Category Archives: Clarence Kailin Chapter 25

Counter Recruiting in Rural High Schools – David Giffey VFP Madison

Veterans for Peace-Madison Clarence Kailin Chapter 25  |  Nov 12, 2019  |  David Giffey

 

Update for above picture:

If you look very carefully, you will see it says: “$1.67 billion” referring to military spending. It should be “trillion” instead of “billion.” I updated the sign as I must do often (because military spending and body counts get higher every year). But the tape gave out and the old “billion” was exposed. An alert teacher at Baraboo High School questioned it, and I have since corrected the sign. It now states that the military budget for 2020 is $1.67 TRILLION.

 

My counter recruiting visits to Southwestern Wisconsin high schools never fail to remind me of the constant need for a peace presence among young people. I am returned to the uncertainty and indifference I felt when I was young and let myself get drafted and eventually sent to the American War in Vietnam. By nature, youth is apathetic and dismissive of very important decisions, and overcome with a sense of bravado.

 

Today I spent the lunch hours counter recruiting at Dodgeville High School. Protocol requires that I remain at my table and wait for students to approach. Then I offer information about alternatives to the military and try to warn students that “the military is not just a job.” This is the 11th year our Chapter 25 has offered a scholarship for the essay contest winner at Dodgeville, and my 11th year counter recruiting in Dodgeville. The staff is very helpful and kind. The administration has changed in the past decade. Twelve years ago, it was necessary to consider legal action when Veterans For Peace was denied the right to counter recruit in Dodgeville High School.

 

The tradition of militarism in American culture is evident in the high schools I visit. Today a student asked me if I was “anti-military or anti-war.” I assured him that I was “anti-war.” How could I be opposed to people in the military, since I was once one of them, I asked. Within minutes two students who, I presume, were friends of his approached me and very politely told me they had enlisted. I reminded them that the purpose of all U.S. military branches is to wage war. I showed them copies of the contract they may sign which removes all their rights to self-determination. I wished them well. The war in Afghanistan is now in its 19th year. Neither of those boys were born when it began. They have, I believe, become inured to war by its constant presence.

 

Last week I read excerpts from Long Shadows: Veterans Paths to Peace at an event in Madison. In the book, the late Dr. James Allen, a longtime peace activist who was drafted into the War in Korea, recalled someone saying, “We’ve made a little progress in the last few thousand years because in the old days when the conquering army came in, they usually killed everybody in the city. Now we just say we want to kill the soldiers.”

 

Visiting high schools, offering scholarships for essays on the topic of peace, meeting young students, worrying about our grandchildren…these are important reasons for supporting the work of Veterans For Peace. Today at Dodgeville High I talked to half a dozen students who were interested in writing essays for our contest. I discussed war and peace with several teachers who were eager to read our literature and to learn more. I gave two students copies of “Addicted to War,” a graphic history of U.S. involvement in wars.

 

Later this week I’ll visit Baraboo High School. Next week I’ll be counter recruiting in Boscobel and Richland Center, and then Muscoda. I’ve already been to River Valley High School in Spring Green. Then I’ll start over again hoping to let young people know that the world will be more peaceful if they remain civilians after graduation.

 

As veteran Clarence Kailin, namesake of Chapter 25, said: “There’s a lot of work to do.”

 

“I had a good/busy day in Dodgeville HS during lunch hours today. I spoke with at least five seniors who are very interested in the essay contest, a couple of hecklers, and two seniors who said they have enlisted. But they listened when I told them about options. And several teachers had conversations with me also.”  – David Giffey

 

 

What you should know before joining the military.  

Website for Stop Recruiting Kiss Campaign

Chapter 25 counter recruiters have met with students at Boscobel High School for several years. This is the educational display set up in the cafeteria which encourages students to consider peaceful civilian alternatives to military recruitment. (Photo by David Giffey)

 

Fundraiser for the Veterans: Unified U.S. Deported Veterans, Chapter 182 Veterans for Peace

Common Ground, 2644 Branch Street in Middleton  |   Nov 7 from  6-9 pm  |
Contact Fran: f [email protected], 608-576-7416

Abandoned. Discarded. Devastated. Betrayed.

Mario De La Cruz, U.S. Army, Uncharacterized Discharge, born in Mexico (1969), deported.

These are the words used by deported veterans to describe the country they served honorable which is in some cases is the only home they have ever known. Individual details in the hundreds of stories vary but often include minor infractions of the law common to troops reintegrating from combat or errors in the dysfunctional immigration system.

Cut off from family and friends, the original members of Unified U.S, Deported Veterans based in Tijuana, Mexico banded together in mutual support and now provides over ninety veterans help with basic needs, contact with family members and links to legal resources as well as mental and physical healthcare.

Please join Common Ground Coffeehouse, WORT community radio 89.9 FM Madison, and Veterans for Peace Clarence Kailin Chapter 25 Madison in a night of poetry by …

All donations will directly benefit Unified U.S. Deported Veterans, Chapter 182 Veterans for Peace.

Military Times, ICE is supposed to consider service when deporting veterans. It hasn’t been.

