Person {Persons} of the Week: Playing for Change

Founder Travels the World to Promote Peace Through Music
Mark Johnson's Foundation, Playing for Change, Funds Music Schools Across the Globe.

Filmmaker Mark Johnson had a simple idea -- that the world can be connected through music.

Johnson's dream began a decade ago in a New York City subway. He heard two monks playing music -- one had a nylon guitar and the other was singing. They were wearing robes and painted white from head to toe. About 200 people had stopped to watch them, ignoring the train as it came and went. Johnson realized he was standing in the midst of a group that normally wouldn't converge -- they were brought together by the music.

Along the way, Johnson founded Playing for Change, a foundation that seeks to unite musicians and bring people together while promoting peace. It funds music schools around the world -- the first just opened in South Africa........Rest Here

Stand By Me


Visit Playing for Change for a number of video's of this group, and the songs, of talented musicians from around the World.

Brian Jones reads David Cline with "Touch A Name On The Wall"

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.

Saturday Jan. 12th Radio Tribute to Dave Cline

RADIO ON SATURDAY

Tune in to the radio tribute to David Cline on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York on Saturday, January 12, Noon - 3 PM EST {WBAI is streamed live over the Internet in multiple formats:
MP3: 24K or 64K or .ram
OGG: 24K or 64K

See WBAI Stream


Expected guests: Paul Zulkowitz, Michael McPhearson, Thomas Brinson, Ken Dalton, Jerry Hassett, Steve Hayes, Stephan Smith, Bryan-David Kee, Marcy J. Gordon, Sue Schnall, Jesse Myerson, Jose Vasquez, Joe Cross, Cindy Sheehan, Eric Laursen, Clark Kissinger, Lori Purdue, Medea Benjamin, David Swanson

IN PERSON ON SUNDAY

A Tribue to Dave Cline
(January 8, 1947 - September 15, 2007)
Antiwar Activist, Labor Organizer, Humanitarian, Vietnam Veteran Against the War, Veteran For Peace

Medal "For Peace and Friendship between Nations" awarded to David Cline by Vietnam Union of Friendship Association

SUNDAY, January 13, 2 - 6 PM

Featuring: STEPHAN SAID aka SMITH, RANDY CREDICO, BRYAN & MARCY, PAT SCANLON, BRIAN JONES as 'Dave Cline', and The Bush Chain Gang; MCs John McDonagh of WBAI & Michael McPhearson of Veterans For Peace; Lori Purdue, Joel Landy, Ron King, Steve Bloom, Jackie Sheeler, Sue Schnall, Sgt. Geoff Millard, Joe Cross, Yonathan Shapira, Video by Andrew Courtney

FREE Refreshments/Cash Bar & Menu Service/Auction & Raffle

CONNOLLY'S
121 West 45 Street, New York NY 10036
(Between Broadway & Sixth Avenue)
SUBWAY: #1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R, Shuttle to Times Square Station
PARKING GARAGE: Manhattan Parking, 137 West 45 Street, 212-944-5118

DONATION SUGGESTED
Donations to Veterans For Peace will go toward antiwar events in David Cline's honor.

RSVP & INFO: zool at zoolTheArtandPolitics@hotmail.com or 646-549-1615

David Cline was a highly decorated, disabled Vietnam War combat veteran. A leading member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Dave is prominently featured in 'Sir, No Sir!' an award-winning documentary about GI resistance. As President of Veterans For Peace, David oversaw tremendous growth in membership and helped found Iraq Veterans Against the War. A true humanitarian, David Cline was a co-founder of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign.

Veterans For Peace, founded in 1985, is a 501(c)3 national membership organization and an official NGO represented at the United Nations.

AUCTION ITEMS STILL NEEDED!

