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Saturday, February 20, 2016
In Boston February 21th-Justice for Palestine: How Jewish Communities and Churches Act in Solidarity
*****Smokestack Lightning, Indeed- With Bluesman Howlin’ Wolf In Mind
*****Smokestack Lightning, Indeed- With Bluesman Howlin’ Wolf In Mind
Sometimes a picture really can be worth a thousand words, a thousand words and more as in the case Howlin’ Wolf doing his Midnight creep in the photograph above taken from an album of his work but nowadays with the advances in computer technology and someone’s desire to share also to be seen on sites such as YouTube where you can get a real flavor of what that mad man was about when he got his blues wanting habits on. In fact I am a little hesitate to use a bunch of words describing Howlin’ Wolf in high gear since maybe I would leave out that drop of perspiration dripping from his overworked forehead and that salted drop might be the very thing that drove him that night or describing his oneness with his harmonica because that might cause some karmic funk. So, no, I am not really going to go on and on about his midnight creep but when the big man got into high gear, when he went to a place where he sweating profusely, a little ragged in voice and eyes all shot to hell he roared for his version of the high white note. Funny, a lot of people, myself for a while included, used to think that the high white note business was strictly a jazz thing, maybe somebody like the “Prez” Lester Young or Duke’s Johnny Hodges after hours, after the paying customers had had their fill, or what they thought was all those men had in them, shutting the doors tight, putting up the tables leaving the chairs for whoever came by around dawn, grabbing a few guys from around the town as they finished their gigs and make the search, make a serious bid to blow the world to kingdom come.
Some nights they were on fire as they blew that big high white note out in to some heavy air and who knows where it landed, most nights though it was just “nice try.” One night I was out in Frisco when “Saps” McCoy blew a big sexy sax right out the door of Chez Benny’s over in North Beach when North Beach was just turning away from be-bop “beat” and that high white note, I swear, blew out into the bay and who knows maybe all the way to the Japan seas. Well see we were all a little high so I don’t know about that Japan seas stuff but I sure know that brother blew that high white one somewhere out the door. But see if I had, or anybody had, thought about it for a minute jazz and the blues are cousins, cousins no question so of course Howlin’ Wolf blew out that high white note more than once, plenty including a couple of shows I caught him at later when he was not in his prime.
The photograph (and now video) that I was thinking of is one where he is practically eating the harmonica as he performs How Many More Years (and now like I say thanks to some thoughtful archivist you can go on to YouTube and see him doing his devouring act in real time and in motion, wow, and also berating “father” preacher/sinner man Son House for showing up drunk. Yes, the Wolf could blast out the blues and on this one you get a real appreciation for how serious he was as a performer and as blues representative of the highest order.
Howlin’ Wolf like his near contemporary and rival Muddy Waters, like a whole generation of black bluesmen who learned their trade at the feet of old-time country blues masters like Charley Patton, the aforementioned Son House who had had his own personal fight with the devil, Robert Johnson who allegedly sold his soul to the devil out on Highway 61 so he could get his own version of that high white note, and the like down in Mississippi or other southern places in the first half of the twentieth century. They as part and parcel of that great black migration (even as exceptional musicians they would do stints in the sweated Northern factories before hitting Maxwell Street) took the road north, or rather the river north, an amazing number from the Delta and an even more amazing number from around Clarksville in Mississippi right by that Highway 61 and headed first maybe to Memphis and then on to sweet home Chicago.
They went where the jobs were, went where the ugliness of Mister James Crow telling them to sit here not there, to walk here but not there, to drink the water here not there, don’t look at our women under any conditions and on and on did not haunt their every move (although they would find not racial Garden of Eden in the North, last hired, first fired, squeezed in cold water flats too many to a room, harassed, but they at least has some breathing space, some room to create a little something they could call their own and not Mister’s), went where the big black migration was heading after World War I. Went also to explore a new way of presenting the blues to an urban audience in need of a faster beat, in need of getting away from the Saturday juke joint acoustic country sound with some old timey guys ripping up three chord ditties to go with that jug of Jack Flash’s homemade corn liquor (or so he, Jack Flash called it).
