I did. They've been part of our local parades and ceremonies honoring veterans and celebrating our country for years. They carry their banners and flags and march in cadence with all of the other service men and women dressed in uniform. The VFP soldiers wear clothes that mix their message with the uniforms they wore while in the service.
Years ago I remember a little scuttle about objection to VFP being part of the local ceremonies, but over the past decade as I have been more involved in parades and ceremonies and they are there, alongside all of the other vets.
Across the country VFP groups have been involved in everything from the "Occupy"movements to reaching across the oceans working on projects like the "The Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign" to compensate Vietnamese affected by Agent Orange.
An article last May in Stars and Stripes describes a tour that brought veterans to Vietnam. Suel Jones, a Marine living in that country explains why VFP has a chapter in Vietnam:
“We decided that starting a chapter of Veterans for Peace here was a good opportunity for two things,” said Suel Jones, a Marine veteran who lives in Danang and conceived the tour. “One is to use Veterans for Peace to educate people in the USA about the legacy of war. When we leave, a war’s not over; it’s just started for some people.
“Secondly, it’s doing something humanitarian … giving people the opportunity to give something back.”
Here in the US most of us aren't aware of the legacy we left behind:
The U.S. sprayed about 77 million liters of Agent Orange over Vietnam during the war, according to Steven D. Stellman, an epidemiologist and Agent Orange expert at Columbia University in New York City. Almost 5 million Vietnamese were exposed to it.
The Vietnamese government pays monthly subsidies amounting to $50 million a year to victims who are ill or born with birth defects as a result of the herbicide, according to the association for victims. The group says dioxin has continued to cause birth defects in children a third generation removed from the actual spraying. -Stars and Stripes April 2012
The hidden wounds that span all wars
Here on Cape Cod, our local chapter has been working on a mission to help soldiers who suffer the silent, hidden wounds of war. They recognize that while those who die in service deserve the highest honors, there are others who die from the hidden wounds of war who can easily be forgotten. In 2011 our local chapter changed it's name to honor Cpl. Jeffrey M. Lucey of Belchertown MA, a Marine who committed suicide in 2004 after service in Iraq.
A member of our local VFP chapter wrote an editorial in the Cape Cod Times Saturday describing work they are doing here with local veterans who suffer from the hidden wounds of war. Here he describes the conditions that can cripple vets:
It is said that it's "easy to be wounded into silence."
Especially acute are those cases that fall under the umbrella of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and which require psychological therapy and tender care. As we honor our veterans this Veterans Day, we should take special note of those, from all wars, that are "spiritually wounded" and who still require "a new birth of freedom" to become whole again.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 200,000 veterans have been treated for PTSD just since the beginning of the Iraq-Afghanistan wars. And there are non-combat-related cases (such as Vietnam Agent Orange exposure and cases of rape, hazing and harassment) that carry different triggers, yet are no less harmful. Add to this the physically wounded who bear their own complex recovery and who may also harbor psychic horrors.
Our recent veterans carrying these "hidden wounds" have experienced not only different battle conditions compounding their ordeal (multiple deployments, IEDs, masquerading attackers), but also face families who must cope with unknown behavioral causes and effects of their soldier, cases which, more and more, are ending in suicide.
In World War I the entire syndrome was called shell shock; it was combat fatigue in World War II, and today it's called combat stress reaction. All these phrases obscure the face behind "the stare." PTSD is recognized as a major category of "wound," and its cure depends not only on medical specialists, but also on family and friendly understanding of how the veteran can be helped.
In the years to come more and more survivors of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be suffering both the obvious and hidden wounds of war.
Even here, on sunny Cape Cod, we have a large homeless population and too many in that population are veterans. It is shameful. We have been pouring money into these wars for years while cutting funding to care for the veterans who have served.
Four years ago our President began programs designed to address problems with veterans' services and develop programs designed to care for our veterans and their families. The government must continue to do their part, but the responsibility belongs to all of us. Whenever the chance is given to us, we must help in whatever way we can, donating money, time, food, clothes or just supporting our veterans through local programs.
Whether we are Democrats, Republicans, rich or poor, it is important to remember how lucky we are to have the freedom to say what is on our minds, argue our politics and write about issues. We owe that freedom to our fellow Americans who chose to serve to protect and defend those rights.
Donate to Veterans for Peace: http://www.veteransforpeace.org/...
Find a local chapter to help/donate locally: http://www.veteransforpeace.org/...
Donate to the Agent Orange V. N project: http://www.vn-agentorange.org/...
Huh? Say what now? Washington, as in Washington State?
One more thing, while I was looking for the editorial mentioned above, online, I found a story about a Veterans For Peace chapter in Washington that piqued my interest.
Didn't WA just pass an initiative to legalize marijuana 55-45%?
That seems to indicate a strong liberal population, and one would assume more tolerant, right?
According to the Seattle Times, the city of Auburn, Washington had banned Veterans for Peace from marching in their veterans day parade:
The city’s attorney, Daniel Heid, had argued that the city was thanking veterans for their contributions and for “defending freedoms around the world,” and that the VFP’s anti-war message, peace flags and reminders of the human and financial tolls of conflict were antithetical to that message.
U.S. District Chief Judge Marsha Pechman issued a temporary restraining order preventing the city from barring VFP from marching in the parade:
Pechman, who ruled from the bench after arguments, said it appeared “some vague group” within the city had decided that the VFP’s anti-war message was “offensive.” But protecting unpopular speech “is what the First Amendment is all about,” Pechman said.
Thank Goodness.
I mean, that's what all of their suffering and sacrifice is about, right?
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