A Somber Mother's Day Weekend in DC

VIDEO

A Somber Mother's Day Weekend in DC
A Report by Geoffrey Millard and Scott Galindez

This Mother's Day will not be a time of joy for the almost 2,500 mothers who have lost their son or daughter in Iraq. Many of those mothers will be in Washington, DC, participating in a weekend full of activities ranging from a silent march to a 24-hour vigil. TruthOut's Geoffrey Millard and Scott Galindez are in Washington and will be sending in video reports throughout the weekend.

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Visit the Truthout Link above for Updates on the Weekend Actions in Video Form as they are posted!

UNEMBEDDED

'UNEMBEDDED" FLASH:

Click link to view the video. It's in Quicktime and was a slow load on Cable hookup, you can also view this at their site.




Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq

Project:

When you visit the site, by clicking on project, you will see 'Index' at the bottom of right hand side. Place mouse over that and the Index pops up. At top of list are the Photojournalists Names, each has a series of their photo's you can view. On right you'll see 'Caption', for each photo your mouse over brings up the discription for the photo being viewed.

Book:

This brings up page site about their compiled work in bookform you can purchase.

The MSM Qualifications

Sgt. Jose Gomez Laid to Rest

Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For The Children - Innocence Lost!



Something To Keep An Eye On As To Reporting About

CONTACT: Operation Refuse War
Steve Theberge youth@warresisters.org

Posting from AfterDowningStreet

Center On Conscience

War Resisters

NEW YORK - May 11 - From May 11th to 16th, US conscientious objectors (CO's) and CO's from around the world will gather in New York City and Washington DC for Operation Refuse War, a week of conferences, demonstrations, and actions in celebration of International Conscientious Objectors Day, May 15th.

Operation Refuse War will be an opportunity for conscientious objectors, anti-war activists, and military families to come together to share strategies and build community. Participants are coming from South Korea, Eritrea, Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Canada, Britain, Israel, Macedonia, Bosnia, Germany, and across the United States. This week of action will highlight the difficulties that current conscientious objectors face as well as help build relationships and connections between the various communities within the anti-war movement. In addition, Operation Refuse War will bring together international and American conscientious objectors to share their experiences and ideas with the public.

Public Activities will include:

* We Will Not Kill: International Conscientious Objectors Speak Out! Thursday May 11th 2006 7pm-9pm Location: Friends Meeting House, 15 Rutherford Place, New York, NY

* Operation Refuse War: An International Conference of Resisters to Global War Washington DC, May 13-14 2006 This two day conference will be an opportunity to connect domestic and international anti war organizers

For a full schedule of events, visit operationrefusewar.org

Other Related Events in Washington DC: Lobby Day on Capitol Hill for CO Recognition (organized by the Center on Conscience & War), Eyes Wide Open Exhibit on the Mall, GI Rights Hotline Gathering, Silent March Against the War in Iraq and a number of other events.

Sponsoring organizations include the War Resisters League, War Resisters International American Friends Service Committee Youth and Militarism Program, the Center on Conscience & War, the Washington Peace Center, the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, Iraq Veterans Against the War - NYC Chapter, Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, Fellowship of Reconciliation: Disarmament Program, Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO), and Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) (List in formation) Since the 1980s, May 15th has been celebrated as International Conscientious Objectors' Day. Each year, War Resisters' International holds activities in a country where conscientious objectors face persecution or harassment. Previous locations have included the Balkans in 2002, Israel in 2003, Chile in 2004, and Greece in 2005. In addition, a similar gathering of conscientious objectors has been held each year in Washington, DC to forward the rights of conscientious objectors in the United States. This year, CO's from the US and other countries will meet together to strengthen their common efforts.

Fwd: From VetPax, NYC Veterans Coalition.

And where was our City Officials? The Mayor, MOVA? Memorial Day is 18 days away.

~~~~~~~~

Sympathy Flows at Soldier's Funeral in Queens


"Twenty-five hundred of these around the country," he said. "Can you imagine?"
~~~~~~~~

Tears for fallen son



"I wish that the President was there when I was notifying the mother."

Corona City Councilman Hiram Monserrate pointed out that Gomez lived a few blocks from Marlon Bustamante, a soldier killed in Iraq in February. "It's a sad day," he said. "I really wish the conflict would stop. It's inflicting so much pain and suffering on the community."
~~~~~~~~

MOM'S ANGUISH


The mother "had no idea what was coming" and when the sergeant told her that her son was dead, "her face drained. She went into shock and broke down."

"Nothing prepared me for that day," he said. "Despite everything I've been through, nothing compared to watching that woman and telling her her son is dead. Nothing can replace a son."