So they, guys like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Magic Slim, Johnny Shines, and James Cotton prospered by doing what Elvis did for rock and rock and Bob Dylan did for folk and pulled the hammer down on the old electric guitar and made big, big sounds that reached all the way back of the room in the Red Hat and Tip Top clubs lining the black streets of blustered America and made the max daddies and max mamas jump, make some moves. And here is where all kinds of thing got intersected, as part of all the trends in post-World War II music up to the 1960s anyway from R&B, rock and roll, electric blues and folk the edges of the music hit all the way to then small white audiences too and they howled for the blues, which spoke to some sense of their own alienation. Hell, the Beatles and more particularly the Stones lived to hear Muddy and the Wolf. The Stones even went to Mecca, to Chess Records to be at one with Muddy. And they also took lessons from Howlin’ Wolf himself on the right way to play Little Red Rooster which they had covered and made famous in the early 1960s (or infamous depending on your point of view since many radio stations including some Boston stations had banned it from the air originally).Yes, Howlin’ Wolf and that big bad harmonica and that big bad voice that howled in the night did that for a new generation, did pretty good, right.
*****The Struggle Continues ….We Will Not Leave Our Sister Behind-A Personal Letter From The Pen Of Chelsea Manning From Fort Leavenworth
*****President Obama Pardon Chelsea Manning Now!-The Struggle Continues ….We Will Not Leave Our Sister Behind-A Personal Letter From The Pen Of Chelsea Manning From Fort Leavenworth
A while back, maybe a year or so ago, I was asked by a fellow member of Veterans For Peace at a monthly meeting in Cambridge about the status of the case of Chelsea Manning since he knew that I had been seriously involved with publicizing her case and he had not heard much about the case since she had been convicted in August 2013 (on some twenty counts including several Espionage Act counts, the Act itself, as it relates to Chelsea and its constitutionality will be the basis for one of her issues on appeal) and sentenced by Judge Lind to thirty-five years imprisonment to be served at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. (She had already been held for three years before trial, the subject of another appeals issue and as of May 2015 had served five years altogether thus far and will be formally eligible for parole in the not too distant future although usually the first parole decision is negative).
That had also been the time immediately after the sentencing when Private Manning announced to the world her sexual identity and turned from Bradley to Chelsea. The question of her sexual identity was a situation than some of us already had known about while respecting Private Manning’s, Chelsea’s, and those of her ardent supporters at Courage to Resist and elsewhere the subject of her sexual identity was kept in the background so the reasons she was being tried would not be muddled and for which she was savagely fighting in her defense would not be warped by the mainstream media into some kind of identity politics circus.
I had responded to my fellow member that, as usual in such super-charged cases involving political prisoners, and there is no question that Private Manning is one despite the fact that every United States Attorney-General including the one in charge during her trial claims that there are no such prisoners in American jails only law-breakers, once the media glare of the trial and sentencing is over the case usually falls by the wayside into the media vacuum while the appellate process proceed on over the next several years.
At that point I informed him of the details that I did know. Chelsea immediately after sentencing had been put in the normal isolation before being put in with the general population at Fort Leavenworth. She seemed to be adjusting according to her trial defense lawyer to the pall of prison life as best she could. Later she had gone to a Kansas civil court to have her name changed from Bradley to Chelsea Elizabeth which the judge granted although the Army for a period insisted that mail be sent to her under her former male Bradley name. Her request for hormone therapies to help reflect her sexual identity had either been denied or the process stonewalled despite the Army’s own medical and psychiatric personnel stating in court that she was entitled to such measures.
At the beginning of 2014 the Commanding General of the Military District of Washington, General Buchanan, who had the authority to grant clemency on the sentence part of the case, despite the unusual severity of the sentence, had denied Chelsea any relief from the onerous sentence imposed by Judge Lind.
