By Gene Marx


Panel 2 West,

It’s been awhile, my old friend.  Nearly five years now since I last stood like a phantom in the shadows of Constitution Gardens, my reflection on glossy black granite welcoming me back.  You knew I’d be back then and are probably expecting me this month when peace veterans converge on Washington, DC.   
 

It’s now been over forty years since I was eligible for my own etching on your façade, and since the week of the dedication of The Wall I’ve visited only you, panel 2 West, always looking forward to our private, late night musings with my best friend Captain Richard Halpin, memorialized on line 122.  Our shared ruminations have always run the gamut from guilty rationalizations to fond reminiscences, and each provided much-needed solace.
 
You’ve no doubt noticed that I’ve never shed a tear.  Like many Vietnam veterans, I have long felt that the misguided, sometimes fake reverence I’ve observed from visitors, in the glare of daylight and ceremony, is unbefitting your arguably sacred ground status.  Don’t expect to see me on Memorial Day.  Like most of our war memorials, you have become an appeasement to unbloodied patriots or, worse yet, a recruitment tool for endless wars.  So why would I cry?  Anger is a better fit.        
 
Respectfully, my stoic friend, no country that flaunts its militarism at home and abroad is worth dying for.  Dick and I never admitted that.  We were used.  We should have known better, but we were used and never served any causes but family legacy and youthful, immortal egos.  And sadly, if every town common in the United States had similar polished gabbro walls embossed instead with the countless civilian casualties of US interventionist wars, instead of used service men and women, our imperial wars for profit would still be waged, for generations.          
 
So I’ll see you soon, near the apex, in the dark.  I’ll come alone.
 
Gene Marx


The author of this post is Gene Marx from Bellingham, Washington. Gene is a Vietnam veteran and former Naval Flight Officer with VAQ-135 aboard the USS Coral Sea in 1971-72. Past Secretary of the VFP National Board of Directors, Gene is currently a member of VFP-111.

Letters to The Wall is a project of VFP's Vietnam Full Disclosure campaign.

By Bill Distler


Willie, I think about you and have thought about you every day since the mine went off that killed you.  I think about your family and I hope they have peace.

Even though we were arguing on the day you died, I think your family should know that you were so loved by everyone in our unit, that men were crying when the word came back to us that you had died in the field hospital.

My purpose in writing this is not to stir up painful memories for your family, but to hope that these words will comfort them.  I also hope that Bo, who was standing behind you when the mine went off, is doing okay.  I think about him, too.

Willie and Bo, two brave and honorable men. I hope you are in peace.

Willie, every day for 44 years, as if you were an angel, I saw your face behind my left shoulder, watching over me in a helpful way.  It seemed like you were always asking me: What are you going to do to make this right?

Willie, because of your presence in my life, I ask for God's help every day , to try to understand and to try to live a worthwhile life and to do the right thing.

Thank you, my friend.  I hope you are satisfied with what I've tried to do.
Peace to you and your family.


The author of this post is Bill Distler from Bellingham, Washington. Bill is a Vietnam veteran and former squad leader in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam from December 1967 to September 1968. He is a member of the Jonathan J. Santos Memorial Chapter of Veterans For Peace VFP-111.

Letters to The Wall is a project of VFP's Vietnam Full Disclosure campaign.

By Bill Distler

When King Herod heard rumors that a newborn Messiah might someday take his place, he ordered the killing of all newborn male children.  An angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him to take the Holy Family and flee into Egypt, where they found sanctuary.  If the Holy Family arrived at the U.S. border today would they be treated as undocumented aliens?  Someone in Egypt must have taken pity on them. Thank God that Donald Trump was not in charge of Egyptian border security in those days.

How does the story of Jesus have meaning in our lives today?  How many holy families (and under God, they are all holy), fleeing violence in Central America or the Middle East, has Donald Trump sent back to be killed? 

How did this cruel, sadistic man become president?  Every day he discovers new ways to disgrace our country.

Donald Trump needs to be impeached because, with his Muslim bans, he has violated the most important direction to the president that is written into the Constitution, "...he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed".

If, as Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. said, we want to save the soul of America, we must, as faithful citizens, resist Donald Trump's usurpations.


The author of this post is Bill Distler from Bellingham, Washington. Bill is a Vietnam veteran and former squad leader in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam from December 1967 to September 1968. He is a member of the Jonathan J. Santos Memorial Chapter of Veterans For Peace VFP-111.

By Jay Wenk


















During a warm Spring day in
Czechoslovakia.
The Germans were done.
Safe now, birds returned,
trilling, fluttering around my head,
seeking sustenance for tomorrows.
 
I was homeward bound,
unaware that for my sake,
Eisenhower murdered Eddie Slovik,
unaware the French,
trying to regain a cushy colony,
were destroying a world,
unaware that Korean menus were being
printed by MacArthur and  Co.,
unaware that my youthful interest in
Finland, Ethiopia, China and Spain
made them mine.
Unaware that Truman prepaid Vietnam
to the tune of 4 billion,
secret music the French would waltz with.
As an introduction to that dance,
lies were floated on the high seas.
 
