OMNI
VICTIMS OF US
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a
Culture of PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY. (#1 May 20, 2009; #2 May 31, 2010, #3 May 30,
2011; #4 May 28, 2012; #5 May 27, 2013).
Alternative titles: MOURNING FOR VICTIMS OF WARS DAY, IMMEMORIAL
DAY. (Veterans Day is Nov. 11, to be
called ARMISTICE FOR ALL WARS DAY.)
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters: http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/ For a knowledge-based peace, justice, and
ecology movement and an informed citizenry as the foundation for change. SEEKING ALTERNATIVES TO MILITARISM, WARS, EMPIRE, FOR A
CULTURE OF PEACE AND JUSTICE. Here is the link to the Index: http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/ See: Veterans Day, Armed Forces Day, Imperialism, Individual Wars,
Militarism, Torture, US Westward Expansion, Violence, War and Environment, War
Resistance.
What
is the mission of OMNI?
With
the Quakers (the AFSC, FCNL) we seek:
a
world free of war and the threat of war,
a
society with equity and justice for all,
a
community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled,
and
an earth restored.
Instead of Dead Warriors, let us celebrate
those who tried and are trying to prevent the killing. Link to Peace, Justice, Ecology Heroes: http://www.omnicenter.org/leaders-for-peace-justice-and/
“Memorial Day, it seems to me, should also
honor the Thoreaus, the
conscientious objectors, the anti-war protesters, who attempted to
forestall or shorten the more unjust or immoral of these wars. It isn’t only
the fallen soldiers who served the nation, but also those who worked to ensure
that no soldiers fell in unjust wars, in wars that after the UN Charter was
passed in 1945, would be designated as ‘illegal.’ " - Juan Cole, Informed Comment, May 27, 2013
OMNI
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
Two kinds
of violence disrupt the harmony of our world:
individual and structural. This newsletter is part of OMNI’s NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS
PROJECT, by which we counter the
structural conditioning for violence and wars in such celebrations as Columbus
Day, Armed Forces Day, and Memorial Day.
These national days of violence reinforce the national drive for
hardness, punishment, wars, invasions and interventions—some fifty since WWII,
amounting to permanent war, recounted by William Blum in Killing Hope and Rogue Nation
and by Richard Rubenstein in his book Reasons
to Kill: Why Americans Choose War (2010).
Rubenstein analyzes seven “key rationales for war” employed by
successive US
(The other half of the DAYS Project
is the affirmation of
nonviolent DAYS, such as United Nations
DAY, Human Rights DAY, Conscientious Objectors’ DAY by which we strive for the
goals of equity, health, protection of all species, and a world free of war and
the threat of war.)
Victims Newsletter Numbers 1-5 are at the end.
Contents of Mourning the Victims Day Newsletter #6
Decoration Day, Memorial
Day, Honoring US Military
Killed
Critiques, Think About This
Day
Commercialization of
Memorial Day
The Weather Channel
Celebrates Memorial Day
PBS Celebrates the Day
Marc Ash, MD Not to Glorify
War
Lisa Garrett, Wake Up to USA
Recent Related Newsletters
Earlier MD Newsletters
Memorial Day in United States
Memorial Day commemorates
all Americans who have died in military service for the United States
Memorial Day 2014
Monday, May 26, 2014
Memorial Day is
observed on the last Monday of May. It was formerly known as Decoration Day and
commemorates all men and women, who have died in military service for the United States
Memorial Day remembers those who died serving the United States
©iStockphoto.com/ Alan
Crosthwaite
A
DAY FOR PATRIOTISM
National Memorial
Day Concert | PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
Watch the National Memorial Day Concert the Sunday
before Memorial Day. Find out ... Joe Mantegna and Gary
Sinise co-host the 2014 concert. On the eve
of ...
Memorial Day 2014 parades and ceremonies in central ...
The Patriot‑News
1 day ago - Parade, memorial
services and ceremonies for Memorial Day 2014 in central Pennsylvania
COMMENT on the PBS Program, Sunday, May
25:
General Powell was a key
speaker, despite his participation in the war crime of invading Iraq Fayetteville
The General’s platitudes were followed by a recitation of the Lord’s
Prayer. Again, who arranged this
program? God is to be associated with
people like Powell? For shame PBS.
