IVAW Calls Police Professional at DNC Despite The Brutality

I strongly encourage all to go to the blog http://dncrnc.wordpress.com/ for videos of the criminal actions of the Denver Police Department during the Democratic National Convention. The videos aren't just those of the peace movement. There are many from sources of mainstream press as well as independent media that isn't local.

After watching the videos it is obviously clear the only violence being initiated is by the police. Time after time there is video evidence of activists being peaceful, calling out for non-violence and actually holding their hands in the air to show there were no rocks or projectiles being thrown.

The "arrest" of Carlo Garcia, a young activist confronting gay bashing homophobes from the neocon religious right, was a mugging by goons in blue just as the attack on Alicia Forrest, Code Pink member who came to the defense of Carlo, was a mugging. In video of the Monday (Aug 25th) assault near Civic Center Park by police there are five cops brutally attacking a young, thinly built protester with clubs.

The cops even assaulted two teens doing chalk drawing on the sidewalk at the Westin Hotel where Obama was staying. The two young women were part of the pro-life demonstrators swarming every event at the DNC. Their offense apparently seemed to be chalk drawing because they certainly posed no danger to anyone in the area.

An ironic case of police brutality occurred when an ABC television producer was standing on a public sidewalk doing some video. A burly and hostile cop forced the producer off the sidewalk into the street that was still open to traffic. The producer asked why the cop was doing "this" but never received an explanation. When the producer returned to the sidewalk and began taping again, several cops ran up to him. One cop put a choke hold on the producer and then the plastic ties were put on his wrists as one cop is heard to say, "you're under arrest, partner". Again there was no explanation given. As difficult as it may be to resist a big snicker, it was still one more act of brutality.

And while talking about the press, the videos at the site mentioned show riot police forcing the press at least one block away from the site of a group of demonstrators who were about to be gassed, shot with pepper balls, beaten and maced. Only Cop Watch cameras and hidden camera picked up the riot police, missing name or badge identification, attacking young protesters with their arms in the air and chanting "no violence".

Later these protesters were accused of throwing rocks and feces at the police. This accusation was promoted by Councilman Doug Linkhart (D) of the Denver City Council. Turns out the suspected feces was a cup of latte with soy milk. Even the notoriously conservative Rocky Mountain News had reporters who were present until driven away saying they never saw rocks of any other projectiles thrown. All videos confirm the lies of the police about this accusation of rocks being thrown.

The sad aftermath is most likely not one damn cop will pay for their assaults with the exception possibly of the idiot who attacked Ms. Forrest.

After watching the videos referred to, I also suggest going to the links supplied by Richard Myers at the local Indymedia.

I was out every day during the DNC and the oppressive force used was so blatant while the citizens of this city went about business without much complaint toward the police. They blamed the demonstrators for daring to actually exercise their freedom of speech, it seems.

The constant fear mongering of the Democrats and Republicans about alleged "terrorists" masks the real terrorists. The American people fear terrorism coming from outside the borders of this nation but constantly fail to see the terrorism of the police and government agencies constantly trying to squash any dissent.

While the gulag forces of Denver have receded and the citizens are concentrating on the gluttony of the "Taste of Colorado", the activists in Minneapolis-St. Paul are seeing the increased tyranny of Gulag Minnesota. Convergence centers are being raided, activists in cars rousted and intimidation tactics are being stepped up much like witnessed here in Denver.

Denver and the State of Colorado government stooges are congratulating themselves for a gala event culminating in the Invesco Field coronation. They actually want us to believe the DNC was a success because police acted professionally and kept us all "safe". What they really celebrate is the truth wasn't allowed to get out about the criminal actions of both police and the government in suppressing the rights of the people.

There are those who took part in the IVAW action who have congratulated the police for their professionalism. Unfortunately, some of the veterans who led that march are those who have said such things. I strongly disagree with such statements. I don't care if the leaders of the IVAW march were in the forefront of the march and had verbal communication with the police. The veterans were given preferential treatment by cops and politicians, to put it kindly.

The IVAW leadership can't have it both ways when it comes to being activists. They can't call the war immoral and illegal while dismissing or overlooking the brutality of the police here in this nation toward brothers and sisters who aren't veterans. They can't focus on just their events and forget the beatings of non-veteran activists. They can't walk away from their action with a campaign promise that is worthless and expect the brothers and sisters who have been gassed, beaten and jailed to cheer it as a victory.

I've been an advocate of veterans' healthcare treatment being adequate. I've praised and encouraged returning veterans having the courage to resist and speak out. I can't, however, accept them giving the Denver Police Department kudos for the Wednesday standoff. Veterans need to think about the way the Iraqi people looked at them with distrust and hate because of the brutality they were ordered to carry out and correlate it with the distrust and hate elicited by brutal cops in American cities towards activists who try to effect changes. Veterans can't praise an oppressive force that is racist to the core and expect to get a pass from other activists.

IVAW has been treated with kids' gloves by many but I'm not about to rubber stamp their congratulatory message to the Denver cops. I suggest IVAW members sit down and watch the video links posted and reconsider how professional the Denver Police really are.

I have made previous statements in praise of IVAW but when they don't support other activists who are brutalized by the police they have failed their brothers and sisters outside the veteran community. And just to make it clear, I'm a combat veteran, but I can't tolerate seeing activists who have different backgrounds being brutalized any more than I can tolerate a veteran being denied benefits or treatment.

It will take all of us together to stop the brutality, end the war and bring justice to the people most in need of it. Veterans can't expect to get a pass, get special treatment or ignore the plight of other activists who fight for their return. It doesn't work that way. If they expect support they need to return it with their support of other activists. Hopefully, that conversation might come up in the joint IVAW/VFP convention in Minneapolis this coming week.

Wm. Terry Leichner

Denver VVAW member

Lessons Learned At The DNC

The memories of the 2008 Democratic National Convention here in Denver are many. The most memorable thing was the color blue that pervasively poisoned the air of my hometown, Denver. Cops in blue, to be more specific. I learned once again I live in a nation based on the lie all men are created equal and there is freedom of speech.
It is memorable at the time we have a black man nominated for the Presidency, we are further away from the truth of equality and freedom of speech than anytime during my sixty years on earth.

And, being more a citizen of the world than just a citizen of a nation blind to the plight of the rest of the world, I fear the struggle for Martin’s “dream” still has many miles to go with many struggles and disappointments ahead. But we must persist to resist.

I’m a hiker because I live in a state with more mountains 13,000 and 14,000 feet in elevation than any other state in North America. When I hike there are some amazing people I meet along the way up or dragging ass back down.

People say hello to each other, support each other and are friendly and relaxed almost all the time on the trails. Except for the lunatic that menaced my wife and me with a knife on one trail. That was the only time I’ve ever felt a threat from another human on a trail.

