Talking peace with Russia in North Carolina

 

MB and I returned home from our two-week trip to Philly and North Carolina late Thursday night. It was a great trip and we have so many people to thank.

After we left the wedding we attended in Philly on May 29 we took the train to North Carolina and were picked up at the station by long time friend Patrick O'Neil who is a Catholic Worker activist. He took us to the home of our host in the town of Cary where a pot luck supper was held followed by my talk to the folks attending. We had a great discussion about the US-UK-NATO war on Russia using Ukraine as the hammer. 

The next day Patrick had organized a lunch event in Raleigh at a local brew pub and again I made a similar presentation as the night before. (The photo above is that event). Phil Duckwall drove about an hour to attend this talk and then took us to Hillsborough to a hotel where we would be spending the night. 

But that same evening Phil and his wife Sandy picked us up at the hotel and took us to dinner and then to the Unitarian church in Chapel Hill for my third talk in about 24 hours. Patrick also organized this one which was made special by the attendance of Ray McGovern (27 year CIA analyst and Russia expert) and Matthew Hoh. (In 2009, Matt resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department over the American escalation of the war.) 

Ray and Matt took to the podium after I spoke and contributed mightily to the conversation with the audience. It was a great honor to have them both there with me. 

The next morning Phil Duckwall took MB and I to his homestead in the woods near Hillsborough. There he raises ducks and geese and turns them loose in ponds on his land. They have extensive gardens and feed the wild deer that daily pass through their place. They are true nature lovers in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau.

Phil is also a scholar who reads voraciously and his library in his study is loaded with some of the most important books outlining the times we live in. Phil invited me last year to do a presentation on Zoom about Russia for a professional men's club that he was a member of. The mostly conservative audience was not very happy with my talk and drove Phil out of the club afterwards. So once we knew we were going to be visiting North Carolina I was eager to meet him in person. I'm glad I did. He's a great man who loves the people of Cuba and Guatemala and has a heart as big as can be.

Phil then drove us to Greensboro where we took the Greyhound bus to Asheville. 

Waiting for us patiently (the bus being an hour late) in Asheville were friends Ken Jones and Melody Shank (former professors at the University of Southern Maine and now retired in the woods near Asheville). We stayed with them for a week that included a handful of hikes in various mountain spots in the area as well as some great southern country meals at their favorite joints. 

Ken and old Florida friend Claire Hanrahan (now living in Asheville) organized my 4th talk in North Carolina on June 3. It was again well received as all the other talks I did while there. Claire and I were arrested together in 1986 in Titusville, Florida (along with 11 others) on Hiroshima Day outside the McDonnell-Douglas Tomahawk cruise missile plant.

 

Bruce and Claire in Asheville. Photo by Pamela Mumby

Ken and Melody next took us on a 24-hour trip to the Nipponzan Myohoji Peace Pagoda construction project in the Great Smoky Mountains. The major building effort is led by a Buddhist monk and nun who have been friends since at least the early 1990's. Actually the monk and nun introduced MB and I about 25 years ago.

Ken and Melody also drove us the two hours to Charlotte on June 8 where we took a flight back to Boston and then the bus back to Maine.

We can't thank all of our wonderful hosts enough for this memorable trip to the south. Maine is far away from that part of our nation and we don't get to visit friends down yonder very often. 

The reception at my four talks in North Carolina reminded me that many who didn't know much about Russia and the recent history of the US orchestrated coup in Kiev in 2014, along with the resultant US-NATO promoted civil war in Ukraine, are coming around. The 'official line' we hear from Washington-London-Berlin-Brussels-Paris is finally wearing thin as people slowly but surely learn the truth.

Just like Washington's 'shock and awe' attack on Iraq in 2003, this current proxy war in Ukraine was sold to the citizens across the west with a pack of lies that are steadily being exposed. The recent Ukrainian strike on the dam that has flooded legions of towns and villages near Kherson has turned into an ecological disaster as was Biden's blowing up of the Nordstream pipelines - the largest release of methane in recorded history. (Why are the big enviro groups silent about that one?) 

The US and its war mongering allies have become desperate full-blown terrorists as they continually escalate attacks on Russian civilians and targets that have nothing to do with war making. Even growing numbers of Ukrainian troops are refusing to fight as they are sent into battle without anything but a machine gun - not even a bottle of water. They call themselves 'cannon fodder' or 'meat' to be ground up.

The US-UK-NATO are losing this war that they chose to start and are getting more dangerous by the day. We should all beware of what these neo-con psychopaths (who refuse negotiations) will try next.

Bruce  

Update: Huge thanks to Carl Hartung in Maine who has fixed the blog loading problem. He found a glitch inside the blog program that was preventing proper loading.  At long last the blog is performing like it should!