A DAY AND WEEKEND FOR BUYING AND
GETAWAYS
[Google told a little about the patriotic Day but
most of the entries in the 7 pages of Google Memorial Day 2014 I read
advertised shopping and traveling. The
commodification of this solemn Day needs little comment. Instead of asking We,
the People, to be informed and to reflect about the attacks on the World Trade
Center
Walmart Memorial
Day 2014 - Walmart.com
Walmart
Walmart Memorial Day 2014. Save big at the
Walmart Memorial Day 2014 event. Save money. Live
better. Walmart.com.
Memorial Day 2014 Travel Deals: Last-Minute Weekend ...
International Business Times
2 days ago - Memorial Day Weekend 2014 Travel Deals
1.
5 unforgettable Memorial
Day weekend getaways
| Fox News
Fox News Channel
19 hours ago - 5 unforgettable Memorial Day weekend getaways ... the
summer season with a bi-coastal, all-night party for Memorial Day weekend 2014.
THE WEATHER CHANNEL
Today, May 26, TWC mirrored PBS. Here’s a sample of about five minutes
duration: “Meteorologist” praising all US Showing Arlington
Cemetery
THE PURPOSE OF MEMORIAL
DAY?
Marc
Ash, “Arlington”
Reader Supported News, May 25, 2014
here is probably no greater insult to those
who have served their country than to use public support for them as a
validation of war itself.
Reader Supported News, May 25, 2014
here is probably no greater insult to those
who have served their country than to use public support for them as a
validation of war itself.
Memorial Day is not
about the glorification of war. It is about the sacrifice of human beings who
believed and believe that their sacrifice will bring about good.
Arlington
House at Arlington
National Cemetery Union blamed Lee for what they saw as an
unnecessary war and the toll, in human terms, was his to bear.
Arlington House and the
dead around it might well be the greatest anti-war statement ever made. Every
war exacts a horrible price in human terms; unnecessary wars are a betrayal of
the very nations they purport to serve. Arlington
Why wait for the
terrible price of war to be exacted to deliver the next war’s plunder to Arlington Arlington
Let the planners stand
as Robert E. Lee did at Arlington House and make the next decision there. Maybe
they will make a better decision than he did. They will certainly have more
help.
The senators, the White
House staff, the Joint Chiefs, put the war planning room there, at Arlington Arlington will serve the purpose
Union Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs intended when he convinced Lincoln
to turn Arlington
Marc Ash was formerly the founder and Executive Director of
Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.
Reader
Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to
republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported
News.
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THINK ABOUT
ALL WAR DEAD |
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While Memorial Day is a time to remember soldiers who have
died in war, I ask you to consider all who have been lost. The
If you are upset with the current level of militarism, please take action today! The endless wars will stop when the American people demand it. 1. Look at the bolded examples of antiwar action listed in the US Peace Registry. Choose one that you could accomplish today. 2. Tell us and your friends/family what you are doing for peace. Encourage others to join you. 3. Our Foundation’s mission is focused solely on increasing the number of Americans who speak out against war(s). Please make a donation today commensurate with your commitment to peace. Since 2005, the US Peace Memorial Foundation has directed a nationwide effort to recognize peace leadership by publishing the US Peace Registry, awarding an annual Peace Prize, and planning for the US Peace Memorial in Washington, D.C. These projects help move the Email me if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions. Thank you very much for your ongoing support. Michael D. Knox, PhD, Chair US Peace Memorial Foundation, Inc. Knox@USPeaceMemorial.org
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FOUNDATION DOCUMENTS AND LINKS YOU MAY FIND INTERESTING
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“WORLD PEACE:
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"HONORING PEACE AND ANTIWAR BEHAVIOR:
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USPM FLIER
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receiving this update because of your interest in the US Peace Memorial or
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THIS CRITIQUE ARRIVED AFTER I HAD POSTED THE 2013 NEWSLETTER: We long to wake up on Mourning the Victims
Day. . . .
Mon May 27, 2013 8:20 am (PDT) .