On one particular trail to the hardest 14,000 peak in the state, Long’s Peak, we met an elderly gentleman who was snowshoeing back down toward the trail head. He greeted us with a distinctive German accent and praised us for being well prepared for the winter conditions. We talked with him for some time. We discovered he was a retired forest ranger and had guided hikers to the top of Long’s Peak many times in over twenty years of being assigned there. At that time he was 68. He had topped the hardest peak in Colorado over 100 times. His latest trip had been when he turned 68.

I asked him how he managed to scale such a difficult peak so many times and for so long. He smiled with a look of amusement. “Perseverance”, he told me, “perseverance”. We’ve met Max several more times in winter and summer. He’s in his seventies now and still climbing up that mountain.

When I stood with the IVAW on Wednesday night at the DNC with riot police about to light us up with gas and God only knows what else, I thought of Max’s “perseverance” comment. I was standing near Ron Kovic who had “marched” the full four miles with us. A young man had assisted Ron with his chair the entire way.

Ron Kovic is an example of perseverance. I saw him all over the DNC demonstrations. I marched four times in five days and every time Ron showed up with us. And he came out of his hotel on Monday when very young activists were being brutalized by the riot police.

Perseverance. IVAW members persevered Wednesday in the face of danger. They persevered on Operation First Casualty on patrol through the busiest part of Denver on the 16th Street Mall.

They reenacted the daily horror of their life in Iraq and Afghanistan to demonstrate to an apathetic nation what goes on in their war every day and what nightmares linger in their tortured souls.

It would have been easier to hide behind the flag or in some veteran’s club like VFW to tell war stories.

It would have been easier to have convinced themselves they took part in an “honorable’ war.

It would have been easier to go to their “four cornered room” to self medicate and try to forget.

The act of testifying about war and reenacting the war that torments you already is one of the most patriotic acts a veteran can do. Winter Soldiers’ Investigation and OFC are acts of courage few understand. I do understand.

When I was young I took part in street theater and testified about another war. I still testify forty years later. Ron Kovic still testifies forty years later. I’m 60 but when I go to a college to tell about my experience in Vietnam when I was 18 and 19, I dissociate back to 1968 and become 18 and 19.

When I finish and return home I’m drained and sleep even less than the normal four hours. I pray to God the vets of IVAW won’t have to continue testifying forty years later but I feel confident they will do so if they have to.

It pains me greatly to watch the members of IVAW as they do what they know they have to do. I see their pain and like a parent I want to console them. But, as a parent, I have my sons to console.

As a veteran of another war I understand the troops of IVAW better than they think.

But I also know they need to do what they do without interference from me. Now is the time for them to come to the forefront as patriots to defend their nation from the dangers within their own government.

They need to be with each other without my interference, just as we Vietnam vets kept to ourselves when we returned. Affinity and intense common experiences make their unity necessary and admirable.

Many try to interject themselves into that bond of veterans but they can’t any more than those who tried to join the resistance of Vietnam veteran brothers and sisters but weren't veterans.

The color blue was pervasive in my mind during the DNC. I had to seek comfort in my favorite blues music to cope. I felt the depressive blues in my mind watching the pain and anger of those who struggled against the agents of the police state. I saw way too many armed men and women in blue riot gear ready to harm me and my brothers and sisters of the resistance.

Yesterday I marched with immigrants and families of immigrants wanting to become part of the America they are helping build with their labor for wages far too low. They speak in another language often. They listen to different music. Their culture is different than my white European culture. Their families once lived on this land called Colorado. It once belonged to their families. It was stolen from their families by my ancestors.

The march was peaceful, joyous and festive. The police presence was much less probably because the former mayor, Federico Pena, and the former head of the Department of Safety, which oversees police, were in the march.

The most obvious thing I witnessed was “familia” running strongly through the crowd.

And yet I left the march with a lingering sad impression. As we marched over the Colfax Avenue Bridge I looked down below into an industrial area. Four white men turned their backs to the marchers and stuck their butts in the air to signal their disapproval.

As we came to the end of the bridge, people lined the sidewalks clapping and giving thumbs up gestures except for one lonely individual. She was in her twenties and dressed very fashionably. She stood on the sidewalk with a hateful look while she gave a thumbs down gesture to the marchers.

How do we become so hateful? What threat do the immigrants pose this young woman? Or those four guys in the lumber yard? Does she believe the immigrants are the threat to her security after eight years of George W. Bush? I have no answers and fail to understand the hate she personified.

Oh, yes, I have been exposed to it. I have been part of it when I began to depersonalize the Vietnamese as “gooks” dangerous to me and my comrades. I understand the concept that led me to this hate but don’t want to understand why it lingers in so many of us.

I refuse to understand it because it is evil racism that we all seem so capable of having in the darkness of our hearts. What I need to do is stop trying to understand it and start trying to change it by resisting the hate, the violence and racism. So easy to say.

I ran across my friend, Larry, several times during the DNC. Larry is a young black activist who runs the IAC here in Denver. Larry has been harassed and beaten by the Denver Police. He walks outside his Capital Hill apartment into a gentrified neighborhood.

The affluent and mostly white residents have returned from the suburbs to be closer to downtown jobs. The housing for the poorer, like my mental health clients, has evaporated. The homeless are chased away. Black men like Larry are looked upon with suspicion by residents and the police.

Larry wears dreadlocks. He’s slightly built and weighs less than 150 pounds. He looks more like Bob Marley than a gang member or the stereotypical black male of criminal activities used by cops and racists to justify continued racist actions.

Yesterday, in the park where the immigrant march ended, I spotted Larry and talked with him. He asked me if the events of the standoff by IVAW with police were staged. I assured him they weren’t at the end of the action but the vets had worked with police for an escort and the cops knew some of the vets would risk arrest.

We talked about the outcome of the IVAW march. We both agreed it was outrageous that veterans and the other activists had to go to such extremes in order to access the delegates and candidates of any political party. Neither of us was satisfied with just a campaign promise to consider just three points the IVAW wanted to discuss.

Larry correctly pointed out the press was quick to jump on an assault by the police on a white Code Pink activist but failed to go into the case of the young Latino who had been arrested and roughly treated for getting into an argument with gay bashers trying to interrupt a peaceful march. The hate-mongers who were white weren’t arrested.

Larry correctly pointed out young and mostly minority activists had been encircled and gassed, maced, and roughly treated by police on Monday without reasonable warning. All video and eyewitness accounts deny police allegations the young activists were throwing rocks and other objects at police.

A video aired by Amy Goodman shows police spraying mace and shooting gas into an encircled group of activists. The police wouldn’t allow them to leave the scene. The police didn’t have badge numbers or names on their riot gear. No warning was given. They were anonymous goons of the state at that point.

