, Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger