A New Direction

I've had it. My whole life has been changed because of this current administration in Washington and their policies. We are in a lie of a war, we are losing our rights and liberties, we are leaving our children and Grand children an enormous debt and it is not good at all.

When I was asked if the current world situation and America's involvement with it had affected me, I had to think about it. I knew I had thought of it, but how much had it affected me? After some serious reflection, I know the answer. A LOT!

I have had many anxiety attacks worrying about our troops, the Warrior men and women , who are putting their lives on the line for our society simply because we ask them to. I have had many a sleepless night thinking of what I can do to help end the war, all war, and bring our troops home to safety. I have depression. I have anger issues. I have decision making problems. I snap out at people. I seem to feel like there is no way to fight the proverbial City Hall.

Well, I'm back. I was a leader of soldiers in Vietnam. We were under the same siege that our brave and honorable soldier Warriors are under right now. Our mission back then was to sit around and make sure things were secure by being guards of the roads by day, then being attacked by night. The same people that did your laundry by day tried to kill you in the darkness.

The mission in Iraq is largely the same. Drive around in a HumVee and get shot at or blown up. There is no direction.

Ok, some may disagree. The bottom line is this: We are in a war. Even if you think that we were suppose to go over and attack Iraq and it was for some reason of goodness, you should want it to be over. Every human being, every American should want the killing of all people to stop. It is dead wrong to not want an end to war, fucking period!

I want an end to it. I believe to get an end to it we must make sure people are aware of the magnitude of the atrocity of it. The pain, the destruction, the outright sickness of killing for killings sake. That's all it is you know. Killing for killings sake. War is death and suffering. I think that too many people in America, where the war isn't being fought, where bombs are not dropping, don't think about it and therefore don't do anything to try to get it to end.

My personal mission is to let people know that there is this death and destruction going on and besides people in other countries of the world having to deal with it, our own sons and daughters are there and they deal with it too. It affects us all.

Starting Tuesday, January 23, 2007. I will mount a simple informative vigil in my home town of Ashland, Wisconsin. I will carry a sign that will remind people that there is a war going on. I will walk from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM on the sidewalk in front of the library and City Hall along Main Street, between Chapple Avenue and Sixth Street. I will do this every Tuesday at the same time.

Anyone who wants to can join me, but I will be there, every week, for an hour. I will just be there, ever present with my sign that simply reminds the good people of the town where I live that there is a terrible thing happening in the world. I hope this action will make one other person realize that we must do all we can do to stop the killing.

Peace rallies are great. Veterans for Peace and Women in Black. The School of the America's protests. Granny's for Peace. Code Pink.All of these organizations are fighting to end the war. But they are not here in my town once per week with their message. I will be.

In the future, I will post commentary and articles here. I will add links to organizations that have information and offer opportunities of involvement. I will try not to blame and ostracize our leaders. If you don't have a bad opinion of them at this point, so be it. But you still should want the war to be over, don't you? You still should want the death and destruction and pain and suffering to be over, don't you?

You see I've been there. I've seen burned bodies. I have the blood on my hands. I have held my brothers lifeless dead bodies in my own arms and read their names on the famous Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington DC. It is not a tourist destination. It is a monument to destruction and death.

To some degree, the people whose names appear are spared this second go'round. They gave their lives already. In Iraq right now, the number of reported dead American troops is somewhere around 3000. In Vietnam at one time there were 3000 of our folks killed. It ended with over 58,000 names on that Wall.

Please do all you can do to end all war. Then, do just a little bit more.

Please come by and visit here. Please comment with what you're doing to help end the war. Please try to motivate and support. Give me and the readers your ideas. Do more. Do something. Do all you can do.

Real sacrifice is happening over there. Real sacrifice has been given. Shake out the fruit jars. Donate spare change, a dollar will do, to the organization you choose that will speak to the end of war. Take action.

Lastly, the Lakota people have a saying in their Native tongue, It is, Mitakwe Oyasin. It means, "We Are All Related". I think this means what happens and what is done by one, is happening to and done by us all.

May Peace prevail on the Great Mother Earth. Can I get an Amen?