Larry is about the oppressed. He is the oppressed. He has right to be cynical about returning veterans getting a more reasonable response from police than he would or the groups he represent would. He and I both know the police would have violently ended the standoff Wednesday night if it had been anybody but the IVAW standing up to them.

I have to agree with Larry when he points out media makes more out of a white activist being man-handled than if it were a black or Latino activist. I go even further to say veterans sometimes become ambivalent about things. They want to treat riot police with respect and some have actually been part of the police department before joining the military.

Veterans are often ambivalent about the wars they have participated in. Some aren’t so much against the war as they are against the way it is executed. Some still have a military mindset that makes them comply and obey orders and laws even if they’re wrong and immoral laws and orders.

I don’t just include the young veterans in this commentary. I often talk with Vietnam veterans who are against the war they were in and the wars going on now. But the same veterans talk wistfully about those days of combat and the comradeship. Some seem to never leave the jungle or the desert. And I have to include myself if I stay around veterans too long.

The truly oppressed Larry represents have no such ambivalence. They have been beaten and harassed with frequency. They have been redlined and passed over.

They are more frequently sentenced to prison for minor drug violations.

They are more frequently injured or killed by police.

They have higher unemployment, poorer housing and less healthcare benefits. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the oppressed people of New Orleans weren’t worthy of Bush’s compassionate conservatism.

The hurricane season is back and New Orleans once again sits prepared for the storm. Government promises to act quicker this time. But those promises ring hollow since over one third of the Katrina survivors have yet to return to their homes in New Orleans. There are no homes to return to. The promise of rebuilding New Orleans and the lower 9th Ward in particular has become the Big Easy’s big lie.

Veterans and survivors marched together in March of 2006 to symbolize the negligence of the government toward both groups. The march was to symbolize a bomb dropped in Iraq was a bomb dropped on the shores of the Gulf.

If the DNC gave us any lessons this week it has been the fact there remains a caste system in America. Big money will continue to beat the hand of the Big Easy for every big pot.

The IVAW had to risk being assaulted, tear-gassed and maced to even warrant a possible meeting with an Obama staff member to voice their concerns about the war. Captain Morgan, the mascot of the rum with the same name, was inside the Pepsi Center with reporters talking to him and the playmates with him.

Secretive corporate dinners were held in fancy suites of high-priced hotels for the upper crust of the Democratic Party all the time the DNC was in town. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic Party, was whooping it up with the CEO’s of large corporate sponsors of the party.

Larry and the groups he represented were considered threats to the Democratic Party because they had valid complaints about the balance of power and wealth in this nation. They had information the alleged representatives of democracy didn’t want to hear.

The delegates and the party hacks of the Democratic Party came to Denver to celebrate and party in honor of the first black Presidential candidate. They didn’t want to hear from a young black man with dreadlocks and a serious affect. His message was a truthful but disturbing message they didn't want to hear.

The delegates and party hacks are “satisfied” with the symbolism of the black Presidential candidate. And if he wins they will be satisfied with a black President.

IVAW cannot and will not be satisfied with either candidate when they are elected. Obama will continue the war in Afghanistan even if and when he withdraws in a “reasonable manner” from Iraq.

Larry and his groups cannot and will not be satisfied to see the next President continue to drain the tax dollars that should go toward education, healthcare, housing, job creation (other than military based jobs) and all the many social programs to continue war in the nation that finally broke the back of the USSR.

Environmentalists cannot be happy to hear about drilling for natural gas in wilderness areas of the West. They cannot be happy to hear about “safe nuclear energy” development.

The lessons of the DNC here in Denver are many but it seems the most important is the clear message that Obama may be a change in the man in the Oval Office but the same corporate government will continue to be the “shadow government” of this nation. Obama may be the first black President but he will still answer to the white plantation owners.

That message means our struggle must continue with great perseverance. The young like Larry and the IVAW must lead us but the old and divided members of the peace and justice movement must reenergize themselves like my friend, Max.

They must climb the mountain again and again no matter what the steepness and no matter what difficult obstacles they encounter. This is the hike for our children and grandchildren. And let me tell you; the summit is well worth the journey and the hardships.


Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
Combat veteran
USMC RVN '67-'69

DNC Face Off Produces a Victory - Sort Of

Wednesday Night at the DNC (August 27, 2008)

It was a nightmare scenario for Barrack Obama and the Democrats. Two platoon sized groups of IVAW veterans in dress blues, cammies and dress greens faced off a huge force of Denver riot police prepared to fire tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets into their ranks only a block from the Pepsi Center where speeches were being given by John Kerry, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden.

The riot police were perched atop platforms of extended construction cranes and military green tactical vehicles with communication dishes. They were on foot in groups of 8 and ten in all directions. Horse patrols were at ready. Gas launchers and pepper ball guns were in clear view, face shields were down, and riot batons were at ready.

It was a nightmare scene resembling recent traumas for the vets as an "enemy" was about to fire on them once again. They had just marched with five to six thousand demonstrators from a Rage Against the Machine concert 4 miles to the area of the Pepsi Center. It was a long and hot march with many stops, including Obama's hotel in downtown Denver.

The Denver Police led the veterans along the route at rush hour. Once in the area of the Pepsi Center the cops attempted to escort the protest march into the "freedom cage". The veterans balked and refused to enter. They did an about face and marched back out of an area of eight foot fences on both sides. The claustrophobic pen the cops had sent the group in wasn't acceptable. The Gitmo type guard tower over the "freedom cage" was visible as the sun was setting.

The vets marched around to the open street leading to Auraria Parkway, the street on which the Pepsi Center was located. One block away from the arena, a blockade was set up. And the face off began. Riot police at ready on one side of the blockade and American war veterans on the other side. One with orders to shoot on the young men and women who had served in the wars of their country and those veterans determined to reach the Pepsi Center to present three demands. They wanted the Democrats to hear the demands for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, adequate and timely healthcare which includes mental health for all veterans and reparations to the Iraqi people to rebuild their country.

The three to four thousand remaining demonstrators behind the veterans wanted more. They wanted an end to racism, sexism and bias toward the gay community. They wanted rights for immigrants. They wanted adequate housing, living wage jobs, improved education systems, an end to corporate greed at the expense of the poor and marginalized, an end to the criminalization of young and old for possession of marijuana and reestablishment of basic human rights. They wanted an end to torture.

The young veterans stood their ground in the face of an overwhelming force they could not win against. They had no plan to fight but they had no plan to abandon their goal of a response from Obama or one of his designated liaisons.

The police, as they have been prone to be throughout the DNC in Denver, continued their tactics of intimidation using all the new "toys" the 50 million dollars for security provided as a show of force.

Behind the ranks of the IVAW were Ron Kovic and a couple of VVAW members and a local mother who represented MFSO. Amy Goodman and her sound person were front and center throughout the stand off. Hoards of press swarmed the area anticipating the story of the convention….a blood bath. Or at least a violent conflict between young war veterans and well armed police. If it went down the story would overshadow the scripted events inside the Pepsi Center.

