[Peace-presence] March and People's Parade, 3/17

[Bob Tregilus]

Dear Peacemakers -

I was asked to post the following memo to the list.
Although, it is not an event notice, I felt it worthy
of posting as a sort of preamble to this Saturday's
antiwar event in Reno:

March and People's Parade, Saturday, March 17, 2007,
1pm, Reno -- 40th anniversary of the historic 1967
march on the Pentagon -- 4th anniversary of the start
of the Iraq war. (Details below.)

Bob Tregilus

---

March 14, 2007

Dear Friends,

Someone please correct me if my memory is wrong, but
as I recall, it was four years ago this month that a
small group of anti-Iraq-war demonstrators gathered on
the steps of the Federal Building in downtown Reno.
This group believed that the invasion of Iraq wasn’t
justified by any of the information made public to
that date, and that more time ought to be allowed for
the WMD inspection process to complete its job.

What one would have to call a hostile mob of
counter-demonstrators soon appeared and surrounded the
anti-war group. The confrontation got heated as the
opposing counter-demonstrators, without a permit,
shoved into the anti-war group and up onto the Federal
Building’s steps. Across the street, the Reno police
stood by and watched, but made no move. The anti-war
people were called “traitors”, “cowards”, and
sometimes worse names.

This kind of thing is hardest on the younger people
who publicly take an unpopular stand. One young man
for example, thin, smart, obviously sensitive, was
visibly traumatized by the mob’s attacks. Perhaps this
was the first time he had been exposed to such unfair
and hostile behavior on the part of his fellow
citizens.

Now, four years later, reflect on the change in
attitude of the majority Americans, and the dismal
reputation of the Bush Administration. Reflect, as no
doubt you have done many times, on the hundreds of
thousands of dead or wounded, both Iraqis and
Americans. Reflect on the enormous monetary cost of
the war. Reflect on the real possibility of a civil
war in Iraq. 

Were you wrong to take the courageous stand you did
four years ago? I think not.

I propose to the young man from four years ago, and to
all others who have suffered vile accusations and
trauma for your anti-war positions, that these scars
are, truly, badges of honor. You literally took pains
on behalf of your country. To publicly question the
actions of the government isn’t just a right
guaranteed to Americans by the Constitution, it is
also a patriotic duty! Furthermore, it’s clearly one
of the best ways to “support our troops”, because we
shouldn’t stand by while politicians put our people in
harm’s way in a war that seems so clearly
ill-justified. To remain silent would be to help open
the door to dictatorship.

I think it likely that now, four years later, some of
the counter-demonstrators have had time to realize
that their government led them astray. Most were not
truly bad people. Perhaps some would even find it in
their hearts to apologize. 

Friends, wear your badges of honor proudly, and keep
your patriotic vigilance alive. At this time, in 2007,
there are some encouraging signs that the American
people are waking up, and that the Congress may be
discovering its backbone. But new challenges, along
with new occasions when uninformed and misled people
will call you names, are coming. Take your stand
proudly, but have special concern for the young, who
will again suffer on behalf of their country.

To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Henry V:

“This story shall you teach your children,
And in it we shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of sisters and
brothers!”

My very high regards to all,
Fred Rogers

---

### Event Notice Follows ###

~ March and People's Parade ~

Saturday, March 17, 2007, 1pm Reno, NV

~ 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 march on the
Pentagon ~

~ 4th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war ~

Pentagon March 17

Download flier here:
http://tinyurl.com/26zo42

On March 17, 2007, the 4th anniversary of the start of
the criminal invasion of Iraq, tens of thousands of
people from around the country will descend on the
Pentagon in a mass demonstration to demand: U.S. Out
of Iraq Now! At the same time, people in cities across
the country will take part in similar mobilizations,
including a mobilization in Reno, NV. 2007 is the 40th
anniversary of the historic 1967 anti-war march to the
Pentagon during the Vietnam War.

The message of the 1967 march was "From Protest to
Resistance," and marked a turning point in the
development of a countrywide mass movement. 

In the coming days and weeks, thousands of
organizations and individuals will begin mobilizing
for the upcoming March on the Pentagon and national
days of action.

The March 17 demonstration in Reno, NV will assemble
at Pickett Park (Mill & Kirman) at 1 pm and will
proceed in a peoples parade and march to the Federal
Building.

Endorse the Peoples Parade and March. Individuals and
organizations are encouraged to endorse. 

Organize your community and mobilize to bring out the
biggest possible outpouring of dissent. Pick up fliers
to distribute. Organize a contingent, or make a float
(out of anything but a car), for the Peoples Parade &
March! 
Donate to help make the Peoples Parade and March a
powerful success.

Sign up for email updates. Send an email to renoanswer
'AT' hotmail.com or call 775-636-4003 for more
information on how to get involved!

Check http://www.renoanswer.org for updates in the
coming weeks. 

