These people have No Self Worth, I'm talking about those that just hang to this imaginary, once proud, Republican Tag. Even still calling themselves Conservative!
They allow themselves to be led around like the robots they've become, and frankly some on the Democratic side are just as willing, but the fall into line and march in lockstep Falls Souly on the GOP!
They've been Silent and Accepting of the Lies that led our Troops into Occupations and All that has come about because of that, the torturing, the no-bid contracts, the corruption, the deaths and maiming' s................................................, and oh so much more!
They've been Silent and Accepting as our Freedoms have been slowly stripped away, and Accepting of Rule by Executive Branch Alone ignoring the fact they have hired others to Represent Them!
They also find it Very Easy to Condemn those that give Service to Their Lives and Freedoms!
Last election cycle they Laughed at and Mocked the Military Service of one of the Presidential Candidates who Served This Country In Vietnam, just as I Did, and being in the same service branch, the U.S. Navy, they Spit on my Service, All my brother and sister Naval personal who served In-Country, and All the other Service Personal, but most of All, All Those Who Have Served This Country and Received It's Highest Honor For That Service, The Purple Heart!!!
I was waiting to see how they would Slam their Fellow Americans this year. Well they started early, peppering their talking points with the words needed, leading up to their Convention, and Let Both Barrels Go, Loud and Clear!!
They went after Anyone who 'Volunteers', everyone who run those Volunteer Organizations, to Help Others, you know that Christian and Human Ideology They Claim seemingly as their own as they Slam those who are following the same teachings but not Their Views!
I'm to Royally Pissed, as a Veteran, an Activist, and an Advocate to really go deep into All they've 'Spit' on, others have already started these Long Lists, you can read one Here as well as Here and Here.
There will be Plenty more I'm sure, especially as the Advocate, Volunteer, Community realizes what they've been subject to.
And Yes It's Spitting On That Which You Do as An American As Well As All Others Who Share This Planet With Them!!!!!!!
By the way, did Anyone hear anything mentioned on what these candidates and this so called political party are going to do for this Country, Our World Standing {not creating more hatreds and enemies} and Leadership, Our Constitution, Our Democracy, Our Freedoms, and will we tonight??
David Cline
January 8, 1947 - September 15, 2007:
David Cline was a highly decorated, disabled Vietnam War combat veteran. Returning stateside he became active in the Oleo Strut coffeehouse near Fort Hood, Texas, as described in "Sir No Sir!" the award-winning documentary about GI resistance. He served as a national coordinator of Vietnam Veterans Against the War for more than 20 years. As President of Veterans For Peace 2002-2007, he oversaw tremendous membership growth and helped start Iraq Veterans Against the War. He also co-founded the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign.
Reading in Video comes from the book:Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, an Oral History.
“They had a GI coffeehouse at Fort Hood, a place called the Oleo Strut. ... The GI movement started at Fort Hood—the Fort Hood Three, three years before I got there, guys who refused to go to Vietnam. That began to plant the seed. The soil was fertile because the reality was that the government was lying to us. Most people are decent people. They don’t want to go kill people and engage in brutality.... I went down there and got involved in publishing an underground newspaper called the Fatigue Press. We were putting out literature against the war and against the military and for GI rights and against racism.”
—Dave Cline on organizing inside the U.S. Army, from the book Winter Soldiers: An Oral History of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Twayne's Oral History Series)
Touch A Name On The Wall
© 1988 Joel Mabus
sung by Annie and the Vets
Well, I guess you could call it our summer of freedom,
the year that we both turned eighteen -
We hitch-hiked to Denver, fresh out of high school
man, we were sights to be seen.
And that was the year that you dated my cousin, 'til
they took us away in the fall.
Now I dearly wish you were standing here with me as
I touch your name on the wall.
Touch a name on the wall,
Touch a name on the wall.
God help us all
Touch a name on the wall.
Every time I come here I wear my fatigues,
to honor the men that I knew.
I touch every name that came from my outfit,
and I read them out loud when I do.
Now some people say that they all died for nothing,
well, I don't completely agree -
'Cause this brother here didn't die for no country -
He died for me.
[chorus]
Now, usually walls are made for division
- to separate me from you.
But God bless the wall that brings us together,
and reminds us of what we've been through.
And God damn the liars and the tin-plated heroes
who trade on the blood of such men.
God give us the strength to stand up and tell them -
Never again!
[chorus]
You can find out more about Dave, that I have put together Here, collected from various sources after Dave passed away.
Organizer of anti-war veterans
“They had a GI coffeehouse at Fort Hood, a place called the Oleo Strut. ... The GI movement started at Fort Hood—the Fort Hood Three, three years before I got there, guys who refused to go to Vietnam. That began to plant the seed. The soil was fertile because the reality was that the government was lying to us. Most people are decent people. They don’t want to go kill people and engage in brutality.... I went down there and got involved in publishing an underground newspaper called the Fatigue Press. We were putting out literature against the war and against the military and for GI rights and against racism.”
—Dave Cline on organizing inside the U.S. Army, from the book Winter Soldiers: An Oral History of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Twayne's Oral History Series)
Dave Cline, an anti-war soldier and military veteran activist, trade unionist and anti-racist, died at his Jersey City home on Sept. 15—another hidden casualty of the Vietnam War. He had been quite ill for the last few months but continued to organize for veterans’ rights, against the Iraq War and on behalf of Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange up until his death.
Dave grew up in a working class family in Buffalo, N.Y., and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967. Later that year, while serving with the 25th Infantry Division, he was wounded in a kill-or-be-killed situation near the Cambodian border and became permanently disabled. The incident affected him politically, physically and emotionally every day for the rest of his life.
In 1968 while on convalescent leave at home, Dave got involved with the Buffalo Draft Resistance Union and began speaking out publicly against the war. His political activism took off from there.
He helped run the Oleo Strut GI coffee house in Killeen, Texas, outside Fort Hood, which is still today a U.S. Army megabase. In 1970 he joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) and became one of its early leaders. In the 1980s he helped resurrect the organization.
In the 1970s he worked at the Jersey City bulk mail facility of the U.S. Postal Service. Cline led a number of wildcat strikes as an elected shop steward of the New York Metro Local of the American Postal Workers Union, which led to his being fired. He also led co-workers in a militant confrontation with a racist Klan-type organization that was terrorizing people of color in Jersey City.
In the 1980s Dave was a vice president of Transportation Workers Union Local 600 while employed by the New York-New Jersey Port Authority.
He was president of Veterans for Peace when 9/11 happened and worked tirelessly against the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan that followed. He always pushed hard for diversity in the organization, especially encouraging African-American membership and leadership. Cline met with veterans of the current wars and assisted and encouraged them in their formation of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
In 2003 he led a delegation of military veterans to the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, supporting the local struggle in actions that resulted in the U.S. Navy closing down its bombing range there.
In 2006 he traveled to Vietnam and took part in the historic International Agent Orange Conference. When a delegation of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims toured the U.S. earlier this year as part of a legal campaign for reparations, Cline gave his Purple Heart medal to one of the delegation’s members during a public meeting in New York City.
He was motivated by the struggle for peace and justice. He will be missed by all who worked with him, as evidenced by the overflow crowd that attended his funeral.
Michael Kramer is a member of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 021, in Jersey City.
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