 

Evening of poetry, writings, and music to benefit Unified U.S. Deported Veterans
Thursday, November 7, 2019, from 6-9 pm
Common Ground Coffeehouse
2644 Branch Street in Middleton, WI

For more information contact Fran Wiedenhoeft, [email protected], 608-576-7416

DREAMING OF FREEDOM: Palestinian Youth Under Siege and Occupation

Event: Sunday, October 27 @ 2 – 4 pm
Christ Presbyterian Church,
944 E Gorham St, Madison, WI 53703  


DREAMING OF FREEDOM:
Palestinian Youth Under Siege and Occupation
With Yousef Aljamal, Gaza Writer and Activist
Facebook event page

Meet Yousef Aljamal, a young writer who grew up in a refugee camp in Gaza and lived through the three devastating Israeli military assaults between 2008 and 2014. He will share his experiences and insights about the lives of youth there and elsewhere in Palestine, including tens of thousands imprisoned by Israel’s military regime in the West Bank since 1967.

A contributor to the anthology Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza Palestine, Aljamal has recently translated into English the book Dreaming of Freedom: Palestinian Child Prisoners Speak.

Yousef’s talk will be preceded by brief remarks from Rep. Mark Pocan.

Free, but donations gratefully accepted to fund another Maia Project clean water filter for Rafah kids.


Local Sponsors: Madison-Rafah Sister City Project; Jewish Voice for Peace-Madison; UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine; Playgrounds for Palestine-Madison. Tour sponsored by Just World Educational. Welcomed by WORT Radio.

Note: Yousef is scheduled to be a guest on WORT Radio’s A Public Affair with host Allen Ruff on Thursday, October 24 from noon – 1 pm. Call in at 608-256-2001 or listen live online at WORT 89.9 fm.

For more information, visit The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project website or follow MRSCP on Face Book.

PFAS – Per and Poly Fluoroalkyl Substance Pollution and the US Military

“For decades, 3M was a leading producer of the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS. As early as the 1950s, 3M’s own studies showed that PFAS chemicals built up in blood, and by the 1960s, 3M’s own animal studies showed the potential for harm. Yet 3M continued to produce PFAS chemicals without notifying its employees of the risks.”

Environmental Working Group 

 

(CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration confirmed that PFAS chemicals have made their way into the US food supply.

On Monday, the FDA publicly acknowledged the initial findings of the agency’s investigation into how the “forever chemicals” have been detected in the foods we eat.

PFAS is a family of nearly 5,000 synthetic chemicals that are extremely persistent in the environment and in our bodies. PFAS is short for perfluoroalky and polyfluoroalkyl substances and includes chemicals known as PFOS, PFOA and GenX, sometimes called forever chemicals. These chemicals all share signature elemental bonds of fluorine and carbon, which are extremely strong and difficult to break down in the environment or in our bodies.

These chemicals can easily migrate into the air, dust, food, soil and water and can accumulate in the body. They’ve been linked to adverse health impacts including liver damage, thyroid disease, decreased fertility, high cholesterol, obesity, hormone suppression and cancer.


In the body, PFAS chemicals primarily settle into the blood, kidney and liver. A study from 2007 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that PFAS chemicals could be detected in the blood of 98% of the US population…”

FDA Confirms PFAS Chemicals In US Food Supply 

 


PFAS Contamination in the US – PFAS Project

They knew.  The military and the manufacturers knew for years and didn’t reveal it to the public. 

~ “Despite knowing about the potential health hazards of firefighting foam made with toxic PFAS chemicals, the Department of Defense continued to use aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, for decades… The Navy worked with 3M to develop AFFF in the early 1960s and sought to patent the firefighting foam in 1963.”

THE PENTAGON’S 50-YEAR HISTORY WITH PFAS CHEMICALS

 

~ Executives at Dupont and other companies decided to save some money, instead of disposing of these hazardous chemicals properly,  they dumped them into our rivers and into our water supplies.

DuPont vs. the World: Chemical Giant Covered Up Health Risks of Teflon Contamination Across Globe


The final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposal to base F-35 military jets at the Truax Air National Guard Base was released earlier this week, confirming community leaders’ concerns about the impact of the F-35s on the health and safety of Madison residents.

Today on the show, Allen is joined by Alder Rebecca Kemble and investigative journalist Pat Elder to discuss PFAS and water contamination near military bases, opposition to F-35s, the relationship between the Department of Defense and the environment, and more.

Military PFAS Forever Chemicals and Water Pollution


  • “In 2009 PFAS were listed as persistent organic pollutant under the Stockholm Convention, due to their ubiquitous, persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic nature.” – Wikipedia – Stockholm Conventions 
  •  There have been studies connecting PFAS chemicals to harmful health effects going back for decades. This example includes studies in 2009, 1977, 1968 etc… Toxicology Data Network – Human Health Effects moved to NLM
  • “In animal studies, some long-chain PFASs have been found to cause liver toxicity, disruption of lipid metabolism and the immune and endocrine systems, adverse neurobehavioral effects, neonatal toxicity and death, and tumors in multiple organ systems.”
    US NLM: The Madrid Statement on Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)

 


 

“America is experiencing one of the greatest public health crises in its history with up to 110 Million people potentially exposed to drinking water contaminated with Per and Poly Fluoroalkyl Substances, or PFAS. A major source of the chemical contamination comes from the aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) used in routine fire-training on military bases. The military allows the poisons to leach in the groundwater to contaminate neighboring communities which use groundwater in their wells and municipal water systems.”