Initial endorsers of the March on the Pentagon
include:
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Alice Walker, Pulitzer prize winning author
Cynthia McKinney, Congresswoman
Cindy Sheehan, co-founder Gold Star Families for
Peace, author
Ron Kovic, Vietnam Veteran, author, Born on the 4th of
July
Malik Rahim, Founder, Common Ground Collective, New
Orleans
Paul Haggis, Director of Crash, 2005 Academy Award for
Best Picture
Elias Rashmawi, National Coordinator, National Council
of Arab Americans (NCA)
Howard Zinn, Author, A People's History of the United
States
Rev. Luis Barrios, Iglesia de San Romero - UCC
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers
Guild
Chaplain James Yee, former Army chaplain, Guantánamo
Detention Center
Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American
Society Freedom Foundation
Roy Bourgeois, Founder, School of the Americas Watch
Eric LeCompte, National Office, School of the Americas
Watch
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-founder, Partnership for
Civil Justice
Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Mounzer Sleiman, TV commentator and Vice Chair,
National Council of Arab Americans
Ben Dupuy, Co-Director, Haiti Progres
Juan Jose Gutierrez, Executive Director, Latino
Movement USA
Calvin Gipson, Former President, San Francisco LGBT
Pride Committee
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Pastor, Plymouth
Congregational Church, Washington D.C
Kay Lucas, Director, Crawford Peace House, Crawford,
TX
Chuck Kaufman, Co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network
Al Garcia, Alliance for a Just & Lasting Peace in the
Philippines
Macrina Cardenas, Mexico Solidarity Network
Eugene Puryear, Howard University, student leader
Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee to
Free the Cuban Five
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
KAWAN: Korean Americans Against War and Neoliberalism
Ed Asner, Actor
Shirley Knight, Actor
Jennifer Harbury, Human Rights Lawyer, author 
United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)
Jim Lafferty, Director, National Lawyers Guild - Los
Angeles
Iglesia de San Romero - United Church of Christ
Mimi Kennedy, Actor (Dharma & Greg)

Statement from the ANSWER Coalition on the March 17-18
Global Days of Action

The people of the United States want an end to the war
in Iraq. The elections in November were a clear
repudiation of the Bush administration' s war of
aggression. The new Congress, however, has no
intention of ending the war. Bush and the Pentagon
generals are determined to prolong the war. Tens of
thousands of more troops will be sent to Iraq. We are
building a massive antiwar movement on the national
and local level. Only the action of the people will
stop the war.

We are returning to the Pentagon because the Iraq war
has resulted in more than 655,000 Iraqi deaths
(Lancet), on top of more than 1 million killed by
sanctions between 1990-2003. This is genocide. 

We are returning to the Pentagon because U.S. military
deaths will soon exceed 3,000. But that doesn't begin
to tell the story. There have been 21,921 wounded as
of Nov. 30 and another 17,835 evacuated due to serious
injury or illness as of Sept. 30, 2005 when the
Pentagon stopped releasing these statistics. 

We are returning to the Pentagon because it is U.S.
missiles and bombs, including hundreds of thousands of
cluster bombs that have been sent to Israel to kill
and maim the people of Palestine and Lebanon. These
weapons are a war crime. The estimate is that between
2 million and 3 million cluster bomblets were dropped
on Lebanon, and more than a million remain unexploded
-- posing a danger to civilians for years to come. The
war in Iraq is one front in the U.S. plan for
domination of the Middle East. Colonial occupation is
a crime whether it be in Iraq or Palestine or Lebanon.

The Global Military Machine 

We are returning to the Pentagon because it maintains
714 military bases in 130 countries to extend the
influence of US transnational corporations, oil giants
and banks. The slogan of national security and the war
on terror stands exposed as a pretext for a global
empire enforced by military might and limitless
violence. 

While the focus of the recent years has been to use
military power and violence against the Arab people,
the Pentagon has been targeting peoples and nations
all over the world. U.S. troops occupy South Korea.
U.S. nuclear weapons target North Korea.
Interventionist actions are already taking place in
the Philippines, and are planned against Cuba,
Venezuela, and throughout South and Central Asia. 
The Warfare State: Spying, Surveillance, Secret
Prisons and Torture Facilities 

We are returning to the Pentagon to demand the
immediate closure of Guantánamo and all other torture
facilities. The grotesque revelations of torture and
abuse in Abu Ghraib were the tip of the iceberg.
Punishing a few rank and file soldiers and counting on
the mass media to tire of the story, the Pentagon has
tried to conceal the reality that it engages in
arbitrary detention and torture of those it identifies
as “enemies.” 

We are returning to the Pentagon to demand an end to
the surveillance and other spy programs conducted
against the people of this country by the Pentagon and
other agencies. 
Militarism: The Social Costs of the Warfare State 

We are returning to the Pentagon because the military
budget of this country is a dagger in the heart of
programs that meet peoples' needs. More than 47
million people in the U.S. are without health care
coverage and one out of every four children is born
into extreme poverty. Fifty percent of all
bankruptcies in the last year were filed by people who
couldn't pay their hospital and doctor's bills.
Factories are closing and whole communities and
neighborhoods are being turned into ghost towns.
Skyrocketing tuition is and will continue to make the
dream of a college education harder to realize for
working class youth. In the last year, Bush and
Congress cut money for education, food aid and
veterans' benefits while the Senate voted almost
unanimously to rubber stamp the new “war” budget of
$590 billion (the official budget number of $443
billion conceals at least $150 billion in
expenditures. ) 

We are returning to the Pentagon to challenge the
system that is addicted to war and global domination.
The Iraq war is a criminal endeavor based on lies. It
was always about conquering the entire Middle East
with its vast repositories of oil. While the Iraq war
has been an absolute catastrophe for the entire people
of Iraq and for tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers, it
must be remembered that many U.S. corporations are
benefiting. They are the recipients of new Pentagon
orders for weapons, supplies and contracts. The Iraq
war costs approximately $279 million each day. That
breaks down to more than $11 million every hour of
every day of the year. The total cost of the Iraq war
will be $2 trillion, according to the Iraq Study Group
report. 

Unless the people act now, the human and economic
costs of the war will only increase. For more
information go to http://www.answercoalition.org/.

Let's unite and stand together at the Pentagon on
March 17.


 
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