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Thanksgiving Message from Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW)
Giving Thanks
Give Thanks that the War(s) have not spread even futher THUS FAR requiring the other 99% of Americans to understand what the two word THE DRAFT really mean. Give Thanks that the rest of America does not not to concern themselves with the other 1% carrying the burdens of war. Give Thanks for those who have volunteered to carry the burdens of war for the rest of us. If you really support the troops, bring them home NOW.
Posted on behalf of IVAW by Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, GS-14, U.S. Civil Service-Retired, Veterans Issues Editor, Veterans Today News Network
Anti-War Veterans Re-define Veterans Day in Thanksgiving Message
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) has accomplished a lot in a short time, but there is plenty of work ahead. Check out this recent article, “Healing from Empire: Anti-War Veterans Re-define Veterans Day” that encapsulates and celebrates our latest efforts.
Happy Thanksgiving Day
Notwithstanding the colonial roots of the Thanksgiving holiday, we hope you have a happy one. And as you enjoy your holiday time, please remember our IVAW active duty brothers and sisters, and hold them in your thoughts and hearts.
Peace,
Iraq Veterans Against the War national staff
Aaron, Amadee, Bryan, Chantelle, Jason, Joe, Jose, Sarah, and Selena
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=62612
Posted by Robert L. Hanafin on Nov 25 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Peace, Veteran Service Organizations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
COMMENTS
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Daniel Cavegn and Christina KR, Veterans Today. Veterans Today said: New post: Thanksgiving Message from Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) http://bit.ly/gjBpsU [...]
What if…
They threw a war and no one showed up?
Peace, love, truth and mercy… pass it on.
“Peace, love, truth and mercy… pass it on.”
WE intend to!
Thanks Wanda,
Bobby Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired
GS-14, U.S. Civil Service-Retired
Veterans Issues Editor
Veterans Today News Network
I am so proud of all of you at IVAW. Keep doing it, stay strong, rise above the petty little people that just don’t get it.
PEACE AND LOVE, marty
Bobby, I have a problem with the peace movement because it clings to that inverted-cross symbol whose origins have nothing to do with peace, except where “peace” is coded language for colonization of the entire planet under the NWO. Those who are against these wars and their expansion should investigate the meaning of that symbol before marching under its banner. To claim is means nothing more than “peace” at this point is no more convincing, to me at least, than using the swastika and claiming it just means “good luck.”
Dan,
Thank you for your respectful post, but I must respectfully disagree with your interpretation of “that inverted-cross symbol.” Although you don’t come out and say so, the converted broken cross image was one of many conservative interpretive counter reactions to the use of the symbol to protest the Vietnam War.
I’d also have to politely ask you to post a link and to articulate your position on the Peace sign a bit clearer. However, I strongly agree with you that those who are against these wars and their expansion should investigate the meaning of that symbol before marching under its banner.
The symbol and the banner depend on one’s views and interpretation of the symbol. Much like beauty is in the eye of the beholder the interpretation of the Peace symbol also depends on one’s political ideology and views.
What I understand to be true is:
In the UK, the PEACE sign is still associated with the Ban the Bomb movement. It started life as the emblem of the British anti-nuclear movement but it has become an international sign for peace, and arguably the most widely used protest symbol in the world. It has also been adapted, ‘attacked’ (as Dan appears to be doing) and commercialized.
The forked symbol was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain (CND), and originally, its use was confined to supporters of that organization.
It was later generalized to become an icon of the 1960s Vietnam anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time. It was designed and completed February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a commercial designer and artist in Britain. He had been commissioned by the CND to design a symbol for use at an Easter march to Canterbury Cathedral in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England.
The symbol itself is a combination of the semaphoric [flag] signals for the letters “N” and “D,” standing for Nuclear Disarmament. In semaphore the letter “N” is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down “V,” and the letter “D” is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. These two signals imposed over each other form the shape of the peace symbol.
