veterans for peace – Thoughts Towards a Better World

A number of years ago a friend of a friend started a Red Cross project she’d heard about somewhere. The goal was to send Holiday greetings to service men and women who may not get any mail from anybody.
It was a worthwhile project, and when I learned about it, I volunteered.
Today, I finished writing personal messages to 40 unknown service people somewhere in the world. Within the next few days the organizer of the project will collect about 1,000 cards from numerous volunteers like me and forward them to the distribution center.
There are rules: no glitter, no specific religious messages, no inserts or full names and addresses…each of these make sense. So I hand-wrote a note to all 40, following the rules, and sent the cards off to my friend today. It will be my first and last contact. They won’t know me; I don’t know them.
The project reminds me each year of a similar project in the winter of 1991, near 23 years ago. There were different rules, then, and results.
In January of that year the U.S. went to war against Iraq. It was code-named Operation Desert Storm.
I happened to note in Newsweek magazine that civilians could write to military in the theater, and so I did. There were no rules about names, etc., so I included my address, including my own background as a one-time member of an infantry company.
Some time later, much to my surprise, I received a letter from a PFC in the theatre, an infantryman*. It was dated January 9 1991, posted January 14. He said he’d spent three years at the University of Minnesota, History major, then dropped out and enlisted in the Army for two years. It was bad timing for him: Good duty in Germany changed to going to Saudi Arabia and then Iraq. “So far we’re just bored here, but as you know the 15th [of January] is fast approaching. To be honest I’m scared of war. At this time I would rather be on the West Bank of the U[niversity of Minnesota].”
(click on photos to enlarge)

Because he gave his address, and circumstances, I decided to go down to the West Bank Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and take some photos for him, the day the invasion of Iraq began, early Feb. 1991. Here are two, by what was then called the New Riverside Cafe. Here is an additional group of photos taken the same day, same place, in February, 1991: February 1991001

Cedar-Riverside Minneapolis early Feb 1991

Sign at New Riverside Cafe early Feb 91

As wars go, Desert Storm was a short one. A military release the PFC sent me gave the beginning and ending dates as 16 January and 28 February, 1991.
On 8 March came the second letter from him, followed by four more with the last 6 April 1991.
The March 9 note, the third letter, is particularly descriptive: “…Now the war is over and we are just waiting to go home…I stand only 20 meters from a destroyed artillery piece. The U.S. totally destroyed the Iraqi army.”

Letter from Iraq Mar 9 1991

Note: this is March 9, 1991. The next Iraq War would not begin for another 12 years, in 2003, and that was over 10 years ago.
War seems not to be a recipe for Peace. War simply seems to beget the next war. We’re still at what seems to be perpetual war.
Today I went down to the building at which I took the 1991 photos (above). It is now called the Acadia cafe.
Today, upstairs in what used to be the Coffee House Extempore one finds the office of the Twin Cities chapter of Veterans for Peace.

Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, November 18 2013

Same place, different perspective. See VFP on upstairs windows.

“Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.”
* – Two years ago I decided to try to locate the PFC, and I did. We made contact one time and I sent him the originals of his 1991 letters. Given his address, he appeared to have done well in life. I expressed interest in meeting, but nothing happened. There has been no contact since.
Included with his letters, the PFC sent an Awards program after their part in Desert Storm. In very succinct terms it relates the twin realities of a GI’s life: lots of nothing to do, worrying about what’s ahead; then a short burst of terrifying combat.
In this units case, the term of the war was from 16 Jan – 28 Feb, 1991. On 26 Feb his unit “crossed the berm marking the Saudi Arabia and Iraq border”, then “drove north 60 miles” into Iraq. On 26-27 Feb 1991, the unit engaged in combat with Iraqi forces and “gained an additional 40 miles and were the first Infantry Battalion…to advance into Kuwait.”
UPDATE
from Kathy Garvey, Nov 20: Thank you for your cards, we really appreciate the 40 cards you wrote for the troops. Last year we were told one guy wrote to us saying this was the only card he could hold in his hand; all the others were emails. Many of the cards go to the hospitals and that’s why we were told no glitter for health reasons.

Today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune has a good quiz to test your knowledge of the U.S. The column, including link to the test, is here.

