This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager
The VFP campaign was
officially launched last week and the campaign has over 100 veteran signatures
on the statement. If you haven't already, sign the statement, like the Facebook page, follow on Twitter and promote the statement and
campaign to other veterans.
Click image to
watch video of Veterans confronting Donald Trump at one of his rallies in Myrtle
Beach
Today a banner flew
over a Trump rally in South Carolina. A number of veterans were visible. A
second banner will be flown over the Republican caucuses in Reno Nevada on the
23rd. Donald Trump is scheduled to be
there.
VETERANS write an opinion piece or short statement as to why
you think this campaign is important.
Join Us on Mar 5-6, 2016 for the Summit on Saudi
Arabia
Date: Mar 5-6,
2016 Time: Saturday, 8:00am to
9:00pm | Sunday, 8:00am to 5:00pm Location: The UDC David A. Clarke School of
Law (4340 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008) CODEPINK,
along with VFP, The Nation Magazine, Institute for Policy Studies, Peace
Action, and many other organizations are hosting a two-day summit examining the
policies and practices of Saudi Arabia and U.S.-Saudi ties. This Summit
will address issues such as human rights; Saudi internal and foreign policy; and
the prospects for change inside the kingdom and in U.S.-Saudi
relations. For more
information, email Andrea at andrea@codepink.org
Does your
chapter have a project to promote peace and justice? The Howard Zinn Fund for Peace and Justice provides support to
local chapters to start or to significantly develop ongoing local programs that
produce substantive changes for the VFP mission. Two types of awards are made,
depending on available funds:
Several
Independent Awards of up $500 to support focused local projects which
further the VFP mission.
One
Partnership Award of up to $5,000 to support the development of an ongoing
chapter program that will produce significant results for the long-term mission
of VFP. This involves a collaborative process between the chapter team and the
Zinn Fund Committee over several months to develop the project and the final
proposal. The collaboration continues during the grant period as the project is
implemented and project reports are prepared. These projects are used to
demonstrate VFP activities and to promote support for the VFP
mission.
The deadline for Zinn Fund Applications is
Friday
March 18
Save the
Date: March 27-April 2, 2016 - 2nd Annual Shut Down
Creech
Join us March
27-April 2, 2016 at Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada for a 2nd
national mobilization of nonviolent resistance to shut down killer drone
operations in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan,Yemen, Somalia and everywhere.
Last year 150 activists joined us from 20 different states, including over 50
veterans. Sponsored by: VFP, CODEPINK: Women For Peace, Nevada Desert
Experience, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
VFP Members Can Help Increase VFP's UN
Interaction
Participants are needed for the 2016 NGO
Conference to be held in South Korea in late May/early June. The planning
committee is also seeking participants. There are several VFP
slots available for the conference. Registration will open soon.
Here are a
few ways that members can get involved
Provide
input about counter-recruiting in schools.
Run for the
Department of Public Information Board - Elections are held in May.
Email,
Ellen Barfield @ ellene4pj@yahoo.com if you are interested in any of these
opportunities. 2015 Report
on VFP and the UN by Ellen Barfield Back to
Top
501(c)(3)'s and Political Election Activity
VFP will
abide by the 501(c)(3) rules set forth by the law firm Harmon, Curran, Spielberg
Eisenberg, LLC regarding political election activity. The document contains a list of "10 Mistakes Nonprofits Should
Avoid in an Election Year"
The national
office is seeking a volunteer chapter to host the 2017 convention. If
interested, please email shelly@veteransforpeace.org. The 2016
convention hosting chapter is VFP San Francisco Chapter 69. The dates for the
convention are Thursday, August 11 thru Monday, August 15 @ University
California - Clark Kerr campus in Berkeley CA. Please
note the change from our past program. This convention will not be Wednesday
thru Sunday. Interested in
conducting a workshop at the 2016 convention? Applications will be available on
March 4th.