Locally on Veterans Day 2013, the first such event after her sentencing we had honored Chelsea at the annual VFP Armistice Day program and in December 2013 held a stand-out celebrating Chelsea’s birthday (as we did in December 2014 and will do again this December of 2015). Most important of the information I gave my fellow VFPer was that Chelsea’s case going forward to the Army appellate process was being handled by nationally renowned lawyer Nancy Hollander and her associate Vincent Ward. Thus the case was in the long drawn out legal phase that does not generally get much coverage except by those interested in the case like well-known Vietnam era Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg, various progressive groups which either nominated or rewarded her with their prizes, and the organization that has steadfastly continued to handle her case’s publicity and raising financial aid for her appeal, Courage to Resist (an organization dedicated to publicizing the cases of other military resisters as well).
At our February 2015 monthly meeting that same VFPer asked me if it was true that as he had heard the Army, or the Department of Defense, had ordered Chelsea’s hormone therapy treatments to begin. I informed him after a long battle, including an ACLU suit ordering such relief, that information was true and she had started her treatments a month previously. I also informed him that the Army had thus far refused her request to have an appropriate length woman’s hair-do. On the legal front the case was still being reviewed for issues to be presented which could overturn the lower court decision in the Army Court Of Criminal Appeals by the lawyers and the actual writing of the appeal was upcoming. A seemingly small but very important victory on that front was that after the seemingly inevitable stonewalling on every issue the Army had agreed to use feminine or neutral pronoun in any documentation concerning Private Manning’s case. The lawyers had in June 2014 also been successful in avoiding the attempt by the Department of Defense to place Chelsea in a civil facility as they tried to foist their “problem” elsewhere.
On the political front Chelsea continued to receive awards, and after a fierce battle in 2013 was finally in 2014 made an honorary grand marshal of the very important GLBTQ Pride Parade in San Francisco (and had a contingent supporting her freedom again in the 2015 parade). Recently she has been given status as a contributor to the Guardian newspaper, a newspaper that was central to the fight by fellow whistle-blower Edward Snowden, where her first contribution was a very appropriate piece on what the fate of the notorious CIA torturers should be, having herself faced such torture down in Quantico adding to the poignancy of that suggestion. More recently she has written articles about the dire situation in the Middle East and the American government’s inability to learn any lessons from history and a call on the military to stop the practice of denying transgender people the right to serve. (Not everybody agrees with her positon in the transgender community or the VFP but she is out there in front with it.)
[Maybe most important of all in this social networking, social media, texting world of the young (mostly) Chelsea has a twitter account- @xychelsea ]
Locally over the past two year we have marched for Chelsea in the Boston Pride Parade, commemorated her fourth year in prison last May [2014] and the fifth this year with a vigil, honored her again on Armistice Day 2014, celebrated her 27th birthday in December with a rally (and did again this year on her 28th birthday).
More recently big campaigns by Courage To Resist and the Press Freedom Foundation have almost raised the $200, 000 needed (maybe more by now) to give her legal team adequate resources during her appeals process (first step, after looking over the one hundred plus volumes of her pre-trial and trial hearings, the Army Court Of Criminal Appeal)
Recently although in this case more ominously and more threateningly Chelsea has been charged and convicted of several prison infractions (among them having a copy of the now famous Vanity Fair with Caitlyn, formerly Bruce, Jenner’s photograph on the cover) which could affect her parole status and other considerations going forward.
We have continued to urge one and all to sign the on-line Amnesty International petition asking President Obama to grant an immediate pardon as well as asking that those with the means sent financial contributions to Courage To Resist to help with her legal expenses.
After I got home that night of the meeting I began thinking that a lot has happened over the past couple of years in the Chelsea Manning case and that I should made what I know more generally available to more than my local VFPers. I do so here, and gladly. Just one more example of our fervent belief that as we have said all along in Veterans for Peace and elsewhere- we will not leave our sister behind… More later.