The veterans slowly moved forward as the cops above on the platforms and the armored tactical vehicle got into a shooting position. Cops on the ground took up an assault posture with batons and shields at ready. Calls went out to the crowd for any one not willing to be arrested to break ranks and leave the street. Many did. The vets demanded the press move from in front of them to avoid using them as human shields in any encounter.

Negotiations between veteran liaison and police were breaking down. The police told the veterans they would not go past the barricade and would be gassed and arrested by any means. The tension of the moment was as great as the stand offs of the 70's when I was young and a combat veteran demanding much of the same these vets demanded.

As many of us prepared with bandannas for our faces, water to rinse eyes and securing of personal items, a police attack seemed imminent. But it never came. At the point the veterans were about to take another step forward and probably have a police response of violence, a message came from the Obama campaign asking for two members of IVAW to meet with a liaison of the Senator.

Two IVAW members went through the police lines and held a brief meeting. They returned with news the Obama campaign had heard the three demands and were in agreement to have a discussion about them. Unfortunately, a poor sound system made the message impossible to hear for the larger group. It seemed like the veterans were saying the Senator had endorsed the demands.

A cheer went up from veterans and demonstrators. Veterans hugged each other as if they'd won a state championship. Some of the group had tears in their eyes. The crowd chanted, "Yes we can". The same crowd had earlier sung a gentle song of peace. It was a dramatic moment of inspiration and emotion.

Still, as I left the area, I left thinking the endorsement had happened. Only when I got a call later from a high ranking IVAW member did doubt begin. She indicated IVAW was waiting for some response from the Obama camp. I went online and searched to find out what I had missed. Obama's people were not talking. Reporters were saying all the veterans had secured was an audience with the Obama camp.

Five hours of marching and standing in a face off with the police secured an audience with some representative of the Obama campaign. It was hardly a victory of change or revolution. The best that could be said was the IVAW members stood bravely face to face with a repressive and intimidating police state group of riot cops. They acted with honor and grace. No doubt they prevented a violent incident. But I feel the victory shallow and unsatisfying. It seems the best a group of decorated veterans could secure was a campaign promise. The rest of the demonstrators seeking a change in the fabric of this nation's government were left out of the picture. And I think many will come away feeling the veterans did little to secure the basic rights so desperately wanted by those who chose to follow them. The struggle didn't progress by much at all in the end. Campaign promises are shallow and insincere in most cases. They mean about as much as the vapid election ads flooding the television sets of Americans.

Too bad. The march and the face off with the dark knights of the oppressive government had so much potential but in the end it only seems to reinforce the intimidation and fear meant to force the masses to comply.

I know many in IVAW and love them as brothers and sisters. They are who I became forty years ago this year. And once again I have joined with an older Ron Kovic in a march against an illegal and immoral war. Once again promises by politicians have been made but I no longer believe such promises. I'm saddened that Ron and others who fought the struggle against the war in Vietnam had to once again go to the streets with the same angry demands. It shouldn't take long marches and near riots with police to be heard by the political parties of this nation!

The struggle is far from over. IVAW acted honorably against the threats of an oppressive show of force. Had they not worn their uniforms and just been kids with bandannas they would have been beaten down. One of the ironies of the peace movement is men and women who have gone to war and been forced to violence are more respected. Those who have dedicated their lives to peace are beaten down and jailed with great frequency.

The struggle is far from over. We still have many more miles of marches and many more threats of harm to go. And the brave men and women of IVAW know that more than any of us. They have transformed themselves to men and women of peace and justice following the horrors of war they endured. For them, the marches and the struggles are very personal.


Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Denver VVAW member

USMC combat vet of Vietnam ('67-'69)

On The March In The Gulag Denver

August 26 was day three of the occupation of Denver. On August 25th, around 1900 hours, several young demonstrators were maced and shot with pepper balls by the dark knights of the Denver riot squads funded by 50 million federal dollars.

Some will say the young protesters had it coming because they ran around sitting in the streets, many had bandannas on their faces and they were blocking traffic on a main street into downtown Denver.

What the film of the local CopWatch led by Steve Nash shows is something different from what the local and national news wants us to believe. Only indie media, including Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, showed police encircling a large group of people and firing mace, CS and pepper balls without ordering the group to disperse and without ensuring others in the area not part of any demonstration had a chance to get the hell out of their way.

An 80 year man on his way back from the library a block or so away was arrested and told he was an anarchist. Dressed in casual summer wear, he protested he was just coming back from the library. Cops chided him for "being a little too old" to be an anarchist. After treating him roughly and tying his hands behind his back with plastic cuffs, he was made to sit on the curb as the assault continued. When he was able to produce a library receipt he was let go without apology or assistance.

CopWatch film shows the riot goons approaching them and none of them had name badges or any other observable identification on their spanking new "Star Wars" uniforms. If we'd not been a mile high in elevation, Denver could have well been mistaken for Bejiing, Columbia or Tibet as unknown goons attacked citizens in the streets to protest the loss of freedom.

This is not the case of young people destroying property, harming other people or causing civil unrest to the point of a riot. We're talking about our younger generation doing what my generation did when a government refused to respond to the call to end an illegal and immoral war.

We're talking about young people saying they also have a right to be heard without fear or intimidation.

We're talking about citizens tired of that 10.3 billion dollars being spent each month on these wars of occupation while this nation's people struggle to find jobs, housing, food and transportation.

We're talking about young people willing to put themselves on the line for all of us to speak about racism, lack of healthcare and lack of participation in the process of governing.

Mainstream media worries about the attire of Hillary, worries about the celebrities that have come to Denver to attend celebrity parties and shows fanatics worrying about 33oo abortions each day. But they don't talk about young veterans marching in the streets of Denver to demonstrate how occupation looks. They don't talk about the child that dies every thirty seconds because of poverty around this globe. They don't talk about the 90 plus Afghans killed by American bombs in yet another case of collateral damage. The propaganda machine of the system continues to keep most Americans stupidly believing young Americans who dare to dissent endanger them. They don't try to point out the danger in the streets are the nameless goon squads that have been allowed to roam free to bully, coerce and assault citizens who are peacefully attempting to have their voices heard.

Don't believe kids with bandannas, spiked hair, tats and piercings care any less than any American about freedom, choices and the rights promised in the constitution. In fact, they care more than most Americans too damn lazy to get information from any source other than corporate media. They care more than Americans who get upset when a group of IVAW members do a street theater while they're having lunch. They care more than Americans going to a convention and making a shopping holiday out of it.