Dave Cline plays "Touch a Name on The Wall" by Joel Mabus

Dave Cline

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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VFP Executive Director, Michael T. McPhearson - On David Cline RIP

David Cline We Salute You

A leader, mentor, and friend passes away, 1947 - 2007

David Cline passed away early September 15, 2007. Most of you know that David was a giant in the Veteran’s anti-war and Peace movements. A national coordinator and long time member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War as well as former President of Veterans For Peace, David was a crucial part of the explosion in VFP’s growth and led us in our planning and actions as we have resisted the invasion and occupation of Iraq. David was a giant among people who motivated all of us to action by modeling leadership and providing inspiration.

David was my boss, mentor, friend and I loved him. He recruited me into VFP by simply being the person he was, a veteran working for peace. There are few people outside of my family whose death means such a loss to me personally. There are few in our nation whose loss means so much to our movement.

A quote David loved so much guided his thoughts and actions. He carried it in his wallet so that he could whip it out to motivate us at any time. Of course he also had it memorized.

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Frederick Douglass

David Cline we Salute You.

Letter from Executive Director, Michael T. McPhearson

See Online Memorial

A few other Tributes, one is mine:

Anti-war Vet Dave Cline Is Dead

A Tribute To A True American Veteran, Passionate Peace Advocate, and Friend

of Dave Cline and his brothers
And this added to celticshel's KOS diary above:

RIP

Dave Cline

d. Friday September 14, 2007

Vietnam 1967, 25th Infantry

wounded three times and permanently disabled

Bronze Star with V Device; Purple Heart with two oak leaf clusters; Combat Infantryman Badge; New York State Conspicuous Service Cross; and other medals. Veterans for Peace; Vietnam Veterans Against the War; Jersey City Vietnam Veterans Memorial Committee; Military Order of the Purple Heart; 25th Infantry Division Association; Veterans of Foreign Wars; featured in the documentary “Sir! No Sir!”



He fought alongside you, then

He fought to honor you.

He fought that others like you not suffer your fate.

He has joined you in death but his memory, like yours, lives on.

We will continue his work.

We will fight in your names, and now in his.

You have fallen, but you are not forgotten.

Your sacrifice was not in vain.

We remember.

We always will.

-a friend, in peace

September 15th Jailbirds (and Dave Cline)

From Fellow Veteran and VFP Member, Stan Goff, posted over at Huffington Post

Dave Cline...

In memory of Dave, I am linking the four-part series Spearpoint that described the Veterans and Survivors March for Peace and Justice, from Mobile, AL to New Orleans, conducted in March 2006. Dave was the person who put that idea in our heads.

Spearpoint PART 1

Spearpoint PART 2

Spearpoint PART 3

Spearpoint PART 4

And a mention by David Swanson, of After Dowing Street, in this article:
Is Peace or Impeachment Possible?

It's great to see such a crowd and so many groups represented. I especially want to thank Veterans for Peace. Dave Cline was a great leader and will be badly missed. We should all go out and do as much as he did with his admirable life.

A Tribute To A True American Veteran, Passionate Peace Advocate, and Friend

Going through this Touching Tribute Diary Anti-war Vet Dave Cline Is Dead
by lao hong han, that was posted last night, 9-15-07, and thankfully still sits in the recommend list, you will find some great reply's, from those who knew Dave and those who didn't, along with some links I have borrowed and placed here.

Adding to them a few pics, links to what Dave was passionately a part of, since his service in 'Nam, with hopefully giving all an idea of what this Man was all about.

This VetPax · Veterans Peace Coalition is the Yahoo Group Board of

The sponsoring organizations are the three metro area chapters of Veterans For Peace (New York City, Tappan Zee, and Northern New Jersey), the Clarence Fitch Chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Actvities have been endorsed by Black Veterans for Social Justice, Veterans for Common Sense, Citizen Soldier, New York City Labor Against War, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and Gold Star Families For Peace.

That Dave was a member of. t's a moderated board so not sure if just anyone can read the posts, but there are a number of them there written by those who knew him best.

