VFP eNews: Take the Peace Pledge, Updates from Standing Rock and Armistice Day!

 

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10/18/2016 1:54 PM

Veterans For Peace

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	Tuesday, October 18, 2016 #PeaceisPossible! Between now and November 8th, the Nation will be caught up in a frenzy of debates, campaign ads and political commentary.  Raising the visibility of veterans working for peace is more important than ever.  In what has become a polarizing global climate, Veterans For Peace has a unique opportunity to highlight that #PeaceIsPossible.  We can and MUST use every venue to share our experiences and help people understand that war is not the answer. Every week, from now until the election, Veterans For Peace will release a list of questions for the presidential candidates, and we want YOUR help Our focus this week: US Military Involvement in Korea Click here to contact the Presidential Candidates! If you haven't already, make sure to include our first round of questions about nuclear weapons! Back to Top Take the Peace Pledge! This election cycle, with its abysmal political dialogue, is overwhelming.  We know that our work continues, regardless of the political outcome. The world and indeed our planet are facing a deep and challenging emergency, with perpetual wars, 65 million refugees of war and violence, the growing climate crisis, economic inequality and continuing social and racial injustice.  Check out "What Peace Demands" and Sign the pledge! Back to Top VFP Tabling at Bonnie Raitt Concert! Robin Perry and Diane Rejman had a successful time tabling at the Bonnie Raitt concert at the Celebrity Theatre Friday night.  They were able to set up right inside the entrance, in the bar area. There were many screens setup throughout the area and the VFP logo was regularly rotated through the slides for the entire time. “We had a lot of traffic - more than I've experienced at other tabling events.  We both had some good conversations with many people.  Lots of people interested in our organization!” -Diane Rejman Back to Top Show a screening of Okinawa: The Afterburn Click picture to watch a preview Okinawa: The Afterburn is the first documentary to provide a comprehensive picture of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa and the ensuing 70-year occupation of the island by the US military. Click here to read a review from the Japan Times! If interested in scheduling a screening contact: John jtj@rf7.so-net.ne.jp or see if one is screening near you! Back to Top The 5th Maine Peace Walk is happening Now! The organizing team is made up of individuals who are dedicated to creating a more peaceful, sustainable and just world. We come together out of deep concern about the many different wars being waged on Mother Earth, ranging from over-fishing, deforestation, and human-caused extinctions, to climate disruption and endless war. Check out the video from the begnning of their journey! To follow along their journey, check the Facebook Page! Back to Top Have you started thinking about what you're doing for Armistice Day? Veterans For Peace is calling on all our members to, once again, take a stand for peace this Armistice Day.  This year, with a political arena fueled by hate and fear, it is as urgent as ever to ring the bells for peace. We call for the observance of Veterans Day to be in keeping with the holiday’s original intent, to be “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’." After World War II, the U.S. Congress decided to re-brand November 11 as Veterans Day. Honoring the warrior quickly morphed into honoring the military and glorifying war.  Armistice Day was flipped from a day for peace into a day for displays of militarism. If you need tabling materials or VFP promo items for Armistice Day, please e-mail casey@veteransforpeace.org! No matter what action you decide to take, please let us know so we can promote the work that you're doing. Check out our Facebook Event page!		In This Issue: #PeaceIsPossible Take the Peace Pledge VFP At Bonnie Raitt Concert! Show the film: Okinawa: The Afterburn Solidarity With Standing Rock VFP At the Border Convergence! New Peace In Our Times Available! Maine Peace Walk Happening Now What Are You Doing for Armistice Day? Veterans Challenging Islamophobia: Voter Registration Save the Dates: Upcoming Events Solidarity With Standing Rock! Veterans For Peace has an ongoing presence at Standing Rock to stand in solidarity with the people who oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline, also known as the Black Snake. Last week, two members, Tarak Kauff and Matthew Hoh were arrested at Standing Rock.  Click to read more! Many members will be traveling to the camp in the upcoming weeks. VFP's presence is important but also critical that we follow the guidelines set out by the indigenous activism already taking place. If you are planning on traveling to Standing Rock, please contact the new Standing Rock VFP Committee: Brian Trautman: trautman@veteransforpeace Tom Palumbo: tpeacenik@gmail.com Tarak Kauff: takauff@gmail.com Michael Sullivan: mjs12285@gmail.com Martin Bates: learn7peace@yahoo.com Veterans For Peace stands in solidarity with the historic resistance at the Camp of the Sacred Stones in North Dakota. We join our Indigenous sisters and brothers in opposing the construction of an oil pipeline by the Dakota Access company that threatens drinking water and sacred burial grounds. <Full Statement Here> Back to Top Veterans For Peace at SOAW Border Convergence! The four-day gathering comprised a broad-spectrum program that brought together labor, faith-based, political, and social justice organizations. The event was held on both sides of the border. On Saturday morning, VFP led a march of over 700 participants to the border. During the Saturday rally, Michael McPhearson, VFP executive director, spoke on the U.S-side of the border, and Hector Barajas, deported veteran and coordinator of the VFP Tijuana Chapter, spoke on the Mexico side. Following the rally, VFP led a workshop on deported veterans on the Mexico side of the border. Click here to read Michael McPhearson's remarks! Back to Top New Peace in Our TImes Now Available! Click Here to Order Now! Extensive coverage of the Resistance at Standing Rock and the VFP Delegation to Okinawa Colin Kaepernick and the National Anthem by Jon Schwartz U.S. Military Attempts at Greenwash by Ann Wright A Vision For Black Lives by The Movement for Black Lives Resistance in San Diego by Dave Patterson Koch Brothers Trying to Get Into Your Pants by Denny Riley Letter From Leonard Peltier Israel's War on Water by Sumaya Awad Interview with Illan Pappe by Alexander Rios The Worst Human Being Alive by David Swanson  Veterans Challenge Islamophobia by Nate Terani  Back to Top Veterans Challenging Islamophobia: Voter Registration! Three different chapters partnered with neighboring mosques to host a voter registration drive.  This effort was begun by the Albany Chapter and as part of the ongoing Veterans Challenge Islamophobia.  News sources (Reuters, CNN) have reported that Muslims nationwide are working to register 1 million new voters for the Presidential elections awakened by the anti-Muslim rhetoric in this election cycle. All three chapters: Albany, Central New York and Los Angeles have reported amazing successes and opportunities for deeper relationships. “Bridges were built and friendships were made and a greater sense of understanding and wellbeing were achieved, the results of people working together cooperatively to improve their lives.” -Albany Chapter Back to Top Save the Dates: Upcoming Events Oct 11-26  - 2016 Maine Peace Walk - Stop the War$ on Mother Earth in various cities in Maine Oct-Nov - Medea Benjamin Book Tour Schedule: Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection Nov 11 - Armistice Day in your city March 11 - Half Day VFP Retreat in Nashville: contact Joey King: jbkranger@aol.com Back to Top