If you remember the days of the Vietnam protests, the RNC in New York, the DNC in Boston or the 2004 inaguration, imagine the experience doubled in police intimidation. That is gulag Denver this week. Fusion centers of agencies spying on citizens have been set up here and in Minneapolis. If you're not doing anything wrong you might be ok. If you're "compliant" you shouldn't be alarmed we have riot squads hanging off of special trucks trolling the streets to pick out anybody with a loud voice or a funny look. If you seek the safety of a police state, come to Denver this week. Hurry, only two more days and then you'll need to go east toward Minnesota.

Imagine the future when retinal scanning, facial recognition and technology that claim to detect anxiety and fear is implemented. Imagine the future when your cable man is working for the government installing not only the mind numbing 260 stations of television but also the capability of seeing inside your home. Paranoiac thinking? I would have said so a week ago even as jaded as I am but spending the last three days in my hometown turned into a gulag, I realize just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not spying on me or won't profile me and spray me with a chemical or shoot me with a projectile.

My hometown, Denver, is an hour away from some of the most fantastic mountains in the world but I can't fondly look west and see the Rocky Mountains today. Not as I see the streets of my city turned into the fascist state of cops bullying children of my son's and grandchildren’s generations asking to be heard. Not as I see Ron Kovic coming down from his hotel room to help out the kids because he fears they'll be hurt.

You want to know what democracy looks like. Don't expect to see it here in my hometown, Gulag Denver.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

VVAW member

Vietnam combat vet

DNC Exposes Denver Gulag

I just spent 12 hours on the streets of Denver as a Legal Observer for the National Lawyer's Guild to observe the Denver Police Department andit's proxies interact with a diverse group of demonstrators gathered here for the Democratic National Convention. The day can best be described as blue. A blue day for American free speech.

I close my eyes and see the dark blue of police uniforms on every corner, on bicycles, motor bikes, ATV's and horses. Above me were Huey gunships with visible door gunners. On rooftops were snipers standing above us with spotters. New technology puts cameras on every block and several on every block of the downtown region of Denver. New M88 pepper ball launchers are seen on every block in the hands of a cop dressed in full riot gear on an 85 degree day.

The cops tried to say they were only here to make everybody safe but, as a combat veteran and a psychiatric RN, I didn't feel safe. I felt the overt attempt to intimidate. I felt my freedom slipping ever closer into the abyss of tyranny.

On one march I observed cops massing in a city park with riot gear in numbers of ten on every corner. In the background and on buses and in vans hundreds more lurked. Full block long lines of bicycle cops rode around and through demonstrators frequently. Lines of horses with shields covering their eyes and cops on their backs paraded in front of us on many occasions.

On the march with IVAW members the numbers of police were even greater as the march went up and down the 16th Street Mall. Clapping bystanders cheered IVAW members as they passed by stores, breweries and cafes. A long blue line of riot police shadowed the veterans on the other side of the mall street, which is closed to all but mall shuttles going up and down the entire 15 blocks. Groups of ten or more riot police lined the building walls. Motorcycle cops and bike cops rode along in the shuttle lanes with the vets marching on the sidewalk.

Near the end of the march a large contingent of cops waited on foot, horse, bike and motorcycle. When vets made a wrong turn at the Union Station area I observed the riot police starting to put their shields down and break out gas masks. Reinforcements came running up from in back of the march to join them. Tension was escalating on the part of the police without any of the demonstrators making an aggressive movement or gesture other than the usual idiot or two who more often than not proves to be an agitator for some agency.

I began to fear a police escalation would stupidly trigger veterans who were peaceably marching and expressing opposition to an illegal and immoral war. But after a 15 min period of the cops amping up for a confrontation, none happened. The vets maintained their peaceful demeanor and the cops pulled up their shields.

As the march moved down to the center of the Union Station area, the riot cops sent a squad of eight to walk through the more than thousand demonstrators. Provocative acts like this took place all day as I observed the police. Demonstrators and some very good bike cops prevented things from escalating.

Toward the end of the day, a small group of very young demonstrators returned to the first parade starting place and sat down on a major Denver street. When prompted to move they moved over to another busy street and sat down. Eventually a small group was surrounded by over 50 riot cops and arrested without struggle. Photos from the Denver Post show very young demonstrators being arrested. Most had bandannas covering their faces. One young lady who didn't cover her face looked to be in her early 20's.

I've been to other conventions, demonstrations and inaugurations and felt the police presence to be way too much but by far this was the most incongruent use of police presence for the numbers of demonstrators I've ever experienced. And the fun has just begun.

I've got to say the Denver Police and the other agencies involved must have felt they had to absolutely spend every dollar of the 50 million they received to patrol the DNC. What's so absurd about this response is the lack of a large national presence of the peace movement that seems willing to let the Democrats and Obama off the hook in favor of putting their resources into the RNC in Minneapolis.

Sadly the representation of veterans other than IVAW is damn pathetic. VFP and VVAW representation is almost non-existent. Only a few locals and a few from out of town bothered to show up.

Cindy Sheehan, Ron Kovic and Medea Benjamin did show up and spoke for the more radical rally of Recreate 68 early this morning (8/24/08). Code Pink had a small contingent of out of state activists arrive to march with the IVAW members. The most optimistic thing I noticed was the increased number of younger activists. Tent State and other groups of younger activists outnumbered the usual old hippies and Vietnam era activists.

The sad legacy of this DNC is the division of the peace movement here in the Denver area. Recreate 68 and the Alliance for Real Democracy have been at odds for months. Activists who have worked together for decades have become estranged with great rancor because of tactics and agenda.
Two large coalitions put on two seperate marches and actions today. I'd estimate no more than a few thousand in each group. Thousands of other possible activists stayed away because of the division and an unfortunate choice of names.

It seems after five years of death and horrible wounds for American troops and Iraqis and Afghanis the American peace and justice movement would grow up and focus on the solution. It seems after bilions of dollars drained from the pockets of the poor and middle class to fight the wars, urgency might override bickering and infighting. It seems the damage to the social fabric of this nation caused by Bush's arrogance and tyranny could make us find a common ground to work together to bring an end to the wars and bring justice where so desperately needed.

It seems that way but apparently not. Luckily for those seeking peace and justice, there is a new emerging force of young people who are sick and tired of waiting for many of the more established activists to wake up. IVAW is at the forefront of those young people. Hopefully, they will tell those who want to constantly bicker to either get it together or get the hell out of the way.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

VVAW member - Denver

USMC combat veteran

Vietnam '67-69

It's About The Oil, Stupid!