~~~~~~~~

'Now all there is is pain'


As the sun broke through he clouds, the mother approached on unsteady legs. She slumped sobbing against the coffin, her hands splaying on the shining metal, seemingly desperate to hold her boy one more time.

"My Jose! My Jose!" she cried in Spanish. "My son!"

GI Special 4E12 The Map.pdf

THE MAP

Bring Them Home, NOW!

Full Size Map, Click Here

A Must See Especially By Those Doing CR Work - Pass It On!!!!!!

Fw: From VFP Group Board, and I'm posting as Written {with abit of highlighting}, couldn't do better discription plus I'm Pooped from work. If you haven't seen this Do So and Pass It On, especially if doing CR Work, soooo...!!!

Greetings all!
Inspired by Sir! No Sir! the folks from the 'Not Your Soldier' coalition (focused on counter recruitment and challenging militarism in schools) have put together an Amazing Flash Animation.
It was done by Town and Planet Animation's Andy Menconi, who won the moveon.org's Bush in 30 Seconds award and it ROCKS!

FYI I have also included the original note from 'Not Your Soldier' about it as well below.


Hey y'all,
The hardworking hellraisers at the Ruckus Society are proud to unveil for you the world premier of a bombastic new Flash animation called "Punk Ass Crusade". It's packed with mind-bending images and an hot new song from The Coup.
It draws powerful connections between the Vietnam War and what's going on in Iraq NOW. An amazing new documentary called It draws powerful connections between the Vietnam War and what's going on in Iraq NOW. An amazing new documentary called "Sir! No Sir!" has finally unearthed the true story of the full scale GI mutiny against Uncle Sam's racist war in Vietnam. We made this flash to connect their struggle to the young people of today who are exposing the lies of military recruiters and refusing to kill or die for Bush's punk ass crusade.


This video is a cutting edge organizing tool for our Not Your Soldier program and is designed for the Text Message Generation so don't beat yourself up if it moves a little quicker than you do. But do us a favor and pass this message along to the young people in your life. It'll give you some street cred to trade on later, and they'll thank you for it!!



To ensure maximum online saturation please link to our MySpace page and vote for us on Huffington Post's Contagious Festival.
Crank up your speakers! Not Your Soldier
Big BIG ups to all of our co-conspirators on this one: Town & Planet, Radical Designs, Openomic, Goodstorm, The Coup, and Sir! No Sir!

"RETURN TO THE SPIRIT OF MOTHER'S DAY"

GAO: Few Troops are Treated for Disorder



Eyes Wide Open
by AFSC
The AFSC's exhibit in honor of the fallen in Iraq returns to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this weekend.





For Those In Calif.
MOTHERHEARTS AND VETERANS FOR PEACE PRESENT
"RETURN TO THE SPIRIT OF MOTHER'S DAY"

MotherHearts, a local organization of peace conscious women, is planning a
community event to celebrate the original intent of Mother's Day as
described
in Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870. This Proclamation
was an impassioned call to unite women and mothers to work together to
prevent war. The “Return to the Spirit of Mother’s Day” event featuring
music, art, poetry and inspired speakers will take place May 14 at 2:00 at
Arlington West Memorial, next to Stearns Wharf. (Music program begins at
1:00 pm.
Featured musicians include: Antara and Delilah, Kate Wallace, Kate Bennett,
Rich Reeves, Kenny Edwards, Patti Teel, Peter Claydon, Vince
Chafin-Flutist.)

The event will feature noted speaker and writer Jean Shinoda Bolen, as well
as Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Barry Spacks, and representatives of many
local
and national organizations. “Return to the Spirit of Mother’s Day” has
three
objectives: to draw attention to the high costs of war, honor the original
intent
of Mother’s Day, and to provide the community with hope and direction to
take
positive action to prevent war. MotherHearts invites the Santa Barbara
community
to gather in recognition that what we hold in common is much stronger than
what divides us; that we can and must work to find peaceful solutions to
conflict
in our communities, nation, and world.

In 1870 Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic,
wrote what is now called the “Mother’s Day Proclamation”. On the heels of the Civil
War, this proclamation was radical for its time in its call to urge women to
“leave all that may be left of home” and gather together. It was time,
Julia Ward Howe said, for women to unite to bring an end to war. “Our sons
shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy, and patience. We the women of one country will be
too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to
injure theirs.”

Jean Shinoda Bolen, author of Urgent Message from Mother; Gather the Women,
Save the World calls for women of the world to heed the original message of
Mother’s Day. She asks women to join together, to meet, to share wisdom,
and
to commit to working together to promote a more peaceful world.

