Times Record (Brunswick)
Editorial
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
http://www.timesrecord.com/articles/2010/08/25/opinion/editorials/doc4c75594046a2a199719351.txt

Veterans for Peace mark 25 years

On July 8, 1985, Doug Rawlings decided it was time to bear witness to what he’d learned during a one-year tour of duty 15 years earlier as an Army artilleryman in the central highlands of Vietnam: War is not the answer.

Joining with Jerry Genesio (U.S. Marines, 1956-62) and his wife Judy Genesio, the Rev. Willard Bicket (U.S. Army, World War II) and Ken Perkins (U.S. Navy, Korea), he helped to create Veterans for Peace as a non-profit educational and humanitarian organization “dedicated to the abolishment of war.”

Rawlings recalls that he and the other co-founders understood back then that they were signing onto a long-term endeavor. Even though they had served in the military and were veterans of three wars, they knew that taking a stand against war wouldn’t be popular.

“We had this kind of camaraderie built on our own military experience,” Rawlings says of the spirit that guided them as they mailed postcards to 48 Maine newspapers and hand-delivered flyers to spread word about the fledgling organization’s purpose and goals. “We wanted — for our kids — to have a world without war.”

Twenty-five years later, Veterans for Peace has chapters in each of the 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico. Here in Maine, the founding chapter has 125 members who’ve fought in World War II, Korea, Vietnam ... Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Nationwide, it has more than 5,000 members and in 1990 it became an official non-governmental organization with representation at the United Nations.

This grassroots organization is guided by a five-pronged statement of purpose:

“We, having dutifully served our nation, do hereby affirm our greater responsibility to serve the cause of world peace. To this end we will work, with others:

(a) To increase public awareness of the costs of war;

(b) To restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations;

(c) To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons;

(d) To seek justice for veterans and victims of war;

(e) To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.”

Rawlings says the moral authority that veterans bring to the discussion when they speak out against war continues to strike a chord with fellow veterans and non-veterans alike.

“We’re not glorifying war, we’re not celebrating war, we’re working to end war,” he says.

Starting today in Portland, the Maine chapter is hosting the 25th annual meeting of Veterans for Peace. Four days of activities are planned, organized around the theme of “Lifting the Fog of War.” Breakout sessions are planned to set goals for the coming year — including making sure the government adequately funds and provides the services needed by veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I’m tremendously proud of this organization,” Rawlings says, adding that he’s looking forward to “another 25 years of good work.”

He sees the 25th anniversary as an occasion for Veterans for Peace members to rededicate themselves to the over-arching goal of abolishing war.

Which, it should go without saying, requires a commitment by the rest of us to join with these veterans in pushing our government to find non-violent alternatives to militarism and war.

letters@timesrecord.com

Address:
Veterans For Peace
William Ladd Chapter
P.O. Box 10
Deer Isle, ME 04627


e-mail:
vfpmaine@vfpmaine.org


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