Ok, Americans are stupidly bitching about the costs of food, clothes, housing, heating, healthcare and every other consumer item while continuing to ignore the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are about oil, the costs of fighting those wars are 10.3 billion dollars every month and the use of oil by the military in those wars are conservatively estimated at 50 million gallons a month at an average of over three dollars per gallon. You do the math if the public school system hasn’t failed you in teaching multiplication and division.
So, the American answer to this insanity of oil usage in the face of global warming, deterioration of the environment and more and more shortages of fish and mammal species is to develop off shore oil drilling, oil drilling in national forest lands and the incursion of oil rigs onto the tundra of Alaska. Even after we’ve allowed the environmental disasters that are bound to occur with this oil search the oil gained won’t reach the American consumers for 15-20 years after the drilling begins. We see all the inane ads in this year of national elections railing against candidates who dare speak up against drilling in the ever dwindling open spaces of forests and coastlines but the ads always fail to give the time frame of how long it will take for any oil to reach the consumer.
Meanwhile the development of alternative fuels continues to be the bastard cousin no one wants to talk about. Could it be the profits gained from cleaner and more efficient fuels would be less than those gained from oil? Could it be the automakers would have to retrofit factories to go from the internal combustion, polluting engines to cleaner and safer motors that could possibly reverse the damages done by oil dependency?
Let’s repeat this information about the use of oil by the military. 50 million gallons of oil each month. The American military is the largest single consumer of oil in the world. If we calculated the use of oil by the American military alone, it would rank 35th-38th of over 200 oil consuming nations. And the known military use of oil is only a partial estimate as the true total remains unknown to the public. Approximately 150 million dollars are spent each month for military use of oil.
American politicians are fond of saying the issue most Americans care most about is the economy. Pundits say elections always come down to the concept of “it’s the economy, stupid!” Oil is certainly the catalyst of the world’s economic stability but it is also a finite resource that will be depleted sooner than the greedy big oil companies are willing to tell us.
Bankers and economists are well known for encouraging Americans to save money for their future; especially when deposited in their institutions or invested in their corporations. The same financial geniuses are very quiet when it comes to the national future. They don’t speak out about developing alternative sources of fuel and energy. Apparently taxing and charging for the natural resources of wind, geothermal and sunshine isn’t lucrative enough for their financial genius.
Let’s repeat it again. The American military is the single largest user of oil in the world. For every service member in Iraq it costs 88 dollars each day to continue the war. In WWII the average use of a single soldier or Marine was 1.67 gallons each day. In Iraq that average use of a single troop is 27.3 gallons each day. We’re not talking about the overall use of oil by all Americans. We’re talking about the military only.
The problem with trying to understand the huge amount of oil used to run the war machine is most Americans don’t consider it a factor in their personal lifestyles being changed for the worse. Questioning the military use of oil is probably considered un-patriotic by many Americans. So, Americans continue to believe the lies of Big Oil and lying politicians funded by Big Oil at the same time they voice outrage about the largest profit in one quarter by one industry in the recorded history of such statistics. What part of corporate greed and corruption of government do Americans fail to see?
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are about oil and greed. The current conflict in the former Russian province of Georgia is about oil. A vital pipeline supplying much of Europe is within the borders of that province. Do Americans really think the current administration would be talking about Russian aggression and the sovereignty of Georgia if that pipeline wasn’t there? This is the same administration that aggressively invaded two sovereign nations under the premise of fighting terrorism. Both nations are vital links in producing oil for American consumption, creating huge profits for Big Oil and establishing dominance in the volatile region of the Middle East.
If the Bush administration cared about humanitarian relief and sovereignty why has it failed to act in Africa where genocide continues unabated? Darfur lacks the important ingredient for American politicians to care. The Sudan doesn’t have the supply of oil to be found in Iraq. The continent of Africa doesn’t have key pipelines that will lead to full tanks of gas for American SUVs and Bradley armored vehicles.
The war is about oil, stupid! The costs of war are directly related to the price of gas at the pump. The price of oil is directly related to the costs of food, clothing, education, healthcare, heating, cooling, electricity, vacations and all other consumer items Americans care so much about. The price of oil relates to homelessness, foreclosures, lack of jobs, lack of living wages, failed social systems for the marginalized, maintenance of roads and public utilities and most aspects of American lifestyle. The 10.3 billion dollars a month spent on the war with the 150 million dollars spent to fuel the machines of war relate to everyday parts of all middleclass and marginalized Americans. The war is about oil and the economy is about oil, stupid!! And don’t expect any candidate of either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party to bring relief when they’re elected. Follow their sources of funding. At every step there are representatives of Big Oil or multi-national corporations donating to both candidates. Big business is hedging all bets by giving money to both parties.
Our children and grandchildren are being used as cogs in the military industrial complex. Their lives are expendable just as much as the lives of Iraqi children. The loss of liberty will continue until even the cages of “free speech zones” will vanish. The vague and invisible threats of terrorism will continue to be used to keep Americans terrified their lifestyles are threatened by dark bearded bogeymen when the truth is their lifestyles are being stolen by sleazy politicians and corporate CEO’s in dark fashionable suits and designer ties.
What answers do McCain and Obama offer the American people? McCain suggests destruction of pristine lands with roads and huge timber clearance, offshore drilling to endanger our oceans and the permanent destruction of large portions of what little wilderness is left in Alaska. McCain suggests we restart the nuclear energy programs shut down by the shoddy construction and accidental discharges of radiation. He deludes himself and tries to delude his “friends” that more nukes will be safe. Don’t believe him for one minute, my friends.
Obama began as a candidate talking about alternative energy but just as he abandoned his minister he’s also abandoned a pledge to preserve the oceans. Obama is a chameleon who changes his beliefs according to the latest polls. He is at best disingenuous but more likely he’s the same as every other politician in D.C.. He’s been bought by corporate interests and will continue the government of the corporate interest, for the corporate interests and by the corporate interests. If we want to know about Obama we can read the words of Abu Jamal Mumia.
“It is a measure of how dire is the hour that they’ve passed the keys to the kingdom to a Black man.
As in many American cities, Black mayors were let in when the treasuries were almost barren, and tax bases were almost at rock-bottom.
With the nation’s manufacturing base also a thing of history, amidst the socioeconomic wreckage of globalization, with foreign affairs in shambles, the rulers reach for a pretty, brown face to front for the Empire.
“Real change that you could believe in” would be an end to Empire, and an end to wars for corporate greed, not just a change of the shade of the political managers.
That change, I’m afraid, is still to come.”
It seems a captive of the American gulags makes more sense than those citizens allegedly “free”. He sees the lies and has nothing left to lose by speaking the truth. Unless Americans start making the connections between oil, war and the American dream being an illusion they will be in their own gulag of restricted liberty and financial despair.

It is about the oil, stupid!