Whether
you're an avid reader or an author, we would like you to consider using the
Powell's Books website. VFP has an
agreement with Powell's to earn 7.5% on online book sales. Avid readers,
not only do you have the luxury of choosing a book from the VFP bookshelf, any
book purchased on the site will satisfy our agreement as long as you use this link when you first enter the site. If you're an
author, add your book on the site! Submit this form with the title of your book, ISBN number and we post
it to the site. It is up to you to supply inventory to the site.
The Drones Quilt Project (DQP) is
looking for VFP chapters to host the DQP exhibit in their towns. Several VFP
chapters have already done this, and they have been very worthwhile events. The
DQP exhibit consists of 1-10 quilts which memorialize the victims of combat
drones, and 4 posters which explain the immorality and illegality of the
weaponized drones program. Please consider bringing the DQP exhibit to your
town! Contact Leah Bolger, leahbolger@comcast.net, or 541-207-7761, to schedule the
exhibit.
If you are interested in being a Board member, please send
a short resume including a statement explaining why you are interested in
serving as a VFP Board member to Board President Barry Ladendorf bdlvfp@gmail.com or call the VFP National Office 314-725-6005
to speak to the Executive Director Michael T. McPhearson to answer any
questions.
Thomas
Scheff, member of Santa Barbara Chapter 54is the narrator,
producer and director, of the documentary,
A Wake on the
Pier, The documentary is about
Arlington West, the war memorial, and the people who visit it. Mark
Runge, member of VFP Knoxville, TN Chapter 166 will display his
collection of drawings and sculptures in an exhibit named Peace is
Patriotic at the Clayton Center for the Arts’ DENSO Gallery March 1-25. A
reception will be held in the gallery on Fri., March 25 from 6 p.m. until 8
p.m. For more information email Mark @ mark4art37@gmail.com
Apr 22 - Earth Day May 14-21
- Sam's 5th Annual Ride for Peace, Raleigh, NC to
Washington, DC May
23-25 - VFP 2nd Annual Lobby Days May
30 — Memorial Day (Observed) Jul
27 - Korean War Armistice Day Aug 11-15,
2016 - VFP Annual Convention at Clark Kerr campus of University of
California Berkeley, CA Sep
21—International Day of Peace Oct
7-10 - First SOAW bi-national convergence at the
U.S./Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona
*****Frank Jackman’s Fate-With Bob Dylan’s Masters of War In Mind
From The Pen Of Sam Lowell
Jack Callahan’s old friend from Sloan High School in Carver down in Southeastern Massachusetts Zack James (Zack short for Zachary not as is the fashion today to just name a baby Zack and be done with it) is an amateur writer and has been at it since he got out of high school. Found out that maybe by osmosis, something like that, the stuff Miss Enos taught him junior and senior years about literature and her favorite writers Hemingway, Edith Wharton and Dorothy Parker to name a few, that she would entice the English class stuck with him with through college where although he majored in Political Science he was in thrall to the English literature courses that he snuck in to his schedule. Snuck in although Zack knew practically speaking he had a snowball’s chance in hell, an expression he had learned from Hemingway he thought,of making a career out of the literary life as a profession, would more likely wind driving a cab through dangerous midnight sections of town occasionally getting mugged for his night’s work. That Political Science major winding up producing about the same practical results as the literary life though. Stuck with him, savior stuck with him, through his tour of duty during the Vietnam War, and savior stayed with him through those tough years when he couldn’t quite get himself back to the “real” world after ‘Nam and let drugs and alcohol rule his life so that he wound up for some time as a “brother under the bridge” as Bruce Springsteen later put the situation in a song that he played continuously at times after he first heard it “Saigon, long gone…." Stuck with him after he recovered and started building up his sports supplies business, stuck with him through three happy/sad/savage/acrimonious “no go” marriages and a parcel of kids and child support.And was still sticking with him now that he had time to stretch out and write longer pieces, and beat away on the word processor a few million words on this and that.
Amateur writer meaning nothing more than that he liked to write and that writing was not his profession, that he did not depend on the pen for his livelihood(or rather more correctly these days not the pen but the word processor). That livelihood business was taken up running a small sports apparel store in a mall not far from Lexington (the Lexington of American revolutionary battles to give the correct own and state) where he now lived. Although he was not a professional writer his interest was such that he liked these days with Jimmy Shore, the famous ex-runner running the day to day operations of the store, to perform some of his written work in public at various “open mic” writing (and poetry) jams that have sprouted up in his area.
