Peace & Justice
March 19 Rallies
for Peace
Saturday, March 19, is the
second anniversary of the “Shock and Awe Campaign” in Baghdad. There will be
protests worldwide on that day. This year groups in the San Joaquin Valley and
surrounding mountain communities are planning anti-war protests in Fresno and
Sonora.
Fresno’s
Rally in the Valley for Peace and Justice
By CAMILLE RUSSELL
The Rally in the Valley for Peace and Justice, Saturday, March 19, 2005, noon to 3:00 p.m. will be in the Fresno County Courthouse Park, Its theme is “Stop the War! It Affects Us All”
Peace, social and environmental justice groups are asked to bring signs and banners identifying their group and/or city. Modesto Peace/Life Center will have a table at the rally.
ACTION: To CARPOOL TO THE RALLY,
arrive at the Modesto Peace/Life Center, 720 13th St., Modesto at
9:00 A.M. SHARP. Contact John Lucas,
(209) 527-7634, if needed. For more Rally information call Peace Fresno’s
voice mail (559) 487-2515, email president@peacefresno.org
or visit www.peacefresno.org.
Sonora protest against the war
March 19
By PAT CERVELLI
On Saturday,
March 19, 2005 at noon, Tuolumne County Citizens for Peace (TCCP) will
sponsor a march beginning at Courthouse Park in Sonora. Marchers will walk up
one side of Washington St. and down the other, then return to Courthouse Park
for a rally which will include live music and speakers on peace and justice.
The theme is
The Cost of Endless War: 1,450 U.S. dead, 10,700 U.S. wounded, 100,000 Iraqis
dead, $150 Billion spent, 0 reasons to be there.
A rally was
held in Courthouse Park on March 20, 2004 to remember the more than 600 soldiers
who had died in Iraq. A votive candle for each of the 600, whose names were read
during the rally, was lit on the wall surrounding the courthouse.
Besides the
peace march and rallies, TCCP has sponsored a weekly peace vigil at Court House
Park for over two years (every Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m.), presented seven
forums, a comedy show, staffed information and voter registration tables at
local events, and, with Columbia College, co-produced an outdoor summer film
festival. TCCP forums are broadcast twice monthly on Cable 8.
ACTION: TCCP
meets the first and third Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Aronos Club, 37 E.
Elkin St., Sonora. For information, email Pat Cervelli at canyon@goldrush.com,
or phone 209-928-3494.
San Francisco march assembles at Delores Park at 11 a.m. with a rally at the Civic Center at 1 p.m
ACTION: For more information, ontact A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, Act Now to Stop War & End Racism, San Francisco: 415-821-6545; email info@internationalanswer.org; or www.answercoalition.org
Mark your calendar for Peace Camp: June 24-26. For 21 years the Modesto Peace/Life Center has hosted a weekend in the High Sierra for people of all ages with good fellowship, lively discussions, the best camp food imaginable. Relaxing, refreshing, even invigorating.
ACTION: To help plan, phone Ken Schroeder at 526-2303.
Catching Flack:
A Military Wife Speaks
by Monica Benderman
A soldier's wife, Monica Benderman of Hinesville, Georgia, used to be admired. But not anymore. In December 2004, facing a second tour of duty in Iraq, her husband, Sgt. Kevin Benderman, applied for conscientious objector status—and was promptly charged with desertion. Read
Monica's story here
A Matter of Conscience
by Kevin Benderman
Sgt. Kevin Benderman (40) is a U.S. Army mechanic with ten years of service under his belt, including a role in the assault on Baghdad. While there, his outfit was ordered to open fire on children who were throwing rocks at unit personnel. Troubled by this and other similar incidents, and facing a second tour of duty in Iraq, Benderman applied for conscientious objector status in December 2004. The U.S. Army has charged him with desertion. He has been called a coward by his commanding officer, and his chaplain has told him that he is ashamed of him. Born in Alabama, Sgt. Benderman currently lives in Hinesville, Georgia, with his wife, Monica, and stepson Ryan.