Wm Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
USMC combat veteran
Vietnam ’67-‘69

True Heroines Are Usually Unknown

Sister Pat Mahoney was an amazing person few of us ever really got to know. She never sought the spotlight; only justice and peace. While the news is full of the fake heroes of sports or the violent heroes of war, the true heroes/heroines are seldom known except to those who were so greatly touched by their lives. Thank God for Sister Pat and those like Ardith,Carol and Jackie. Thank God for the Berrigans and Kathy Kelly. These are the heroes and heroines our children and grandchildren should know and hear about.

obituary
Faith was Flats protester's arsenal
By Virginia Culver
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 08/10/2008 01:25:35 AM MDT


Sister Pat Mahoney, who went to prison for battling Rocky Flats and spent her life fighting for the homeless and against war and nuclear arms, died July 30 at San Francisco General Hospital.

She had collapsed on the street about 10 blocks from her home on July 29, said her brother, Jerry Mahoney, of Petaluma, Calif. She died about 24 hours later, he said, adding that he believes Mahoney, who was 72, had a stroke.

A memorial is planned at 7 p.m. Friday at Capitol Heights Presbyterian Church/10:30 Community, 1100 Fillmore St.

Mahoney served two terms in federal prisons for her protests at Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production plant in 1983.

And she was still protesting nuclear arms as recently as last Good Friday, when she was arrested at Livermore, Calif. The charges were later dismissed.

In 1983, Mahoney and Sister Marie Nord were given sentences for trespassing, after they forged employee identification cards to get inside one of the fences at Rocky Flats.

While inside they attempted to post signs on another fence that read "Auschwitz" and "Dachau," referring to two infamous Nazi death camps.

At the time, Mahoney told the press "we absolutely had to go into the plant to point out its overwhelming danger."

They were sent to prison because both women refused to pay the $100 fine.

In an interview with The Denver Post while in prison in Pleasanton, Calif., Mahoney said "this place is like a compost heap. We just become so much garbage. We're all treated like rapists and mass murderers here. The staff acts as if there is no possible virtue in any of us." She served six months of a five-year sentence.

But she went back to prison in Fort Worth, Texas, for six months in 1984 for not reporting to her probation officer, saying to report "would signify some act of contrition. I am not sorry for what I did. I don't need to be rehabilitated." She had refused to pay the $1,000 fine.

"She was one of the bravest women I've ever known, and backed it up by going to prison," her brother said.

When not protesting, Mahoney devoted her life as a member of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary to working at soup kitchens.

She was at the Denver Catholic Worker soup kitchen for more than 10 years and had been with Martin dePorres soup kitchen in San Francisco since 1989.

Though acknowledging the work was emotionally draining, she said she continued to work in soup kitchens because "everyone still doesn't have what they need. There is still such a terrible misdistribution of food and funds."

Despite her tough stands, Mahoney "had a wonderful sense of humor," her brother said.

She enjoyed her life and lived it simply, said a longtime friend, William Francis Watts, who volunteered at the San Francisco soup kitchen and sometimes protested with her.

Patricia Mahoney was born in Girardville, Pa., on Nov. 3, 1935, and moved with her family to San Francisco. She graduated from St. Paul High School in San Francisco. She entered the religious order in 1954 in Dubuque, Iowa.

She earned her bachelor's degree at Mundelein College in Chicago and taught junior high school in Chicago and Hawaii. She worked with drug addicts in Chicago before going to the University of California at Berkeley to earn her applied theology degree.

She decided while at Berkeley she wanted to work for the homeless and against nuclear arms, said longtime friend Sister Maureen O'Brien of San Francisco.

"She wanted to live out the radical gospel values," O'Brien said, "and always said, 'I have a gift for working with marginated people. I'm comfortable with them.' "

In addition to her brother, Mahoney is survived by her sister, Anna Mae Mahoney of Walnut Creek, Calif.

Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com

Complicity

Glad to see someone who addresses the UFPJ sell out to the Dems. For much too long the "united 'front'" has been pushing the Democratic Party's agenda while passing itself off as a radical, liberal or progressive group. And for far too long they have been a road block to true radical activists actually changing tactics and growing in numbers that would be effective enough to make the government tremble.

What is a radical? Well, MLK was one of the most hated men in America because he sought to change Jim Crow and racist policies endorsed and practiced by the American government. These policies allowed lynching and violence against the black population. The policies included poll taxes and denial of voting rights based on reading skills. "Colored" water fountains, "colored" sections on a bus and segregated bathrooms were the norm in many parts of the deep American South.

States' "rights" groups wearing hoods of the KKK were frequently seen throughout the 50's and 60's. And our "leaders" in D.C. constantly looked the other way as the rights of the black and marginalized were violated. It wasn't really states' rights being practiced, of course. It was racism, bigotry, murder, rape and a long list of felonies being practiced under the guise of each American state having the right to determine local laws that were known as Jim Crow laws.

Journalist I.F. Stone is quoted as saying "Governments lie" in one of Howard Zinn's books I recently read. Two simple words capture all the history in this nation. UFPJ continues to exhort us to take part in that history by adopting the Democratic Party's platform. They whine this is the best we can do. They bluster about impeachment and calling corrupted Senators and Representatives on "important" votes. In the final summary we have to ask how UFPJ became such a power in the activist community. Where do they get their funding since most of us activists are notoriously impoverished and don't buy into the capitalist American dream?

The choice of the lesser of two evils IS still choosing evil as Jerry Garcia is quoted as saying. Attempting to change a government that is intent on protecting only the rights of big business, the rich, powerful and elite by supporting candidates of the Democratic or Republican parties is being complicit with the oppressors. Throwing up our hands and saying "that's the only choice we have" is capitulating to tyranny.

Let us keep in mind the difference between "the people" and "the government". The government lies and has always lied to get young men and women to be their cannon fodder for foreign invasions they claim to be patriotic and protective of "democracy". The true history of these invasions shows the lies of government. The true reasons we invaded were always about greed and power. Oil, natural resources and world domination have always been the true reasons our young people are asked to kill and be killed.
It's laughable to hear the patriotic drivel of the fatted cows of Congress tell the people of this nation we're supporting democracy with our invasions and occupations. We need only look at the American government's history of supporting repressive and totalitarian governments and the tyrants of those governments to know we, the people, have a government of liars.

Do Exxon/Mobile’s record profits demonstrate the government of the people is only about a few select people who are CEO's and corporate robber barons? Does the disintegration of social programs to assist the poor, the homeless, and the elderly and marginalized people of this nation demonstrate the true intentions of the government toward the people? The privatization of every aspect of government by the government with a corresponding loss of income and jobs should clearly tell the people the government isn't about them. Not when corporate giants like Wal-Mart, Halliburton, Exxon/Mobile and Enron continue to fleece the people's tax dollars and gouge them for the products the consumer driven people think are necessary.

Does the economic collapse of this nation’s middle class and poor surprise us? It shouldn’t. It’s very difficult to oppose a government when keeping shelter and food in place is the first priority. As the economy worsens and people become desperate the dependence on government becomes greater. Opportunity for restricting rights of the people become necessary to keep social order and the constant use of fear tactics keep the people docile.