MotherHearts and Veterans for Peace have chosen a meaningful and relevant
time and place for “Return to Spirit of Mother’s Day” on Sunday May 14, at
2:00 pm at West Beach next to Stearns Wharf (Arlington West). Music program
will begin at 1:00 pm.

For more information contact:
Lisa Wysel
(805) 565-1488
Mothers Hearts

Faces of the Fallen

Link also posted on right side of page

Tens Of Thousands Faces of Children, Women, Men, Innocents Of Iraq Will Never Be Seen, But By Their Loved Ones!!

Faces of the Fallen

This site from The Washington Post compiles news stories and military
reports to assemble portraits of U.S. service members lost to the ongoing
conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The database, which was recently
relaunched with newly browsable features and permalinks, offers both
sweeping views of the operations' tolls and individual profiles of each
soldier or Marine who has died. Browsing through, you can view current data
on which state has lost the most men and women (California), which age has
taken the brunt (21-year-olds), which year has proved the most deadly so far
(2005), and which military branch has suffered the most fatalities (the
Army). Click in to a profile, anywhere on the site, to read about the
individuals behind those statistics. The accompanying In Their Own Words
section shares the reflections of veterans who served in Iraq.

Vet Gives Back His Medals

Upset vet gives back his medals
By Michael Stetz
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 8, 2006

And now what?
He had protested. He had become president of the San Diego chapter of Veterans For Peace.
He had helped put up thousands of white crosses around San Diego County to mark the dead in a solemn display called “Arlington West.”


And still . . . .
The war goes on. Three years, two months. With more than 2,300 U.S. soldiers and Marines dead.
What more could David Patterson, an electronics technician from Ramona, do about it?
There was this: He could give up his military medals. Send them directly to President Bush, care of the White House.
Patterson, 53, got the idea from a friend, who e-mailed him about a Navy veteran in Orlando, Fla., who had done just that.
The action struck Patterson. What a powerful, personal statement. Here, take these back. I don't want them anymore.
So in March, the mild-mannered Air Force veteran with graying hair sat down and wrote to the President of the United States of America:
“I am saddened to give up my hard earned medals. But the hate, torture and death you have instrumented in this world tarnish the symbolism they carry.”
Patterson doesn't know if his gesture will do any good.
He hasn't heard back from the White House. And his action has received little media attention.
Still, he feels good about taking his anti-war crusade a step further.
Patterson had to order the medals because he didn't have them at hand. The military doesn't award most medals when troops are discharged – just ribbons, he said. It cost him $38 to get the actual ones.
He didn't do anything John Wayne-like to earn the honors, he readily admits. Didn't take out an enemy machine-gun nest or rescue a wounded buddy.
He jokes that he got the Good Conduct Medal simply because he stayed out of jail for the four years in the early 1970s when he served as a weapons systems technician. He also got the National Defense Service Medal and the Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation.
But the medals do mean something to him. He served. And proudly so, he adds.
But then came this war.
“A bunch of people are dying for no reason,” Patterson said.
Returning medals is no easy thing to do emotionally. People earn them for defending their country – an honor that has few equals. But Joe DuRocher, for one, figured it had to be done. DuRocher is the Orlando law professor who sent back his aviator wings and shoulder boards and inspired Patterson to do the same.
“They don't hand Navy wings out of Cracker Jack boxes,” DuRocher said in a recent telephone interview.
Like Patterson, DuRocher is quick to say he did nothing particularly heroic in his military career. As a Navy helicopter pilot he took part in the blockade of Cuba. And he was part of the recovery team that retrieved John Glenn, the first American to orbit the globe, from the ocean.
A former public defender who now teaches at the Barry University School of Law, DuRocher said he's drawn to “fight for the little guy.” Detainees and Iraqi prisoners have been abused, tortured and not given proper legal representation or rights, he asserts.
So he wrote his letter. In part, it said:
“As a citizen, a patriot, a parent and grandparent, a lawyer and law teacher I am left with such a feeling of loss and helplessness. I think of myself as a good American and I ask myself what can I do when I see the face of evil? Illegal and immoral war, torture and confinement for life without trial have never been part of our Constitutional tradition.” DuRocher, like Patterson, is still waiting for a response from the president.
The White House has no record of receiving either man's medals, said Blair Jones, a spokesman. The White House gets a large volume of mail, so Jones is not disputing that they were sent, he said.
He was uncertain how many medals the White House has received in protest of the war. When it does, “they are kindly sent back to the owners,” Jones said.
DuRocher's action has been picked up by liberal blogs on the Web and he has received more than 1,000 e-mail responses, he said. The vast majority, 95 percent he estimates, have been positive.
Returning medals is not new. Nor is it without controversy.
In one much-publicized protest during the Vietnam War, veterans threw their medals over the fence of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who tried to unseat President Bush in the last presidential election, was criticized during the campaign because he took part in that protest. Kerry, a highly decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, maintained that he threw away only ribbons, not the medals themselves.
Other U.S. military actions have spurred similar protests. In 1986, Charles Liteky gave up the Medal of Honor – the nation's highest military honor – because of U.S. action in Central America.
Neither DuRocher nor Patterson is trying to persuade other military veterans to return their medals. That's an individual decision, they say.
Patterson, for one, just wanted to make a statement. He is tired of war and points to recent polls as proof he's not alone. In an April USA Today/Gallup Poll, 65 percent of those asked said they disapproved of the way President Bush was handling the war.
When he helps put up the crosses, Patterson hears mostly positive feedback. He said that's true even in Oceanside, near Camp Pendleton, where Marines often stop by to offer their support.