Heritage House, Woodbury MN Summer 2013

Today, July 4, is supposed to be a simple kind of day in the U.S. My daughter described it well: “grillin’ and chillin'”.
This particular July 4 is a tad more complicated, if one wants to pay attention to complexity. Edward Snowden is a man sort-of without a country in the Moscow airport; the President of Bolivia was detained somewhere since his plane was suspected of harboring Snowden; and then there is something going on in Egypt, whether bad or good depends on the interpretation. A good long summary of Egypt is here for anyone who wishes.
And then there is a matter of our own less than pristine history. A surprising post I saw yesterday about a monument to a major American mistake in one war came in yesterday. The writer is not a “usual suspect” for this kind of essay. You can read A Memorial to a Mistake here.
We don’t like to own mistakes….
There is tradition for us, today. Ordinarily the theme is some variation of War, down to the Fireworks tonight “the Bombs Bursting in Air….”.
A pretty typical musical version would be this song sent to me by a friend not long ago. It is very patriotic. Good tune. But I left this comment “Such an angry self-righteous song. I’m an honorably discharged Army vet from a family full of military vets. My uncle went down on the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Saddam Hussein and bin Laden were our useful “friends” years before 9-11-01…how soon we forget. I’m lifelong U.S. and I love this country; but we are part of the world, not above it or in dominion over it.”
I’ll see if my comment is “approved”. I posted it July 2, 2013 at 8:30 p.m. CDT.
I’m a patriotic guy, but my patriotism is canted somewhat differently than the singers and fans of that song.
Just for consideration, I’d like to propose looking at some alternatives to a war-based celebration of our Independence.
All you need to do is to take a look, and make up your own mind:
1. I’m proud to be a Founding Member of the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation.
The Founder of this foundation, Dr. Michael Knox, is a friend of mine, and he noticed some years ago on a visit to Washington D.C. that there were no end to memorials to War, but reminders about Peace were in short supply.
Michael and I do not agree in all particulars about his project, but we are totally on the same page about celebrating Peace at least similar to our obsession with War.
Take a look, and consider becoming a member of the Foundation, and letting others know about this fledgling and important group.
2. A photographer and journalist I know, John Noltner, is continuing a nationwide project for which he has already achieved significant success.

I asked John for something I might add to this post. Here are John’s words about his project:
“What does peace mean to you?
It’s a question I have been asking people for the past four years for a
collection of portraits and personal stories called A Peace of My Mind.
The goal is to find the humanity in every person…even our adversaries.
Perhaps through hearing the stories of some who are like us, and others
who are quite different, we will be able to see past the rhetoric that
confounds our national dialogue and develop a more compassionate way of
engaging with the world…in our own families, our neighborhoods, and the
international community.
To hear some of the stories of people working toward peace, follow this link.”
Invest some time in learning about this project, and consider contributing to its success.
3. The Snowden affair reminds me of someone I’d never heard of till a couple of years ago, Garry Davis, who was a U.S. bomber flight crew in World War II. And after his brother was killed aboard a Destroyer off Italy, his bomber group bombed one of Germany’s large cities.
Davis could not get out of his mind the sense that one senseless killing – his brothers death in War – simply begat another – his bombing Germans.
He knew there were innocent victims down there below him, people like himself, and like others he knew. After the War he decided to renounce his U.S. citizenship and became a Citizen of a World, with tragi-comic results. He became a citizen of everywhere, but was accepted as a citizen nowhere.
He had idealistic intentions. His only crime was wishing to renounce war between nations as a solution to problems, and for a time he had a huge following of people equally sick of war, having just experienced World War II.
People working together to solve problems became Davis’ mantra.
His is a fascinating story. He is still living, but at 92 frail. Indeed, a movie of his life is in preparation – I’ve seen a long preview of it. You can watch the trailer here.
Watch the trailer – it’s 7 minutes – and consider contributing to the completion of this very important film of witness to peace. Here’s the link to do so.
4. Peacestock. Finally, for interested persons in the Twin Cities area who are interested in the policy topic of Peace, consider Peacestock on July 13, in rural Wisconsin not far from Red Wing MN. Here’s the link for that program. I’m a long-time member of Veterans for Peace.

Posts

#803 – Dick Bernard: Letters remembering a War.

#744 – Dick Bernard: Some Proposals for this Fourth of July