Heroes trekked to Canada, while
Harry’s co-conspirators tangoed over the jungles.
Reverberations of their tunes left
common folks withering
with their trees and food and homes,
birds again taking wing to hidden places.
 
Today, these ancient danse macabres continue in
the Golden Triangle, where peace-proclaiming
leaders’ lies lubricate
the Birthplace of Civilization, compressing it with
greed into civilizations’ tomb.
 
Me, naïve, all those juddering decades ago.
My war never ended, never will.

 By Gene Marx
 March 10, 2017


Fifty years ago next month Martin Luther King, Jr warned us in his first public anti-war speech Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence that any nation that continues year after year “to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Arguably that led to his assassination exactly one year later.


Since the height of the American War in Vietnam, conditions have worsened exponentially, with military spending escalating unchecked. Since 2001 each new bloated Pentagon appropriation has become the new normal.
 
Barely a week after his inauguration, President Trump’s executive order, as promised, obliterated the limits on Pentagon spending, setting in motion a military buildup to end all military buildups. As if on cue the House of Representatives voted this week to boost funding for more bullets and bombs, as well as some of the most deadly airborne killing machines in the US arsenal. Some weren’t even on the Pentagon’s wish list, 11 and 12 more F-35 and F/A-18 fighters, respectively. The new $578 billion stop-gap bill keeps the U.S. military operating through September and sets the stage for even more increases to the Pentagon black hole of expenditures, as if budget caps were merely inconvenient workarounds.
 
Predictably, the House of Representatives minority saw fit to ignore Dr King’s “fierce urgency of now” plea delivered from the pulpit of New York’s Riverside Church in April 1967, lining up instead with Congressional hawks and defense industry contractors. Come this fall there will be even more at stake. If the GOP majority has its way housing, transportation, environmental protection, biomedical research, education and health care would take huge hits to pay for a fiscal 2018 defense measure approaching $640 billion. We will need Capitol Hill representation that exceeds our expectations. Forestalling nay votes in opposition to the unfettered destructive agenda of the Pentagon would only benefit war profiteers and further derail the full potential of domestic achievements for another generation.
 
MLK Jr, never one to pull punches at the expense of peace and social justice, concluded his controversial, certainly prescient speech with this forethought:  “In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time."

Call your Congressional representatives and remind them once more that in 2017, as it was in 1967, time is still at a premium. Insist, moreover demand, that they oppose any increases at all to military spending.


The author of this piece is Veterans For Peace Lifetime Member, Past VFP Board Secretary and Naval Aviation Veteran Gene Marx. He is also an active member of the CPL Jonathan Santos Memorial Veterans For Peace Chapter 111 and has been living in Bellingham, Washington with his wife, Victoria, since 2004.

Friends of VFP-111 member George Jartos are invited to gather together to celebrate his life at The Wild Buffalo, 208 West Holly Street, on Saturday, March 4, 2017, from 2:00-4:30pm.

George was a beloved icon in Bellingham. He was known not only for his extraordinary artistic talent, but also for his sense of humor and his kindness.

George's sudden passing on October 20, 2016 left many of his friends saddened and bewildered.

The Chapter is hopeful that this celebration of George's life will bring peace and closure to his passing for all his friends.

By Gene Marx
January 20, 2017

                             On Inaugural Eve: Reflections from a Peace Vet
                           
Remember the media fury when President Obama sent more troops into Iraq and Afghanistan, and incinerated US citizens and a wedding party in Pakistan – or was it Yemen?  And the shock when the Obama Pentagon was bombing seven countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East?  And the outrage when he started deploying US troops and hardware to the Russian border his last month in office, remember?  Remember how the National Mall, from the Lincoln Memorial to the halls of Congress, was teeming with hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters?
 
Neither do I.
 
But on the cusp of the Trump Abyss to some, Trump Era to others, the Left, my Left - if it still exists - the Right, the disenfranchised, women, labor activists, even disgruntled voters willing to call out Putin for allegedly stealing the 2016 election, are just a few examples of the demographic broadcloth hoping to disrupt Presidential Inauguration events by lining boulevards and blocking streets from coast to coast.  Nearly 900,000 expected in DC alone.  Undoubtedly, media coverage of this Inaugural frenzy, along with the festivities and arrests, should rival Super Bowl 51.
 
Washington, DC protest organizer, actress America Ferrera, said, "Since the election, so many fear that their voices will go unheard.  As artists, women, and most importantly dedicated Americans, it is critical that we stand together in solidarity for the protection, dignity and rights of our communities." 
 
In addition, a A-list of partisan celebrities, including Scarlett Johansson, Amy Schumer, Robert de Niro, Alec Baldwin and Michael Moore will be joining in anti-Trump protests, possibly emboldened by Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe speech earlier this month.  Who can forget?

One phrase Streep turned after accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award hit a nerve.  “Violence incites violence.  When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose… We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage.”  My own knee-jerk reaction to this misguided celebrity bubble comment was “Where have you been, Meryl, on Terror Tuesdays?”  You know, the weekly Obama counterterrorism “lotto” when the “winner” in, let’s say Waziristan, with or without family present, was condemned to Death by Drone.  Didn’t you ever even wince a little when you heard that “your guy” carried a CIA kill list in his back pocket?
 