Posted by:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <dorothyreik@pdsmm.org>
Date: Mon, May 27, 2013 at 8:07 AM
OPENING; DOTS , Memorial Day May 27th 2013
Host: Lila Garrett
Guests: Farah Almousani of Courage to Resist
David Swanson (Rootsaction.org)
Tim Carpenter (PDA)
Good Monday morning. Welcome to *Connect the Dots*. I’m your host Lila
Garrett and, as always, I long to wake up on Memorial Day to find our
country at peace with the world. Instead of mourning the young men and
women who think they died fighting to protect their country, let us mourn
the truth. Let us mourn the fact that most of the time our beautiful youth
died to keep our permanent war economy alive. They died for what
Eisenhower referred to as the military-industrial complex. They died for
the power and profit of strangers. Had they thought of the expression “die
for your country” as a public relations con job would they have risked
their lives in such massive numbers? Of course not. But profiteers &
presidents are so good at selling war…and most of us are so bad at knowing
when we’re being manipulated, it hurts us to recognize that practically
since its inception our country has been in a state of perpetual war. This
is a cause not for celebration, but for shame.
You feel I’m being disrespectful of our fallen perhaps? I am not taking
into consideration the sacrifice and “glory” of Memorial Day? You feel
perhaps this should be a day of prayer and other religious rituals? Very
well….How about this?
What if God actually was an old guy with a white beard, rather than an
abstraction. And he stood on top a mountain holding out his arms and
roared to the millions of armed service people below him, about to be
shipped off to war. What would he say??? I don’t know about your God, but
my god would cry out…..
“Stop! *You think you’re going off to save democracy, to protect your
country, to create freedom and equality*? Know that you are fighting to
maintain not your country but your country’s permanent war economy. Know
that you are about to kill strangers and very possibly get killed
yourselves for the power and profit of Lockhead Martin, Boeing,
Northrup-Grummon. Are you ready to die for General Dynamics, Chevron,
British Petroleum, and the drone makers? Are you willing to lose a leg or
an arm or your mind for Raytheon, BAE and the Koch Brothers? Are you
prepared to spend the rest of your life in a wheel chair for Bechtel SAIC,
General Electric…and rest corporateAmerica
*Perhaps you don’t think in those terms. Perhaps you think you’re going to
protect the helpless, feed the hungry?* Know that what you are going to
create is more helpless, and you will primarily feed the fat-cats that
profit by these war.
Y*ou’re prepared to go to war to protect your country from attack you
say? * *Know that your country is in less danger of attack from the
outside than the outside that is from your country*.
*“But there are terrorist”, you say. They do have to be stopped. Yes
they do and the first place to stop them is right here. At home. * The
most lethal terrorist technology ever invented is the drone. The
instigator and the leader of Drone development is theUnited States
Drones that kill recklessly, randomly, turning everything and everyone in
their path to rubble. Unmanned murderers capable of wiping out hundreds,
thousands, potentially millions in a plane without a pilot that looks like
a toy….or even a bug. Drones that create instant enemies for theUS
cause not fewer terrorists around the world, but more. After all, what
have potential victims of drones got to lose?. They see the collateral
damage drones cause. They know there’s no place to hide. We’re going to
get killed anyway, they think. It’s all done by remote control from some
safe office building cozily tucked away in American towns by military
people who play the drone like a video game. Fun for the sender; death for
the unsuspecting receiver. Drones are an exciting new game for the Masters
of War.
*Insert: Keaton Simons sings Bob Dillons Masters of War. *
What happens when sweet, well meaning young people equate patriotism with
blindly obeying their country’s orders them to kill strangers? What
happens when public relations campaigns convince young people that their
slogans are real….*“mess with the best, die like the rest*,” the Marines
tell us. “*cocked locked* *ready to rock*” they brag. They make you feel
good when they call themselves…..the *Marines. the few, .the proud*. It
makes you want to be one of them.
One the young people who confused that public relations slogan with the
truth was Bradley Manning. When he was 18 he joined the Army to fight for
his country inIraq
Destabilization, confusion, the anonymity of the killers and their
victims. Killing for its own sake, killing for kicks, the obsessive,
compulsive need to kill that takes over what once were decent, sane young
people.
One day Bradley Manning witnessed one of these mass killings for sport by
American marines inIraq
this to his superior officer. He was told to keep his mouth shut. He
didn’t. He gave the video of the killings to Wikileaks so the world would
know the truth about war. And now, 3 years later a military court is about
to decide if he will pay for his honesty with his life. After 3 years of
confinement and torture in military prison, he’s finally getting a trial,
and that’s because a million protesting Americans refused to allow him to
be hidden away any longer. Is justice possible for Bradley Manning? So far
he has been refused the right to speak publicly about what he saw or what
he has suffered. In other words he is not allowed to speak in his own
defense. How’s that for honoring our first amendment?