Read Kevin's story
here
Support Our Troops: Bring Them Home
by Howard Zinn
We must withdraw our military from Iraq, the sooner the better. The reason is simple: Our presence there is a disaster for the American people and an even bigger disaster for the Iraqi people.
Read this article in
its entirety here
Pro-Soldier,
Anti-War: my experiences as a Conscientious Objector and the launching of peace-out.com
By PERRY O’BRIEN
I joined the Army on August 27th, 2001, just two weeks before the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As naive as its sounds, I wasn’t thinking about going to war when I signed up. I was thinking about jumping out of planes, learning medical skills, and getting a tangible experience that would be somehow more “real” than the previous two years of college. Enlisting was totally spontaneous, and I never took time to sit down and consider how I really felt about war.
A year and half later I found myself working in a field clinic in Kandahar, Afghanistan. As a company of medics, my unit saw the worst consequences of war: mutilated children, traumatized civilians, dead soldiers. Even then, at least for the first few months of my deployment, I didn’t take time to consider the implications of what I was doing; I was too busy doing my job. It was the Afghani children that finally got me thinking. No matter how many casualties I saw, there was always a sense of universal wrongness when a 5-year-old child came into our clinic with a ragged amputation. “How are all these kids getting hurt,” I wondered, “Why are people letting this happen? What’s wrong with this country?”
Then we heard figures that up to 3,000 innocent civilians had been killed by American bombs. How many had been injured?
I thought to myself, 3,000 is about the number of people that were killed on 9/11. Were we getting even? I started to feel like an Army mechanic, fixing things that my comrades in the Air Force and Infantry had broken. But they weren’t “things,” of course, they were people, and after they left our clinic they were going home to their families. How many would return to devastated craters, or get home only to learn that one of their sons, fathers, or brothers had been spirited away by American soldiers?
We used to see those prisoners, too, doing medical checkups to ensure that the Afghanis didn’t develop any new injuries during their stay with us. Of course, we never knew what happened to them before they got to Kandahar. During the examinations the prisoners were naked, shivering even if it was warm, with hands zip-tied and eyes covered. Sometimes they had sandbags over their heads. Sometimes they had been tortured by the Afghani militia and needed more extensive care. If these guys weren’t terrorists before, I thought to myself, they sure might be leaning in that direction after we released them.
What were we doing here? I used to accept the idea of a war on terrorism, but isn’t war a form of terrorism? Are we just laying the groundwork for another attack, and another war, and on and on? Have wars ever solved more problems than they created?
I left Afghanistan with many troubling questions, and it took me over a year to find satisfactory answers. When I did, I filed to become a conscientious objector. I was lucky. I had the education to present a clear, coherent case, and my unit was supportive, even if they didn’t exactly agree with my philosophical perspective. I was given an honorable discharge in November of 2004.
There are many, many soldiers in all branches who feel the same way I do about war. Most of these soldiers are not aware that the option of discharge or alternate service as a conscientious objector is available to them. Of those who come to the conclusion that war is unethical, many feel their only options are insubordination, deception, or desertion. Some of them face imprisonment without ever realizing that there is a perfectly legal mechanism within the Army to recognize their opposition to war.
I, along with several other conscientious objectors from across the country, launched www.peace-out.com, a comprehensive online resource for soldiers wishing to become COs. Peace-out.com, which was generously designed and launched by The Difference Machine, includes a step-by-step guide to the complex CO application process, including the complete text of my application, and a list connecting prospective CO’s with those who have successfully been through the process.
I feel that it is particularly important for those of us in the peace movement to give aid and support to soldiers, regardless of how they feel about war. As much as we are antiwar, we must also be pro-soldier.
ACTION: Reach the author at perry.obrien@gmail.com and peace.out.now@gmail.com.