This “open mic” business was a familiar concept to Jack from the days back in the 1960s when he would go to such events in the coffeehouses around Harvard Square and Beacon Hill to hear amateur folk-singers perfect their acts and try to be recognized as the new voice of their generation, or something like that. For “no singing voice, no musical ear” Jack those were basically cheap date nights if the girl he was with was into folk music. The way most of the "open mics" although they probably called them talent searches then, worked was each performer would sign up to do one, two, maybe three songs depending on how long the list of those wishing to perform happened to be (the places where each performer kicked in a couple of bucks in order to play usually had shorter lists). These singers usually performed in the period in front of the night’s feature who very well might have been somebody who a few weeks before had been noticed by the owner during a pervious "open mic" and asked to do a set of six to sixteen songs depending on the night and the length of the list of players in front of him or her. The featured performer played, unlike the "open mic" people, for the “basket” (maybe a hat) passed around the crowd in the audience and that was the night’s “pay.” A tough racket for those starting out like all such endeavors. The attrition rate was pretty high after the folk minute died down with arrival of other genre like folk rock, heavy rock, and acid rock although you still see a few old folkies around the Square or playing the separate “open mic” folk circuit that also ran through church coffeehouses just like these writing jams.
Jack was not surprised then when Zack told him he would like him to come to hear him perform one of his works at the monthly third Thursday “open mic” at the Congregational Church in Arlington the next town over from Lexington. Zack told Jack that that night he was going to perform something he had written and thought on about Frank Jackman, about what had happened to Frank when he was in the Army during Vietnam War times.
Jack knew almost automatically what Zack was going to do, he would somehow use Bob Dylan’s Masters of War lyrics as part of his presentation. Jack and Zack ( a Vietnam veteran who got “religion” on the anti-war issue while he in the Army and became a fervent anti-war guy after that experience despite his personal problems) had met Frank in 1971 when they were doing some anti-war work among the soldiers at Fort Devens out in Ayer about forty miles west of Boston. Frank had gotten out of the Army several months before and since he was from Nashua in the southern part of New Hampshire not far from Devens and had heard about the G.I. coffeehouse, The Morning Report, where Jack and Zack were working as volunteers he had decided to volunteer to help out as well. Now Frank was a quiet guy, quieter than Jack and Zack anyway, but one night he had told his Army story to a small group of volunteers gathered in the main room of the coffeehouse as they were planning to distribute Daniel Ellsberg’s sensational whistle-blower expose The Pentagon Papers to soldiers at various spots around the base (including as it turned out inside the fort itself with one copy landing on the commanding general’s desk for good measure). He wanted to tell this story since he wanted to explain why he would not be able to go with them if they went inside the gates at Fort Devens.
Jack knew Zack was going to tell Frank’s story so he told Frank he would be there since he had not heard the song or Frank’s story in a long while and had forgotten parts of it. Moreover Zack wanted Jack there for moral support since this night other than the recitation of the lyrics he was going to speak off the cuff rather than his usual reading from some prepared paper.
That night Zack was already in the hall talking to the organizer, Eli Walsh, you may have heard of him since he has written some searing poems about his time in three tours Iraq. Jack felt right at home in this basement section of the church and he probably could have walked around blind-folded since the writing jams were on almost exactly the same model as the old folkie “open mics.” A table as you entered to pay your admission this night three dollars (although the tradition is that no one is turned away for lack of funds) with a kindly woman asking if you intended to perform and direct you to the sign-up sheet if so. Another smaller table with various cookies, snacks, soda, water and glasses for those who wished to have such goodies, and who were asked to leave a donation in the jar on that table if possible. The set-up in the hall this night included a small stage where the performers would present their material slightly above the audience. On the stage a lectern for those who wished to use that for physical support or to read their work from and the ubiquitous simple battery-powered sound system complete with microphone. For the audience a bevy of chairs, mostly mismatched, mostly having seen plenty of use, and mostly uncomfortable. After paying his admission fee he went over to Zack to let him know he was in the audience. Zack told him he was number seven on the list so not to wander too far once the session had begun.