*Farah Almousani,* Campaign organizer for the great organization Courage
to Resist, was present at his last hearing. What is in store for this
genuine hero for peace and sanity? What’s in store for the rest of us who
believe in his cause?
(to listen to this interview and the other interviews with David Swanson
and Tim Carpenter, follow the instructions below.)
*Lila Garrett (Host of CONNECT THE DOTS)*
KPFK 90.7 FM in LA; 98.7 Santa Barbara; 93.7 San Diego;
99.5 China Lake
Airs Mondays from 7AM to 8AM.
To pod cast or download the broadcast use this link:
http://www.kpfk.org/programs/67-connect-the-dots-with-lila-garrett.html
Each show is on line for three months.
Shelly Rockett
Veterans for Peace
Communications & Outreach Coordinator
shelly@veteransforpeace.org
314-725-6005
From: <dorothyreik@pdsmm.org>
Date: Mon, May 27, 2013 at 8:07 AM
OPENING; DOTS , Memorial Day May 27th 2013
Host: Lila Garrett
Guests: Farah Almousani of Courage to Resist
David Swanson (Rootsaction.org)
Tim Carpenter (PDA)
Good Monday morning. Welcome to *Connect the Dots*. I’m your host Lila
Garrett and, as always, I long to wake up on Memorial Day to find our
country at peace with the world. Instead of mourning the young men and
women who think they died fighting to protect their country, let us mourn
the truth. Let us mourn the fact that most of the time our beautiful youth
died to keep our permanent war economy alive. They died for what
Eisenhower referred to as the military-industrial complex. They died for
the power and profit of strangers. Had they thought of the expression “die
for your country” as a public relations con job would they have risked
their lives in such massive numbers? Of course not. But profiteers &
presidents are so good at selling war…and most of us are so bad at knowing
when we’re being manipulated, it hurts us to recognize that practically
since its inception our country has been in a state of perpetual war. This
is a cause not for celebration, but for shame.
You feel I’m being disrespectful of our fallen perhaps? I am not taking
into consideration the sacrifice and “glory” of Memorial Day? You feel
perhaps this should be a day of prayer and other religious rituals? Very
well….How about this?
What if God actually was an old guy with a white beard, rather than an
abstraction. And he stood on top a mountain holding out his arms and
roared to the millions of armed service people below him, about to be
shipped off to war. What would he say??? I don’t know about your God, but
my god would cry out…..
“Stop! *You think you’re going off to save democracy, to protect your
country, to create freedom and equality*? Know that you are fighting to
maintain not your country but your country’s permanent war economy. Know
that you are about to kill strangers and very possibly get killed
yourselves for the power and profit of Lockhead Martin, Boeing,
Northrup-Grummon. Are you ready to die for General Dynamics, Chevron,
British Petroleum, and the drone makers? Are you willing to lose a leg or
an arm or your mind for Raytheon, BAE and the Koch Brothers? Are you
prepared to spend the rest of your life in a wheel chair for Bechtel SAIC,
General Electric…and rest corporate
*Perhaps you don’t think in those terms. Perhaps you think you’re going to
protect the helpless, feed the hungry?* Know that what you are going to
create is more helpless, and you will primarily feed the fat-cats that
profit by these war.
Y*ou’re prepared to go to war to protect your country from attack you
say? * *Know that your country is in less danger of attack from the
outside than the outside that is from your country*.
*“But there are terrorist”, you say. They do have to be stopped. Yes
they do and the first place to stop them is right here. At home. * The
most lethal terrorist technology ever invented is the drone. The
instigator and the leader of Drone development is the
Drones that kill recklessly, randomly, turning everything and everyone in
their path to rubble. Unmanned murderers capable of wiping out hundreds,
thousands, potentially millions in a plane without a pilot that looks like
a toy….or even a bug. Drones that create instant enemies for the
cause not fewer terrorists around the world, but more. After all, what
have potential victims of drones got to lose?. They see the collateral
damage drones cause. They know there’s no place to hide. We’re going to
get killed anyway, they think. It’s all done by remote control from some
safe office building cozily tucked away in American towns by military
people who play the drone like a video game. Fun for the sender; death for
the unsuspecting receiver. Drones are an exciting new game for the Masters
of War.
