Update from Veterans for Peace Meeting, February 17th
I attended a Veterans for Peace meeting last Thursday, February 17th in Sunnyside, Queens. They hosted a screening of a talk by Paul Chappell entitled "Will War Ever End?: A Soldier's Vision of Peace for the 21st Century". Paul is a West Point gradute, Iraq War veteran, and author of The End of War and Will War Ever End? He is also the member of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and could be a valuable speaker for us to ally with.
After the meeting, we discussed a number of issues. Members raised the issue of tying the war to the economy, so I was able to speak about efforts to do this in our chapter. VFP wanted to organize phone calls to Congess and the White House to protest the war budget. I tried to tie this direct targeting of those making decisions to our success in Operation Recovery with the Jeff Hanks case, which they were receptive to. VFP members also talked about organizing with workers at VA Hospitals, whose wages have been frozen by the government. Finally, members wanted to work to build awareness around what they called "the things we leave behind", things like depleted uranium and landmines. They are planning a discussion about depleted uranium with an doctor who specializes in the matter in the next few months. I made some connections with VFP members and will continue to work with them to incorporate them into upcoming events.