Remember 'WHY' Mothers Day!!!!!

Mother's Day was founded as a call for
peace. Julia Ward Howe, who also wrote the Battle Hymn
of the Republic" wrote the call for women to drop
everything to work for peace in 1870.


Julia Ward Howe: Beyond the Battle Hymn of the Republic-Mother's Day and Peace



Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870
THE GREAT AND GENERAL INTERESTS OF PEACE

ARISE THEN...WOMEN OF THIS DAY!
Arise, all women who have hearts!

Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant
agencies,

Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with
carnage,
For caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity,
mercy and patience.

We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up
with Our own.

It says: "Disarm! Disarm!

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and
commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to
the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...

Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress,
not of Caesar,
But of God -

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of
nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most
convenient

And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different
nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

THE GREAT AND GENERAL INTERESTS OF PEACE

Honor/Remembrance for the Fallen

Poppy Days: Dates, Drives, and Donations
As we move through National Military Appreciation Month which includes Loyalty Day (1st), VE Day (8th), Military Spouse Day (12th), Armed Forces Day (20th), National Maritime Day (22th) and Memorial Day (29th) -- and actually Mother's Day (14th), too -- I invite you to 'pin a poppy on' during Poppy Days in remembrance of our lost veterans.
Resources on the large variety of ways you can join together with the nation and help out our veterans and their families below the fold. And if you'd like a bit more history and poetry, please see the companion piece, Poppy Days: Remembering Our Veterans' Sacrifices.

From the Great Poems of the World War: Electronic Edition, W. D. Eaton:

POPPIES:
CAPT. JOHN MILLS HANSON, F.A.
IN The Stars And Stripes, A.E.F., France
POPPIES in the wheat fields on the pleasant hills of France,
Reddening in the summer breeze that bids them nod and dance;
Over them the skylark sings his lilting, liquid tune--
Poppies in the wheat fields, and all the world in June.
Poppies in the wheat fields on the road to Monthiers--
Hark, the spiteful rattle where the masked machine guns play!
Over them the shrapnel's song greets the summer morn--
Poppies in the wheat fields--but, ah, the fields are torn.
See the stalwart Yankee lads, never ones to blench,
Poppies in their helmets as they clear the shallow trench,
Leaping down the furrows with eager, boyish tread
Through the poppied wheat field to the flaming woods ahead.
Poppies in the wheat fields as sinks the summer sun,
Broken, bruised and trampled--but the bitter day is won;
Yonder in the woodland where the flashing rifles shine,
With their poppies in their helmets, the front files hold the line,
Poppies in the wheat fields; how' still beside them lie
Scattered forms that stir not when the star shells burst on high;
Gently bending o'er them beneath the moon's soft glance,
Poppies of the wheat fields on the ransomed hills of France

In Gratitude and Thanks
Please do what you can, 'pin a poppy on', donate, volunteer...whatever feels right in remembrance of those who've sacrificed so much for our country.
Thanks, Ilona
Visit the subject link to read the rest, this is but a snippet, and find out more about the tradition of the poppy as to Honoring Those Who Sacrifice-On Wrong or Right Policies.

Ilona's close, as described by her, what may be the perfect little poem, written by one of the poppy makers at Yountville's [CA] Veterans Home:

A scrap of blood red paper,
A twist of green and black:
We make these poppies in memory,
Of the men who never came back
Far from home and loved ones,
They sleep in foreign lands;
So wear this poppy proudly,
Remembering for whom it stands.