The Military is Poisoning America’s Ground Water – Pat Elder


“Per-flouro octane-sulfo-nate or PFOS, and Per-flouro-octa-noic acid or PFOA, are the active ingredients in the foam routinely used to train soldiers to extinguish aircraft fires at US military bases around the world. The toxic chemicals are allowed to leach into surrounding soil to poison groundwater. The result is one of the greatest water contamination epidemics in human history.

Doubt that? Click on Google News and enter: “PFOS PFAO Military Base.” Then, come back and read the rest of this article – and brace yourself. It’s bad.

The water in thousands of wells in and around US military installations across the globe have been tested and have been shown to contain harmful levels of PFOS and PFOA.

…The EPA developed the nonregulatory Health Advisory Program in 1978 to provide information to the public on pollutants associated with short-term contamination spills that can affect drinking water quality but are not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The EPA lists Health Advisories for more than 200 contaminants, including FFOS and PFOA. Many of these contaminants are strictly regulated by nations around the world, but they’re OK for Americans to drink.

In the absence of federal leadership on the issue, some states, including New Jersey, have started to regulate the chemicals at much lower limits than the EPA’s. New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection is implementing its first tough PFAS regulation. Contamination of water wells at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst was as high as 264,300 ppt, and that’s just fine with the EPA.

The EPA continues to approve new equally toxic PFAS chemicals despite widespread contamination. America, it seems, is a criminal enterprise.”

An Empire of Bases Poisons Water, Threatening Its Own Collapse


“In a March report provided to the House Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon for the first time publicly listed the full scope of the known contamination. The Defense Department identified 401 active and Base Closure and Realignment installations in the United States with at least one area where there was a known or suspected release of perfluorinated compounds …The man-made chemicals, which can be used to make items heat or water resistant, are found in everyday household, food and clothing items, even take-out food wrappers. At military bases, however, they are concentrated in the foam used to put out aircraft fires.”

Department of Defense: At least 126 bases report water contaminants linked to cancer, birth defects – Military Times  


Wisconsin’s new governor, Tony Evers declared 2019 to be the “Year of Clean Drinking Water.” Tony said during the announcement: “People in Wisconsin want to make sure that they can drink their water safely. But what is being done to protect our water from PFAS? What is being done to hold the polluters accountable? There has been $1.6 million set aside for homeowners to remediate contaminated wells. What will it cost to fix what the military and corporations like 3M, Dupont and Tyco have been poisoning for decades? [I would imagine the cost will be in the billions.]

The politicians talk about limits.

We should have a ban. Except, they say they need toxic foam to put out composite fires. 

There should be long term testing before new chemicals are used.

 


 

“Exposure to PFAS at even the lowest concentrations has been shown to harm human health and puts people in communities with contaminated drinking water at risk. Recent science suggests that newer PFAS chemicals may be just as toxic and harder to treat as those that were phased out…”

Short-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in aquatic systems: Occurrence, impacts and treatment


We need to be testing people for PFAS related chemicals in their blood. Some of the highest priority testing should be testing firefighters and EMT’s, and other emergency responders.

These people signed up to risk their lives to save us, they did not sign up to get cancer or colitis or developmental disorders because corporations didn’t test their product and then covered up the harm they knew they were causing.



• In a recent Wisconsin State Journal article, Chris Hubbuch explained “…The human-made compounds – found in firefighting foam, food packaging, non-stick cookware, water-resistant clothing, carpeting and other products — have been shown to increase the risk of cancer and other ailments.”

The corporate media and politicians are minimizing the problem. These chemicals cause cancer. and the other ailments include disrupting our endocrine system, they mimic our hormones causing a variety of developmental issues, among them:

  • attention deficit disorder
  • autism
  • testicular cancer 
  • hyperactivity
  • oppositional defiant disorder
  • obesity
  • immune function problems
  • fertility issues
  • ulcerative colitis
  • high cholesterol
  • pregnancy-induced hypertension & preeclampsia
  • and on and on… 

The more research that is done, the more the science tells us that it takes less and less of these chemicals to cause harm. 

PFAS Resources:

  1. PFAS Community Partners [CSWAB]
  2. Municipal Water Coalition – PFAS [League of WI Municipalities]
  3. 3M KNEW ABOUT THE DANGERS OF PFOA AND PFOS DECADES AGO, INTERNAL DOCUMENTS SHOW
  4. Centers for Disease Control” Effects of PFAS Forever Chemicals
  5. CDC PFAS “Fact” Sheet
  6. Environmental Protection Agency PFAS Basic Info