*Insert: Keaton Simons sings Bob Dillons Masters of War. *
What happens when sweet, well meaning young people equate patriotism with
blindly obeying their country’s orders them to kill strangers? What
happens when public relations campaigns convince young people that their
slogans are real….*“mess with the best, die like the rest*,” the Marines
tell us. “*cocked locked* *ready to rock*” they brag. They make you feel
good when they call themselves…..the *Marines. the few, .the proud*. It
makes you want to be one of them.
One the young people who confused that public relations slogan with the
truth was Bradley Manning. When he was 18 he joined the Army to fight for
his country in
Destabilization, confusion, the anonymity of the killers and their
victims. Killing for its own sake, killing for kicks, the obsessive,
compulsive need to kill that takes over what once were decent, sane young
people.
One day Bradley Manning witnessed one of these mass killings for sport by
American marines in
this to his superior officer. He was told to keep his mouth shut. He
didn’t. He gave the video of the killings to Wikileaks so the world would
know the truth about war. And now, 3 years later a military court is about
to decide if he will pay for his honesty with his life. After 3 years of
confinement and torture in military prison, he’s finally getting a trial,
and that’s because a million protesting Americans refused to allow him to
be hidden away any longer. Is justice possible for Bradley Manning? So far
he has been refused the right to speak publicly about what he saw or what
he has suffered. In other words he is not allowed to speak in his own
defense. How’s that for honoring our first amendment?
*Farah Almousani,* Campaign organizer for the great organization Courage
to Resist, was present at his last hearing. What is in store for this
genuine hero for peace and sanity? What’s in store for the rest of us who
believe in his cause?
(to listen to this interview and the other interviews with David Swanson
and Tim Carpenter, follow the instructions below.)
*Lila Garrett (Host of CONNECT THE DOTS)*
KPFK 90.7 FM in LA; 98.7 Santa Barbara; 93.7 San Diego;
99.5 China Lake
Airs Mondays from 7AM to 8AM.
To pod cast or download the broadcast use this link:
http://www.kpfk.org/programs/67-connect-the-dots-with-lila-garrett.html
Each show is on line for three months.
Shelly Rockett
Veterans for Peace
Communications & Outreach Coordinator
shelly@veteransforpeace.org
314-725-6005
CINDY SHEEHAN ON MEMORIAL DAY
See previous numbers of this newsletters and Google
Cindy Sheehan Memorial Day.
Charles Pierce.
“It's Memorial Day and the
Country Is at War With Itself.” Esquire, Reader Supported
News, May 26, 2014
Pierce writes: "This is a country now at war with itself. This is a phrase that is generally tossed about when political debate gets too heated. It was popular to say it back in the 1960s, when it seemed quite possibly to be true, with leaders bleeding out on balconies inMemphis
or kitchen floors in Los Angeles , and students
bleeding out from gunfire on college campuses, and half-baked revolutionary
idiots blowing themselves up in Greenwich Village .
But this is not the same thing. This is a country at war with itself for
profit."
READ MORE
Pierce writes: "This is a country now at war with itself. This is a phrase that is generally tossed about when political debate gets too heated. It was popular to say it back in the 1960s, when it seemed quite possibly to be true, with leaders bleeding out on balconies in
READ MORE
RECENT RELATED NEWSLETTERS
5-25
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5-25
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5-25
Snowden
5-23
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5-16
Russia/Ukraine
5-15
Conscientious Objection
Please forward my newsletters on
your Facebook as an Event.
PREVIOUS MEMORIAL/VICTIMS DAYS NEWSLETTERS
Contents Memorial Day/Victims of War Newsletter #4
2012
Memorial Day Perversions
Engelhardt, Remembering
Memorial Day
Film, Sir, No Sir
Amy Goodman, Stop the Wars
AFSC, No to NATO and War
How Should We Spend Our
Money?
IVAW: Fort Hood
Dudziak, War-Time, Permanent War
From 2011: Veterans for
Peace
Contents #5 2013
2013
Gersmehl, Honoring the
Killed
David Swanson, Memorial Day
Juan Cole, Thoreau
Cindy Sheehan
Ash, Any Good Wars?
2012
Cindy Sheehan, “FreeDumb”
2012
Quigley, Immemorial Day 2012
IVAW 2012
“Remember” Film 2012
Maguire, Just-War Theory
Boggs, Crimes of US Empire
Shaffer’s More Great Antiwar Films
END
VICTIMS OF WARS DAY NEWSLETTER #6
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