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Kingdom of the Unjust: Medea Benjamin speaks on Saudi Arabia

Kingdom of the Unjust: Medea Benjamin speaks on Saudi Arabia

When: Friday, October 21, 2016, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Where: First Church, Cambridge • 11 Garden St. • Cambridge

 

Medea Benjamin’s national book tour comes to Boston on Oct. 21:  An expose of an insidious relationship that is devastating the Middle East and South Asia

 

Author and activist Medea Benjamin will talk on October 21 on her new book, Kingdom of the Unjust: Beyond the U.S.-Saudi Connection.   Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange.

 

Friday, October 21: First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden St., Harvard Square

Free; donations to CODEPINK accepted. 
Book sales and book signing
Sponsored by United for Justice with Peace
Information: 617 383 4857; info@justicewithpeace.org

 

Upcoming Events: 

SPEAKOUT - Close Pilgrim Now!	Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 1:00pm	Massachusetts State House	Boston
Kingdom of the Unjust: Medea Benjamin speaks on Saudi Arabia	Friday, October 21, 2016 - 7:00pm	First Church, Cambridge	Cambridge
The Right to Boycott: Defending BDS	Saturday, October 29, 2016 - 10:00am	Central Square Library	Cambridge
Iyad Burnat: Bil'in and the Nonviolent Resistance	Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - 7:00pm	Encuentro 5	Boston
The Next Four Years: Building Our Movements in Dangerous Times	Saturday, December 3, 2016 - 9:00am	Simmons College, Paresky Conference Center	Boston

