WAR PARADES WITH PEACE MESSAGE

At the tail end of our 50 or so Veterans for Peace delegation in the parade

• Our chapter of Maine Veterans for Peace was in the Portland Veterans Day parade this morning and the American Legion organizers were not happy with us. In the past they have tried to kick us out of the parade but the City of Portland would not let them give us the boot. They say though we can have only one banner and it must only have our name on it. Today we added a second banner with our "Out of Afghanistan" message on it. I'm certain that next year the Legion will try to keep us out of the parade again. Our thinking is that the parade was originally about Armistice Day which was a celebration of the end of war. But the pro-war folks have turned the message around. The American Legion had clowns in the parade, companies selling their products, but real veterans calling for an end to war is not acceptable to them.

• The Department of Politics at the University of San Francisco does a publication called Peace Review and they have asked the Global Network to guest edit an edition of the publication on the Star Wars theme. So we have gathered some articles and must turn them over to Peace Review by the end of this week. It's a nice chance for us to take our peace in space message to another audience. Thanks to GN board members Dave Webb (CND in England) and Tim Rinne (Nebraskans for Peace) for serving on the editorial committee along with me.

• I leave tomorrow for a short trip to Oregon to talk about drones. Peace folks in the Hood River area have been in a raging local struggle to stop the drone manufacturing corporation called Insitu from expanding their operation in their community. Insitu says they want to build huge new facilities and employ 700 people making drones for the military. Boeing Corporation has bought Insitu and is obviously investing big money in expansion. From what I can find out drone manufacturing/testing/basing is now going on, or is planned, in at least seven states (Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, Maine, New York and Florida). It's a growing concern......

• You must watch this video below about activists in Corvallis, Oregon who have held a vigil every single day since the war in Afghanistan began.....that is what you would call stick-to-it-iveness!