This is the way Zack told the story and why Jack knew there would be some reference to Bob Dylan’s Masters of War that night:
Hi everybody my name is Zack James and I am glad that you all came out this cold night to hear Preston Borden present his moving war poetry and the rest of us to reflect on the main subject of this month’s writing jam-the endless wars that the American government under whatever regime of late has dragged us into, us kicking and screaming to little avail. I want to thank Eli as always for setting this event up every month and for his own thoughtful war poetry. [Some polite applause.] But enough for thanks and all that because tonight I want to recite a poem, well, not really a poem, but lyrics to a song, to a Bob Dylan song, Masters of War, so it might very well be considered a poem in some sense.
You know sometimes, a lot of times, a song, lyrics, a poem for that matter bring back certain associations. You know some song you heard on the radio when you went on your first date, your first dance, your first kiss, stuff like that which is forever etched in your memory and evokes that moment every time you hear it thereafter. Now how this Dylan song came back to me recently is a story in itself.
You remember Eli back in October when we went up to Maine to help the Maine Veterans for Peace on their yearly peace walk that I ran into Susan Rich, the Quaker gal we met up in Freeport who walked with us that day to Portland. [Eli shouted out “yes.”] I had not seen Susan in about forty years before that day, hadn’t seen her since the times we had worked together building up support for anti-war G.I.s out at the Morning Report coffeehouse in Ayer outside Fort Devens up on Route 2 about thirty miles from here. That’s when we met Frank Jackman who is the real subject of my presentation tonight since he is the one who I think about when I think about that song, think about his story and how that song relates to it.
Funny as many Dylan songs as I knew Masters of War, written by Dylan in 1963 I had never heard until 1971. Never heard the lyrics until I met Frank out at Fort Devens where after I was discharged from the Army that year I went to do some volunteer anti-war G.I. work at the coffeehouse outside the base in Army town Ayer. Frank too was a volunteer, had heard about the place somehow I forget how, who had grown up in Nashua up in southern New Hampshire and after he was discharged from the Army down at Fort Dix in New Jersey came to volunteer just like me and my old friend Jack Callahan who is sitting in the audience tonight. Now Frank was a quiet guy didn’t talk much about his military service but he made the anti-war soldiers who hung out there at night and on weekends feel at ease. One night thought he felt some urge to tell his story, tell why he thought it was unwise for him to participate in an anti-war action we were planning around the base. We were going to pass out copies of Daniel Ellsberg’s explosive whistle-blower expose The Pentagon Papers to soldiers at various location around the fort and as it turned out on the base. The reason that Frank had balked at the prospect of going into the fort was that as part of his discharge paperwork was attached a statement that he was never to go on a military installation again. We all were startled by that remark, right Jack? [Jack nods agreement.]
And that night the heroic, our kind of heroic, Frank Jackman told us about the hows and whys of his Army experience. Frank had been drafted like a ton of guys back then, like me, and had allowed himself to be drafted in 1968 at the age of nineteen not being vociferously anti-war and not being aware then of the option of not taking the subsequent induction. After about three week down at Fort Dix, the main basic training facility for trainees coming from the Northeast then, he knew two things-he had made a serious mistake by allowing himself to be drafted and come hell or high water he was not going to fight against people he had no quarrel with in Vietnam. Of course the rigors of basic training and being away from home, away from anybody who could help him do he knew not what then kept him quiet and just waiting. Once basic was over and he got his Advanced Infantry Training assignment also at Fort Dix which was to be an infantryman at a time when old Uncle Sam only wanted infantrymen in the rice paddles and jungles of Vietnam things came to a head.