More Peace and Justice Events.    How to Submit Events
 

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Honor An Historic Leader Of The American Abolitionist Movement-John Brown Late Of Harper's Ferry

Honor An Historic Leader Of The American Abolitionist Movement-John Brown Late Of Harper's Ferry  

 

Chapter Three
The Abolitionist Calling

Unless otherwise noted, all images are from the Boyd B. Stutler Collection

When John Brown was born in 1800, nearly every northern state had taken action to abolish slavery. Because of gradual emancipation laws, however, slavery had ended in only two states—Vermont and Massachusetts. In Brown’s own birth state Connecticut, for example, a provision for gradual emancipation passed in 1784, but slavery did not completely end there until 1848.

“Before father moved from Hudson to Pa., and while living on the old tannery place, he harbored two runaway slaves. These were the first blacks I ever saw. When I, a small boy appeared in the morning the woman caught me up and gave me a kiss. I well remember trying to rub off the black from my face which I supposed had been transferred to me. This must have been before Western Reserve College had an existence. Father in later years gave me a full account of the concealing of those slaves and of their finally successful escape to Canada.” – John Brown Jr., letter to Frank Sanborn, January 8, 1884, Boyd B. Stutler Collection

Still, John Brown was exposed to the anti-slavery message at an early age. The State of Ohio, carved out of the old Northwest Territory in 1803, was free from territorial days. Moreover, Brown’s father Owen opposed slavery from his youth and became an ardent abolitionist, participating in Underground Railroad activities in Hudson. Like his father, John Brown dated his opposition to slavery to his youth, writing many years later that witnessing the treatment of a slave boy during the War of 1812 made him “a most determined Abolitionist.” As a young man, he, too, helped fugitive slaves.

By the 1830s, Ohio had become the center of abolitionism in the west. This was especially true of the Western Reserve along the state’s northern border, across Lake Erie from Canada, where a number of Underground Railroad stops were located. One stop was at Oberlin College, a leading institution in the abolition movement that was founded not far from Hudson in 1833. Owen Brown served as a trustee of Oberlin College 1835-44 and also helped establish the Western Reserve Anti-slavery Society in 1833 on the basis of immediate emancipation.

Unlike his father, John Brown did not join an anti-slavery society. His determination to help blacks was just as strong, however. In 1834, then living in Pennsylvania, he wrote his brother Frederick that he wanted to bring a black youth into his home and raise him as “we do our own.” He also wanted to start a school for black children. In the 1840s, when Gerrit Smith began giving land in upstate New York to blacks, John Brown saw a way to help them. He “felt that he was needed there [North Elba] to encourage and help by his experience the few colored families who had already settled in the wilderness, and those who might move there the following spring.” (Ruth Brown Thompson, quoted in Sanborn, 44) Family and local legend indicate that Brown also participated in Underground Railroad activities while in North Elba, which was near a route in the New York-Vermont border region that conveyed fugitive slaves to Canada.

Gerrit Smith

“The first time I ever heard of John Brown raising his voice against slavery was in the church prayer meeting one Thursday afternoon. We got the news that morning that the pro-slavery men had shot Lovejoy . . . John arose and in his calm, emphatic way says: ‘I pledge myself with God’s help that I will devote my life to increasing hostility towards slavery’.” – Lora Case, “Hudson of Long Ago, Reminiscences,” The Hudson Independent, 1897 (reprint, Hudson, OH: The Hudson Library and Historical Society, 1963)

At the same time, John Brown was considering more forceful action as well. In 1837, two witnesses recalled years later, after the death of anti-slavery editor Elijah Lovejoy at the hands of a pro-slavery mob, Brown proclaimed his commitment to ending slavery. Several of his children also remembered their father stating in the late 1830s his intention to fight slavery and asking that family members do the same. According to son John Jr.:

"Just before the close of the meeting, John Brown, who had sat silent in the back part of the room, rose, lifting up his right hand, saying, "Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!" - Edward Brown, Northwestern Congregationist, October 21, 1892 (quoted in The Nation, February 12, 1914)