Much will be written, in the coming weeks, about Dave. Why, because in his quite way, except when leading cadence calls at Peace Rallies, or giving passionant speaches, Dave's dedication touched many in and out of the Veteran Communities Ranks. His name and memory, in history of true Patriots and Veterans, will be added to those who have passed on before him, for not only his dedication to this country but also his hard work and advocacy of the people of the country he and us invaded and served in, Vietnam, recognizing, as many of us did, how unjustified that conflict was. He gave back much to those we almost destroyed, and especially those who are still suffering from our sins, of the past, in this our present.


For those who may not recognize the name, you might recognize the face. Here is the URL for google photo's of the Dave Clines, a few below will help you seperate our Dave from the others.


David Cline has left us, but not our memories



As a patient dedicated peace advocate



And his early veteran activism in VVAW calling for peace and an end to that conflict built and sold on lies




Just one of the many VVAW actions taken back then, when they liberated 'Lady Liberty'



And hung the U.S. Flag in the 'Distress' position from her crown, a message of the way many felt of the wrongs we had done, at that time, and the legacy of those wrongs live on, never resolved nor understood.
Dec 26th 1970



I posted about the VVAW Anniversary-Dec 26th 1971-Statue of Liberty, Liberation on my site and a few others last year.


David was also the long time President of Veterans For Peace right up till recently which told me, as I haven't seen him in awhile, that the health problems he suffered from, many from his service in Vietnam, were catching up to him.


David was the

VFP STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

We, having dutifully served our nation, do hereby affirm our greater responsibility to serve the cause of world peace. To this end we will work, with others

(a) Toward increasing public awareness of the costs of war.
(b) To restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations
(c) To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons
(d) To seek justice for veterans and victims of war
(e) To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.

To achieve these goals, members of Veterans For Peace pledge to use non-violent means and to maintain an organization that is both democratic and open with the understanding that all members are trusted to act in the best interests of the group for the larger purpose of world peace.

We urge all people who share this vision to join us.

He lived it and tried, as the rest of us do, to stand strong to those words!



Dave also gave back much to the people we once fought, especially the kids who even today are still being born, and living with, that which we condemned them to, the effects of defoliante contamiation, Agent Orange, and a few other colors of Weapons Of Mass Destruction!

American veterans delegation (l-r) David Cline, Ralph Steele, Joan Duffy, Frank Corcoran, Dan Shea behind Mrs. Vietnam 2005, Doan Thi Kim Hong, performing songs for Agent Orange affected children at hospice near Cu Chi.


You can find out more about what he, and Veterans For Peace, are involved in at this post
Second Vietnam Agent Orange Justice Tour

Or this post
Justice for Victims of Agent Orange

This one also
Justice for Victims of Agent Orange 2

And as one of the founders of
Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign


You can read about and watch Dave with the following links
Interview with Vietnam War Veteran David Cline: The Iraqis have a right to self-determination

David Cline speaks in Washington (1/27/07)


Not Dave but how we feel about him

Rita Martinson - Soldier We Love You - Sir No Sir - Trailer


And if you haven't seen 'Sir! No Sir!' Dave is one of the Vets interviewed in that important documentary.

Peace Has No Borders ~ David Cline


There isn't anything written at The VVAW Site as yet, but I'm sure there will be in the next couple of days as well as in their next publication of The Veteran, of which will be posted online.

Also there is nothing up at The Veterans For Peace Site, that to will change in the next couple of days.

Both those sites will be carrying Tributes by those who knew Dave very well, I'm sure!


You can find a very touching tribute at fellow Veteran Stan Goffs site
Dave Cline…

Dave was former President of Veterans For Peace, founding leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and a founder of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign.

He was prominently featured in the film Sir, No Sir!, a film about GI resistance during the Vietnam occupation, reviewed recently by DeAnander on this site.

And a tribute to All Veterans from Tom Chelston, a recent Veteran, of Toms Songs

"VFP" Veterans For Peace



And This From Tom, a song that says it all!

I Miss You




If You Knew,or Met Dave, You'll Understand The Tributes To Come! If You Didn't You'll Find You Wish You Had!