American Gold-Digger, Not-Claudette Colbert’s Midnight
American Gold-Digger, Not-Claudette Colbert’s Midnight
DVD Review
By Zach James
Midnight, starring Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Mary Astor, screenplay by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, 1939
In 1939 as the war drums were beating incessantly in Europe movie audiences there and in America needed a few laughs, something to take their minds for a couple of hours off the grim work ahead in a world that had been taken over by the night-takers. I mentioned in a recent review of another screwball romantic comedy of the same period that no one could do better than to take in at their local theater the film under review there, Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper’s Ball of Fire, to while away a couple of hours. The same is true for the film under review here, Claudette Colbert’s Midnight (midnight in Paris as it turned out but that film title would be taken by Woody Allen in a later romantic comedy so just midnight here). I mentioned in the Stanwyck review that when one thinks of romantic screwball comedies from that era one usually thinks automatically of Preston Sturgis (whose Sullivan’s Travels was recently reviewed in this space) or George Cukor (whose The Philadelphia Story was reviewed in this space a while back) but here the lesser known Michael Leisen works some cinematic magic taking a hand at screwball comedy.
Although the pitter-patter here between the leading romantic interests is not nearly as arch from beginning to end as Ball of Fire it does have a fast-moving plotline. Here are how things developed and you can see why in the end Ms. Colbert either as Eve Peabody or Baroness Czerny was not a gold-digger. American showgirl (which is just a nice way of saying gold-digger if you get the drift) Eve Peabody, played by Claudette Colbert last seen in this space trying to get a damn American-style divorce from MacDonald Carey in Let’s Make It Legal, as she debarked from the midnight train from Monte Carlo in Paris was down on her uppers (broke, okay). Too broke to even to have afforded an offered taxi ride by a smitten cab driver, Tibor Czerny, played by Don Ameche an actor whose work has not been previously reviewed in this space, which she desperately needed to keep out of the rain. But Eve was a resourceful young woman and after playing footsy with Tibor who offered to put her up in his digs, no strings attached, no visible strings anyway, found herself, after she ditched him, drawn into a concert being attended by a crowd, a rich society crowd, of the kind she was trying to crash (in order to finally break out from that Kokomo dead-end she left behind and a big reason why she gave Tibor the quick brush-off).
That is where the fun begins, the Cinderella fantasy tale come true fun. Everything Eve touched turns to gold; gambling losses got paid off, homeless after nixing Tibor’s offer she found herself in a swanky suite at the Ritz; her pawned clothes from Monte Carlo mysteriously arrived; and she had plenty of new clothes and a waiting chauffer at her disposal. Rags to riches in one night no wonder she kept rubbing her eyes. The mystery was soon solved though. One of the attendees at the concert Eve drifted into was Georges, an ultra-rich Frenchman, played with style and expressive flair by John Barrymore last seen in this space as a feisty wheelchair-bound old pappy to Lauren Bacall raining verbal hell down on Johnny Rico in Key Largo, no, that was his brother Lionel, make that whose work has not previously been reviewed in this space. Georges sensed looking at her maneuvers that Eve soon to turn into Baroness Czerny of high Hungarian society was just who he was looking for to help him get rid of his wife’s lover. This lover, Jacques, nothing but a rich idle playboy at heart had been playing footsy with his wife Helene, played by Mary Astor and I will not be making a mistake here by saying that she was last seen as a femme fatale making Sam Spade go through hoops looking for some goddam bird in the film adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. Georges despite the loose moral tone of high society then (now too) was an old-fashioned kind of guy who still loved his wife and so he proposed to the newly christened Baroness that she lure Jacques away from Helene. She balked at first but seeing that she could break into that high society and plenty of dough she has longed for she finally consented.