After a few weeks in AIT he got a three day weekend pass which allowed him to go legally off the base and he used that time to come up to Boston, or really Cambridge because what he was looking for was help to file an conscientious objector application and he knew the Quakers were historically the ones who would know about going about that process. That is ironically where Susan Rich comes in again, although indirectly this time, since Frank went to the Meeting House on Brattle Street where they were doing draft and G.I. resistance counseling and Susan was a member of that Meeting although she had never met him at that time. He was advised by one of the Quaker counselors that he could submit a C.O. application in the military, which he had previously not been sure was possible since nobody told anybody anything about that in the military, when he got back to Fort Dix but just then, although they were better later, the odds were stacked against him since he had already accepted induction. So he went back, put in his application, took a lot of crap from the lifers and officers in his company after that and little support, mainly indifference, from his fellow trainees. He still had to go through the training, the infantry training though and although he had taken M-16 rifle training in basic he almost balked at continuing to fire weapons especially when it came to machine guns. He didn’t balk but in the end that was not a big deal since fairly shortly after that his C.O. application was rejected although almost all those who interviewed him in the process though he was “sincere” in his beliefs. That point becomes important later.
Frank, although he knew his chances of being discharged as a C.O. were slim since he had based his application on his Catholic upbringing and more general moral and ethical grounds. The Catholic Church which unlike Quakers and Mennonites and the like who were absolutely against war held to a just war theory, Vietnam being mainly a just war in the Catholic hierarchy’s opinion. But Frank was sincere, more importantly, he was determined to not got to war despite his hawkish family and his hometown friends’, some who had already served, served in Vietnam too, scorn and lack of support. So he went back up to Cambridge on another three day pass to get some advice, which he actually didn’t take in the end or rather only partially took up which had been to get a lawyer they would recommend and fight the C.O. denial in Federal court even though that was also still a long shot then.
Frank checked with the lawyer alright, Steve Brady, who had been radicalized by the war and was offering his services on a sliding scale basis to G.I.s since he also had the added virtue of having been in the JAG in the military and so knew some of the ropes of the military legal system, and legal action was taken but Frank was one of those old time avenging Jehovah types like John Brown or one of those guys and despite being a Catholic rather than a high holy Protestant which is the usual denomination for avenging angels decided to actively resist the military. And did it in fairly simple way when you think about it. One Monday morning when the whole of AIT was on the parade field for their weekly morning report ceremony Frank came out of his barracks with his civilian clothes on and carrying a handmade sign which read “Bring the Troops Home Now!” That sign was simply but his life got a lot more complicated after that. In the immediate sense that meant he was pulled down on the ground by two lifer sergeants and brought to the Provost Marshal’s office since they were not sure that some dippy-hippie from near-by New York City might be pulling a stunt. When they found out that he was a soldier they threw him into solitary in the stockade.
For his offenses Frank was given a special court-martial which meant he faced six month maximum sentence which a panel of officers at his court-martial ultimately sentenced him to after a seven day trial which Steve Brady did his best to try to make into an anti-war platform but given the limitation of courts for such actions was only partially successful. After that six months was up minus some good time Frank was assigned to a special dead-beat unit waiting further action either by the military or in the federal district court in New Jersey. Still in high Jehovah form the next Monday morning after he was released he went out to that same parade field in civilian clothes carrying another homemade sign “Bring The Troops Home Now!” and he was again manhandled by another pair of lifer sergeants and this time thrown directly into solitary in the stockade since they knew who they were dealing with by then. And again he was given a special court-martial and duly sentenced by another panel of military officers to the six months maximum.
Frank admitted at that point he was in a little despair at the notion that he might have to keep doing the same action over and over again for eternity. Well he wound up serving almost all of that second sex month sentence but then he got a break. That is where listening to the Quakers a little to get legal advice did help. See what Steve Brady, like I said an ex-World War II Army JAG officer turned anti-war activist lawyer, did was take the rejection of his C.O. application to Federal District Court in New Jersey on a writ of habeas corpus arguing that since all Army interviewers agreed Frank was “sincere” that it had been arbitrary and capricious of the Army to turn down his application. And given that the United States Supreme Court and some lower court decisions had by then had expanded who could be considered a C.O. beyond the historically recognized groupings and creeds the cranky judge in the lower court case agreed and granted that writ of habeas corpus. Frank was let out with an honorable discharge, ironically therefore entitled to all veteran’s benefits but with the stipulation that he never go onto a military base again under penalty of arrest and trial. Whether that could be enforced as a matter of course he said he did not want to test since he was hardily sick of military bases in any case.