In the original design the lines widened at the edge of the circle.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com /Q/What_is_the_true_origin_of_the_peace_symbol#ixzz16VguZHDg
In a book, In Peace: The biography of a symbol to commemorate the symbol’s 50th birthday, American pacifist Ken Kolsbun, charts how the Peace symbol was transported across the Atlantic and took on additional meanings for the Civil Rights movement, the counter-culture of the 1960s and 70s including the anti-Vietnam protests, and the environmental, women’s and gay rights movements.
Kolsbun also argues that [ultra-conservative] groups opposed to those tendencies tried to use the symbol against them by distorting its message.
How the sign migrated to the US is explained in various ways. Some say it was brought back from the Aldermaston protest by civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, a black pacifist who had studied Gandhi’s techniques of non-violence.
Vietnam
In Peace: The biography of a symbol, Mr. Kolsbun describes how in just over a decade, the sign had been carried by civil rights “freedom” marchers, painted on psychedelic Volkswagens in San Francisco, and on the helmets of US soldiers on the ground in Vietnam.
Veterans Today Editorial Comment: The Peace sign may also be seen in photos on top of the PASBT Kevlar Helmets worn by US soldiers on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The sign really got going over here during the 1960s and 70s, when it became associated with anti-Vietnam protests,”
As the combat escalated so did the anti-war protests and the presence of the symbol.
Condemned as a Communist Sign or Symbol
“This, of course, led some people to condemn it as a communist sign,” says Mr Kolsbun. “There has always been a lot of misconception and disinformation about it.”
As the sign became a badge of the burgeoning hippie movement of the late 1960s, the hippies’ critics scornfully compared it to a chicken footprint, and drew parallels with the runic letter indicating death.
In 1970, the conservative John Birch Society published pamphlets likening the sign to a satanic symbol of an upside-down, “broken” cross.
While it remained a key symbol of the counter-culture movement throughout the 1970s, it returned to its origins in the 1980s, when it became the banner of the international grassroots anti-nuclear movement.
Power
The real power of the sign, its supporters say, is the reaction that it provokes – both from fans and from detractors.
The South African government, for one, tried to ban its use by opponents of apartheid in 1973.
And, in 2006, a couple in suburban Denver found themselves embroiled in a dispute over their use of a giant peace sign as a Christmas wreath. The homeowners’ association threatened them with a daily fine if they didn’t remove it. The association eventually backed down because of public pressure, but a member told a local newspaper it was clearly an “anti-Christ sign” with “a lot of negativity associated with it.”.
A decade ago, the sign was chosen during a public vote to appear on a US commemorative postage stamp saluting the 1960s.
The symbol that helped define a generation of baby boomers may not be as widely used today as in the past. It is in danger of becoming to many people a retro fashion item, although the Iraq war has seen it re-emerge with something like its original purpose.
“It is still the dominant peace sign,” argues Lawrence Wittner, an expert on peace movements at the University at Albany in New York.
“Part of that is down to its simplicity. It can be used as a shorthand for many causes because it can be reproduced really quickly – on walls on floors, which is important, in say, repressive societies.”
And can its success be measured? Fifty years on, wars have continued to be waged and the list of nuclear-armed states has steadily lengthened.
But the cup is half-full as well as half empty.
“There are many ways in which nuclear war has been prevented,” says Mr Wittner. “The hawks say that the reason nuclear weapons have not been used is because of the deterrent. But I believe popular pressure has restrained powers from using them and helped curbed the arms race.
And the symbol of and inspiration for that popular pressure, says Mr Wittner, is Mr Holtom’s graphic.
Peace: A biography of a symbol is published by National Geographic Books.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7292252.stm
Vietnam Veterans Against the War joined with other people to assist the enemy while U.S. Forces were engaged in the field. Different day – same deal.
A Vietnam Vet talked to a badly wounded young sergenat at Walter Reed on many of the issues noted above. The young NCO said: “You don’t support our mission, you don’t support us.”
Different decade – same old issue. Does the actions of former service members give aid and comfort to the enemy? Did any of them consider their actions may have a negative impact on serving forces? Do they care?
Hard questions. Warfare is however, not an issue for the weak.
Regards
Dale R. Suiter