Do we really believe UFPJ is the radical group that will lead us to peace and justice? How could we possibly believe a group so clearly part of the Democratic Party’s campaign to once again elect the lesser of two evils could lead the people out of the tyranny of the two party system? Governments lie and if we become part of helping the establishment of corporate oligarchy maintain power we are complicit in those lies.

The Malaise of Activism

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.
Henry David Thoreau
I was recently asked to join a network of peace and justice groups that would also put some emphasis on environmental issues. Choosing a name for this network is going into the third of fourth week. That's been the focus while all around us the world burns, children starve and peace and justice becomes more of an illusion than ever.

By nature I’ve been a skeptic since I was a little older than 18 stuck out in a rice paddy with an M-16 and a lot of fear. The skepticism gained from that experience permeates much of my life today. Watching the endless attempt to name a group of activists makes me wonder how responsive we can be on matters of greater importance.

Activist groups, political groups and groups intended to make things better too often get caught up in bickering, nit-picking and divisive personal agenda at the expense of intended goals and actions to make a better planet and social condition.
I personally don’t care what name is chosen, how it enters into a PSA, PDA, Blueberry or Blackberry, how it appears on a business card or trips off the end of the tongue.

I find myself part of far too many groups that I can’t give enough attention and don’t need addition of another unless it is truly remarkable enough to bring concentrated focus to issues I find of greatest importance.

The current situation we face on this planet seems to require urgency in my opinion. Urgency in my nursing parlance means necessity for immediate and hurried action. In truth, I would triage this planet as in critical /emergent condition. I can’t move groups or organizations to do things with any amount of haste or urgency. That doesn’t seem to be the nature of groups.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion my first priority is that of an individual seeking to resist the evil that is always present. That resistance often takes place in situations where I can help another individual with whatever experience or training I may have. As a combat veteran it sometimes means helping another veteran of another war or a family member. One of the proudest accomplishments of my many years of activism was joining with Katrina survivors to march from Mobile to New Orleans to highlight the disrespect and neglect of the elite, rich and powerful that run this government. Before that just helping other veterans in relief efforts in New Orleans from a staging area in Covington, LA was a powerful experience.

In both experiences I felt like I do when I plant seeds in my garden and see those seeds turn into corn, tomatoes and eggplants. Planting seeds of human caring toward other people from other communities is even more powerful. The return is the planted seeds in my life that will grow toward making me a more caring person. The experiences also made me impatient and frustrated with groups getting caught up in minutiae and differences at the cost of taking the urgent actions needed.

There is a group of people here in Colorado that came together to form Colorado Coalition for Justice and Peace (CCJP). For a brief few years the caring people of this coalition joined together to work for the common and moral good of stopping the wars. They worked to show the connections between the costs of the wars and the costs to the American people in daily life ranging from schools to costs of living. They came together to form human bonds of brother and sisterhood by actually meeting each other in person. As the wars continued to grind on the discouragement eroded the numbers of the coalition until today it seems to be only a group name without the group.

What happened on the local level happened on the national level. Groups once considered radical have become platforms for the Democratic Party. Groups claiming to be the proletariat actually turn off many of the working class with elitist philosophy and rhetoric. Their impatience to truly organize at a grassroots level and their threats of stupidly retaliating against well armed para-military forces guarding the DNC either place others in harm’s way or close the door to others contemplating an appearance to voice their own dissatisfaction.

Stan Goff, a fellow veteran and eloquent writer, talks about the anti-war movement in a recent essay on his blog The Feral Scholar. In the essay, On Commanding-In-Chief, Stan says,

“The “antiwar movement” has always been more an anti-Bush movement and an anti-defeat movement (nudged along by competing leftist cadres without their own popular bases); and it has shown no ability to employ anything except 60s-70s tactics and techniques, even though the ruling class has long ago adapted to them.”

Like I said, I am a skeptic. I have agreed with Stan from the first time he and I crossed paths. Activists profess to want a movement but I can only see a movement strong enough to challenge the power of this government we are said to be in control of by truly organizing at a grassroots ….from bottom to top ….level.
From the same essay, Stan wisely says,

“Obama will be the next chief executive of the American state - a state by, for, and of the business class. That’s the job description. That business class depends on the larger economy which is materially dependent on massive and unceasing throughputs of fossil hydrocarbons. That same economy has been overrun by rentier capitalists who have driven the global economy over a cliff.

Competitors are on the horizon, China, Russia, India, Brazil… but mostly Western Europe. The war is one central drama in a multiply-determined crisis that also includes immanent food shortages, water famines, radical climate shifts, and the general decay of inter-class stability.

Obama did not inherit Bush’s war, except in the details. He inherited a business class’s war that was inevitable (though not in its present form).

The United States was going to reposition its international military after the Cold War in any case; the old disposition for “containing” the Soviet Union was obsolete after all. And given the most obvious of considerations, the place to seek permanent and fully operational military bases abroad was in Southwest Asia. That’s where the hydrocarbons are; and when you have the hydrocarbons, you have the competition on a nose ring.

Following through with this is Obama’s job after the election. (We get to participate in the elections for which wealth-selected candidate will be the CEO; but we are not, alas, on the board of directors.)”

I feel the excitement and joy of young people who have thrown their support behind Obama and recall my youthful excitement about another charismatic candidate. JFK also went to Germany and drew huge crowds of people supporting his “new” American government. The betrayal of both JFK and Obama is there is not going to be a “new” form of governing. The special interests of the rich corporate CEO groups and special political action groups such as AIPAC will continue to run the oligarchy posing as democracy and republic.

The word sustain has been used often in the comments about naming the group of question. Unless all groups act with greater urgency I’m afraid planet Earth will not sustain the upcoming changes of the next government of the nation, USA. Economic collapse is at our doorsteps but a darker threat looms closer and closer as our environmental disregard and outright abuse continues unabated. Depleted uranium’s danger is ignored by governments as much as global warming has been ignored by G. W. Bush. And what new form of ecological horror will the next war produce?

While American liberals, progressives and radicals worry about naming groups every thirty or forty seconds a child dies of the effects of poverty in remote third world nations like Sudan or Sierra Leone…or Iraq. While Americans bitch about the high price of gasoline, which is cheaper than in most parts of the world, bombs drop on villages and urban areas to kill the ghosts called terrorists. The collateral damage of dead children and innocent families goes unreported.

I’m a skeptic and no longer worry that my words may offend because trying to nuance or sugar coat the ugly truth wastes time that we don’t really have. Americans, as citizens of this planet, need to quit fooling themselves and start acting to save our planet and our brothers and sisters that co-exist with us on the planet. We’re on life support and the plug could easily be pulled by some macho politician calling for a bomb run or by a passive movement of people that know the problem but fail to act.
________________________________________