Of course once she took on the job it was a piece of cake to dazzle Jacques away from Helene after a weekend at Georges’ country estate. Everything looked great. Marriage and the Mayfair swells life full steam ahead. Great until a very determined Tibor showed up and gummed up the works by acting as hubby Baron Czerny. He might have been a poor Paris cab driver but he was determined to make Eve/Baroness Czerny, hell, whoever she was his wife. And after a series of pratfalls and silly antics which had the whole estate and its inhabitants in an uproar he finally got his day in court, literally. More importantly he got his girl, his not American gold-digger girl. If you have to choose between this one and Ball of Fire take the latter. But this one is fun too.
Friday, February 19, 2016
Veterans For Peace Weekly Newsletter
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Friday,
February 19, 2016 Veterans Challenge Islamophobia
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.
Back to
TopJoin 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
Purchase your ticket today!
Back to
Top$20 - $100 sliding scale, includes lunch Zinn Fund Request For ProposalsDoes 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:
The deadline for Zinn Fund Applications is
Friday
March 18
For more information, visit the webpage Howard Zinn Fund.
Back to
Top
Save the
Date: March 27-April 2, 2016 -
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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. 
| Location | Sponsored by | Dates | Contact |
| Việt Nam | Việt Nam's Hoa Binh (Peace) Chapter 160 |
Mar 14- 30, 2016
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For more information, please email Nadya Williams |
| Cuba | Code Pink |
May 2016
|
Visit the Code Pink website |
| Palestine | Interfaith Peacebuilders |
May 21 - Jun 1 2016
|
For more information email esiegel@ifpb.org |
| Palestine | Interfaith Peacebuilders |
Jul
16- 29 2016 |
For more information email esiegel@ifpb.org |
| Palestine | Interfaith Peacebuilders |
Oct 24-Nov 6
2016 |
For more information email esiegel@ifpb.org |
Back to Top
In This Issue:
Veterans Challenge Islamophobia
Join Us on Mar 5-6, 2016 for the Summit on Saudi Arabia
Zinn Fund Requests For Proposals
Save the Date: March 27-April 2, 2016 - 2nd Annual Shut Down Creech
VFP Members Can Help Increase VFP's UN Interaction
501(c)(3)'s and Political Election Activity
Travel Opportunities for Activists
Seeking VFP Chapter to Host 2017 Convention
Calling All Book Fanatics and VFP Authors!
The Drones Quilt Project Needs Your Support
Five Bundles of Peace In Our Times Left!
Seeking Women Candidates for VFP Board
Member Highlights
Save the Dates: Upcoming VFP Endorsed
Actions/Events
A Thought Worth Remembering!
Seeking VFP Chapter to Host 2017 Convention
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.
Calling All Book Fanatics and VFP Authors!
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.
Five Bundles of Peace In Our Times Left!
The Drones Quilt Project Needs Your Support
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.Seeking Women Candidates for VFP Board
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.Member Highlights
Thomas Scheff, member of Santa Barbara Chapter 54 is 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
Save the Dates: Upcoming VFP Endorsed
Actions/Events
Feb 7
-21 - Elliott Adams Speaking Tour in various CA
citiesFeb 27 - Muslims Are NOT our Enemy Rally in Boston MA
Mar 1-25 - Art Display: Peace is Patriotic: A Soldier’s (mis)Remembrances in Maryville, TN
Mar 5-6, 2016 - 2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia in Washington, DC
Mar 27- April 2, 2016 - Shut Down Creech AFB outside of Las Vegas, NV
Mar 30 - Inside Drone Warfare: Perspectives of Whistleblowers, Families of Drone Victims and Their Lawyers in Las Vegas, NV
Apr 15 - GDAMS (Global Day Against Military Spending)
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
Nov 11 - Armistice Day
A Thought Worth Remembering!
Veterans For Peace,
1404 N. Broadway, St. Louis, MO 63102
Veterans For Peace appreciates
your tax-exempt donations.
We also encourage you to join our ranks.
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