Father, mother, Jason, Owen and I were, late in the evening, seated around the fire in the open fire-place of the kitchen, in the old Haymaker house where we then lived [Franklin, Ohio]; and there he first informed us of his determination to make war on slavery . . . by force and arms. He said that he had long entertained such a purpose—that he believed it his duty to devote his life, if need be, to this object, which he made us fully to understand. After spending considerable time in setting forth in most impressive language the hopeless condition of the slave, he asked who of us were willing to make common cause with him in doing all in our power to “break the jaws of the wicked and pluck the spoil out of his teeth,” naming each of us in succession. Are you, Mary, John, Jason, and Owen? Receiving an affirmative answer from each, he kneeled in prayer, and all did the same. . . . After prayer he asked us to raise our right hands, and he then administered to us an oath, . . . [that] bound us to secrecy and devotion to the purpose of fighting slavery by force and arms to the extent of our ability. - John Brown Jr., quoted in Oswald Garrison Villard, John Brown

By the late 1840s, John Brown had formulated his Subterranean Pass Way plan, a militant plan incorporating an “underground railroad” concept but designed to increase the number of blacks escaping from slavery. In November 1847, he shared his plan to utilize an armed force of blacks based in the mountains to attack slavery with abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “My plan then is to take at first about twenty-five picked men, and begin on a small scale; supply them arms and ammunition, post them in squads of fives on a line of twenty-five miles, the most persuasive and judicious of whom shall go down to the fields from time to time, as opportunity offers, and induce the slaves to join them, seeking and selecting the most restless and daring.” Brown was not alone in the 1840s among abolitionists in concluding that violence against slavery was necessary to bring the end of the South’s “peculiar institution.” However, such thinking was more likely found among black abolitionists such as Henry Highland Garnet and David Walker rather than their white compatriots.

Frederick Douglass

For many, the turning point was passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850. In strengthening existing legislation, the 1850 law denied captured blacks due process and imposed penalties on law enforcement officials or private citizens who failed to enforce the law or aided runaways. Both fugitives who were living in northern communities and free blacks felt threatened by the new law. Many fled to Canada; many others were captured and sent south. John Brown observed in November 1850, “It now seems that the Fugitive Slave Law was to be the means of making more Abolitionists than all the lectures we have had for years.” (Sanborn, 106-7) In January 1851, Brown took direct action, helping organize a group of Springfield blacks, the United States League of Gileadites, to resist the new law and rescue captured blacks. He likewise urged his family and neighbors in North Elba to oppose the law.

William Lloyd Garrison

The next few years brought slave rescues in several states as groups of northern whites and blacks sought to oppose the law. In one of the more prominent cases, that of fugitive slave Anthony Burns, who was captured in Boston in May 1854, such noted abolitionists as Wendell Phillips, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Theodore Parker participated in a failed attempt to free Burns that led to a riot and the death of a deputy. In New York defending Perkins and Brown in a law suit, John Brown stated his intent to go to Boston and help free Burns but was dissuaded from such action by his counsel because of the pending legal case. On July 4, a month after Burns was returned to his Virginia master, William Lloyd Garrison dramatically demonstrated his antipathy for slavery and its support by the federal government.

Producing a copy of the Fugitive Slave Law, he set fire to it, and it burst to ashes. . . . In like manner, Mr. Garrison burned the decision of Edward G. Loring in the case of Anthony Burns, and the late charge of Judge Benjamin R. Curtis to the United States Grand Jury in reference to the "treasonable" assault upon the Court House for the rescue of the fugitive—the multitude ratifying the fiery immolation with shouts of applause. Then holding up the U.S. Constitution, he branded it as the source and parent of all the other atrocities,—"a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell,"—and consumed it to ashes on the spot, exclaiming, "So perish all compromises with tyranny!” - The Liberator, July 7, 1854

Primary Documents:

Owen Brown’s abolitionist statement (from Sanborn, Life and Letters)
Letter, John Brown to Frederick Brown, November 21, 1834
Extract from Edward Brown’s recollections on John Brown
Frederick Douglass account of meeting with John Brown (from Douglass, Life and Times)
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
United States League of Gileadites (from Sanborn)
Proceedings of the convention of Radical Political Abolitionists, 1855

Secondary Sources:

"John Brown and the Fugitive Slave Law," by William Wells Brown
John Brown and Anthony Burns

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