And while we’re at it, when was there ever outrage during Obama’s two terms of military interventionism?   His approval ratings are still soaring in spite of even more air attacks and drone strikes this week.  Why the tacit approval even now?  Tonight the anti-war movement, dismissed by apologists, neoliberals and fauxgressives for the last eight years while their Laureate was in the Oval Office, is clamoring to join a burgeoning, long-overdue resistance, in force.  What makes me think, at least hope, the streets will be teeming again in greater numbers when the Trump bombs fall?       
 
See you there.

Posted on by West Coast Action Alliance

The public is being hit by an avalanche over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years holidays. Two major federal actions toward militarizing the Pacific Northwest threaten to affect the lives of those who live not only on Washington’s quiet, lushly forested Olympic Peninsula, but also on Whidbey and the San Juan Islands, Canada’s Gulf Islands, and the southern Vancouver Island coast. Two separate public comment periods are now open; one is called an “objection period.”

Although the Forest Service had publicly said it would wait until February 2017 to issue their decision on granting a permit to the Navy for mobile emitters to conduct electronic warfare in Olympic National Forest, that decision is here now, piled on to the Navy’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Growler jet increases. This means that the public must try to focus on these two important issues during the most distracting time of year, when the focus is normally on family gatherings and holidays, and despite the fact that the Forest Service was specifically asked to stick to its original date, so this wouldn’t happen.

It’s worth noting that this tactic of coinciding with holidays and other distracting dates is no coincidence; for example, the Navy’s only public meeting on an Environmental Assessment they released over last year’s holiday season, that quietly quintupled the number of pier pilings they had previously told people could be installed in Port Angeles Harbor, occurred on the same date and in the exact two-hour time slot occupied by the first Presidential debate.

So, here are the two major things that we must all try to focus on before both comment periods end shortly after the holidays:

1.) The US Navy recently released its Growler Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)  detailing huge increases in jet noise, including a 600% increase in low-level training operations at Outlying Field Coupeville, exposure of nearly 3,500 more children to noise at health-damaging levels, and interruptions in some classrooms at rates of 45 times per hour. This sounds surreal, but it’s true, and the Navy made no actual noise measurements in communities, just computer modeling that averages jet noise with periods of quiet. Naval operations will cause huge increases in jet noise over communities throughout the region, and in wilderness areas of Olympic National Park, obliterating its famous quiet. Air pollution will dramatically increase, too, as will the risk of jet crashes. The only thing that is guaranteed to go down is property values.

If you want to know what it’s like for a soldier who is recovering from PTSD and trying to help others do the same on the western side of the Olympic Peninsula, but whose recovery is now threatened by all this jet noise, read this story.

The Citizens of the Ebey’s Reserve issued this press release, which graphically explains some of the public’s concerns. The National Parks Conservation Association just released this statement. The West Coast Action Alliance will also provide assistance in preparing your comments in time for the closing deadline of the Navy’s comment period, which ends January 25, 2017. Meanwhile, in early December you might want to attend what will be the only public meeting with the Navy on the Olympic Peninsula; it’s not really a meeting but an “open house” on the Growler Draft EIS, held from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on MONDAY, Dec. 5, at the Fort Worden State Park Conference Center/USO Hall at 200 Battery Way, Port Townsend.

Canadians are feeling the jet noise pain, too. The Navy refused to hold a meeting in Canada, despite requests; instead, they say Canadians must come to the US if their concerns are to be heard. The only other scheduled Navy public meetings are December 6 in Oak Harbor, WA, December 7 on Lopez Island, December 8 in Anacortes, and December 9 in Coupeville. Details are here. A post from the Citizens of the Ebey’s Reserve details all public involvement opportunities. Another page lists all the acronyms so you aren’t thrown off by not knowing them. Here is the Navy’s web site saying how you can comment. In another post we will provide help with Growler EIS comments.

For the rest of this post, we’ll focus on the second major federal action:

2.) The US Forest Service just announced its decision to grant a 5-year special use permit to the Navy to conduct electronic warfare using mobile emitters on national forest roads. The public has 45 days, starting November 29, to read up and comment. We will help you to do that. The Forest Service’s deadline is January 13, 2017. Forest Service District Ranger Dean Millett, whose title includes the term “Responsible Official,” has for two years voiced his unequivocal support for the Navy and his lack of support for public concerns. Some of his remarks that show this disregard, along with the Navy’s overt control over a Forest Service public process, were videotaped by citizens. Mr. Millett’s bias has been clearly established.

The Forest Service “ …based its draft decision on more than 3,000 public comments on the proposal, and on the Navy’s final environmental assessment, published in September 2014.” To get that many comments on an EA is unusual. Despite acknowledging the fact that the public’s comments, many of which described substantive legal and ethical issues, “have been overwhelmingly against the plan,” the Forest Service’s decision came down to this: Screw you, 3,400 commenters.

Read complete article on West Coast Action Alliance.