So where does Bob Dylan’s Masters of War come into the picture. Well as you know, or should know every prisoner, every convicted prisoner, has the right to make a statement in his or her defense during the trial or at the sentencing phase. Frank at both his court-martials rose up and recited Bob Dylan’s Masters of War for the record. So for all eternity, or a while anyway, in some secret recess of the Army archives (and of the federal courts too) there is that defiant statement of a real hero of the Vietnam War. Nice right?
Here is what had those bloated military officers on Frank’s court-martial board seeing red and ready to swing him from the highest gallow, yeah, swing him high.
Masters Of War-Bob Dylan
Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build the big bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin’ But build to destroy You play with my world Like it’s your little toy You put a gun in my hand And you hide from my eyes And you turn and run farther When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old You lie and deceive A world war can be won You want me to believe But I see through your eyes And I see through your brain Like I see through the water That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers For the others to fire Then you set back and watch When the death count gets higher You hide in your mansion As young people’s blood Flows out of their bodies And is buried in the mud
You’ve thrown the worst fear That can ever be hurled Fear to bring children Into the world For threatening my baby Unborn and unnamed You ain’t worth the blood That runs in your veins
How much do I know To talk out of turn You might say that I’m young You might say I’m unlearned But there’s one thing I know Though I’m younger than you Even Jesus would never Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question Is your money that good Will it buy you forgiveness Do you think that it could I think you will find When your death takes its toll All the money you made Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die And your death’ll come soon I will follow your casket In the pale afternoon And I’ll watch while you’re lowered Down to your deathbed And I’ll stand o’er your grave ’Til I’m sure that you’re dead
Out
In The Black Liberation Night- The Black Panthers And The Struggle For The
Ten-Point Program- Four- A Home Of One's Own
Lettie Morse had been sitting on the rim of the world.Lettie , all of eighteen, and sweet child-
mother of three young children (ages, if you can believe this, and you will
once the facts become known, two girls four and three and a boy, one) was just
that moment sheltered against the rawness of life, if just for that moment,
over at that Sally ‘s Harbor Lights safe house (Salvation Army for those not in
need of their facilities and only familiar with their operations at
supermarkets and the like ringing bells and seeking dollars at Christmas) in
the deep South End section ofBoston
over by Blackstone Park.And like all
such citizens caught up on the rim of the world Lettie had a story, and a dream
too. Not a long story, not at eighteen, and not when one is on the rim of the
world when just getting by from one day to the next, hell, just one step in
front of you to the next, took up your hours, and not the stuff of story, or
parable either.
See Lettie, sweet child-mother Lettie, considered herself,
and was considered by friend and family alike to be, how to put it kindly, an
ugly duckling (although motherhood became her as she held forth black
Madonna-like in facing that one step after the next day), the runt of the
litter of seven children when Vernon and Eleanor Morse (yes, named after the
former First Lady, Mrs. Roosevelt, for her kindnesses towardthe Negro people) when they had come up from
Clarksville down in the Mississippi delta after hearing that Boston was the
“land of milk and honey” and had landed smack dab in the recently constructed
Columbia Point Housing Project over by the waters of Dorchester Bay. As so whether
that was a wise or foolish decision (probably wise given hellhole Mister James
Crow Mississippi goddam) the “projects” was where Lettie came of age, came of
age fast, too fast.
She would not speak of her troubles adjusting, adjusting as
best she could, to northern urban life, bunched up in a shared small corner
room with two other pretty sisters slightly older, of the slow heavy as
molasses drawl she inherited from her maternal grandmother and which drew howls
of laughter at the junior high school that serviced the projects, or of the
cruel ugly duckling taunts from boys (and a wayward girl or two). Like a lot of
not pretty girls (and maybe pretty girls too but that is best left for another
story, today we are on the rim of the world with black Madonna Lettie) she
substituted being sexually available to the boys for anything else she might
have felt. And they, as boys will, when the midnight whistle blows and they
hear of some “easy piece” had their way with her, and then left her, left her
that first time, well not exactly empty- handed, but with child, one of them
anyway, and hence Christine .
Things went along okay for a while in that “projects”Morse home, she making room for her baby in
her shared room, but Lettie, got a little restless as young girls will, and a
boy, a not from the projects boy, took an interest in her. What she did not
know was that he was selling reefer like crazy to the kids over near Uphams
Corner (a school nearby the central point of sales) and eventually got busted,
busted flat and sent away to reform school for a while. However, not leaving
her empty-handed and thus Shana. That episode broke the camel’s back in the
Morse household as fragile as it was. Lettie was unceremoniously told to pack
her bags and she did. And so with two small children, no money, no home and no
prospects she hit the streets, the mean streets. Lettie said to tell you no
matter how bad things get, no matter how rough you think life is stay away from
Mister’s streets, from his trick streets, from his walking daddy hustler’s
streets, from his pimp daddy streets. She learned that lesson the hard way
although she was not left empty-handed and hence Robert, father unknown, maybe
unknowable.
So things kind of went downhill from there for a while, as
Lettie tried to keep her little family together, tried to get off the streets,
tried to get off the rim of the world, and so she landed at the Sally’ssafe house. She would stay there as long as
it took for that promised apartment in the Orchard Park Housing Authority to
come through. And that thought, the thought ofgetting off the rim of the world, that thought of fixing up a home, a
home to keep her children safe, a home of her own kept her focused…
The original "Ten Point Program" from October, 1966 was as
follows:[39][40]
1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black
Community.
We believe that black people will not be free until we are able to
determine our destiny.
2. We want full employment for our people.
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give
every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the white
American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of
production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so
that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and
give a high standard of living.
3. We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our black Community.
We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are
demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two
mules was promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder
of black people. We will accept the payment as currency which will be
distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in
Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million
Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over 50 million
black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.
4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
We believe that if the white landlords will not give decent housing to our
black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives
so that our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing
for its people.
5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this
decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history
and our role in the present-day society.
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a
knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position
in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else.
6. We want all black men to be exempt from military service.
We believe that black people should not be forced to fight in the military
service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not
fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like black people, are
being victimized by the white racist government of America. We will protect
ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist
military, by whatever means necessary.
7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of black people.
We believe we can end police brutality in our black community by organizing
black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our black community
from racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore
believe that all black people should arm themselves for self defense.
8. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and
city prisons and jails.
We believe that all black people should be released from the many jails and
prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.
9. We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a
jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by
the Constitution of the United States.
We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so
that black people will receive fair trials. The 14th Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group. A peer is a
person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental,
historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select
a jury from the black community from which the black defendant came. We have
been, and are being tried by all-white juries that have no understanding of the
"average reasoning man" of the black community.
10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.
And as our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to
be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will
be allowed to participate for the purpose of determining the will of black
people as to their national destiny.
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to
assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which
the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure
these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient
causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariable the same object, evinces a design
to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future
security.
The Howard Zinn Fund for Peace and Justice provides support to
local chapters to start or to significantly develop ongoing local programs that
produce substantive changes for the VFP mission. Two types of awards are made,
depending on available funds:
Participants are needed for the 2016 NGO
Conference to be held in South Korea in late May/early June. The planning
committee is also seeking participants. 
The Drones Quilt Project (DQP) is
looking for VFP chapters to host the DQP exhibit in their towns. Several VFP
chapters have already done this, and they have been very worthwhile events. The
DQP exhibit consists of 1-10 quilts which memorialize the victims of combat
drones, and 4 posters which explain the immorality and illegality of the
weaponized drones program. Please consider bringing the DQP exhibit to your
town! Contact Leah Bolger, leahbolger@comcast.net, or 541-207-7761, to schedule the
exhibit.
If you are interested in being a Board member, please send
a short resume including a statement explaining why you are interested in
serving as a VFP Board member to Board President Barry Ladendorf bdlvfp@gmail.com or call the VFP National Office 314-725-6005
to speak to the Executive Director Michael T. McPhearson to answer any
questions.
