Category Archives: Veterans for Peace

Veterans for Peace Madison Clarence Kailin Chapter 25

Book Reading: We Gotta Get Out of This Place

Chapter 25 Welcomes the public at the Madison Urban League for a Special Book reading: We Gotta Get Out of this Place by Craig Werner and Doug Bradley

We Gott Get Out of This PlaceBy Paul McMahon, Madison Veterans for Peace

Madison VFP will sponsor a special public event on Wednesday, December 16, 2015, at the South Madison location of the Urban League, 2222 S. Park Street. The time is 6:30pm – 8pm. Please join us for this unique opportunity to meet VFP members and be introduced to this fascinating book on the music of the Vietnam War from an US soldier’s perspective.

Werner and Bradley spent 10 years interviewing hundreds of veterans and compiling their stories. The stories built around the songs that each veteran recalled most vividly from his or her service.

DougDoug Bradley, author of DROS Vietnam, has written extensively about his Vietnam, and post-Vietnam, experiences. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in March 1970 and served one year as an information specialist (journalist) at U.S. Army Republic of Vietnam (USARV) headquarters near Saigon.

CraigCraig Werner is a widely respected music writer whose book A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race, and the Soul of America is used in dozens of classes on popular music. He is a member of the Nominating Committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The authors will present several musical pieces, then open the floor to Q&A.   Books will be available after the presentation.

This is a great chance to connect, or re-connect, with Madison Veterans for Peace.

Peace Rally Program in Madison hosted by Veterans for Peace

Peace Rally May 25, 2015  — Download Flyer

Hosted by Veterans for Peace – Clarence Kailin Chapter 25 – Madison, Wisconsin

FClarence KailinEATURED SPEAKERS

•Everett Mitchell:  “Resisting Narratives of War”

•David Newby – U.S. Labor Against War

•David Couper –  “Keeping the Peace” Invocation

•Will Williams – Comments

 

IMG_0275VetsPlacingrosesatLincolnStoneMUSIC/POETRY

•Old Cool Band

•Spoken Word by First Wave

•Sean Michael Dargan – Bagpipe

PLUS

•Dr. James Allen Scholarships

•Remembering War Casualties

EMCEE

•David Giffey

Monday, May 25, 2015 – Memorial Day

12:45 p.m. – James Madison Park – E. Gorham Street (next to Gates of Heaven)

Special Thanks:  WORT-FM Radio, Norman Stockwell, Steve Ringwood, George’s Flowers

Veterans For Peace, Clarence Kailin Chapter 25, Madison, WI, will be setting up the “Memorial Mile” display along Atwood Avenue in Olbrich Park again this year. We very much appreciate your past participation in setting the display, and would like to ask for your assistance again for this years’ Memorial Mile Display if your Memorial Day holiday weekend would allow time for it.

The annual set-up time is scheduled for 9:00 am, Saturday, May 23. You may stop and start at any time. Hopefully, the ground will not be too dry and hard, and the installation will be accomplished in a few hours. We will have a tent set up with water, and possibly some snacks at the mid-point near the southern park entrance.

The take down time is scheduled for 1:00 pm, Saturday, May 30.

Please share this information to anyone that might be interested !

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2015

Noted speakers, music, high school scholarship awards, and poetry readings are scheduled for a Peace Rally Program beginning at 12:45 p.m. Monday, May 25, at James Madison Park, 614 E. Gorham Street. The program on Memorial Day afternoon is hosted by Veterans for Peace, Clarence Kailin Chapter 25.

In addition to the May 25 program, Veterans for Peace (VFP) will sponsor a “Memorial Mile” display of more than 6,675 simulated grave markers to acknowledge U.S. deaths in the ongoing Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Memorial Mile display, May 23 to May 30, will be located along Atwood Avenue east of Olbrich Botanical Gardens.

Peace rally speakers May 25 at James Madison Park will include:

  • Everett Mitchell, social justice advocate, attorney, activist, and pastor, speaking on “Resisting the Narratives of War.”
  • David Newby, president emeritus of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, discussing efforts by U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW).
  • David Couper, priest and former police chief – “Keeping the Peace” invocation.
  • Will Williams, veteran and activist, with closing remarks.

Warm-up music will be provided by the band Old Cool. A spoken word performance by UW-Madison’s First Wave is scheduled, as well as a poetry reading by Veterans for Peace member Daryl Sherman. Sean Michael Dargan will play a bagpipe tribute to end the program while names of war casualties are read. Audience members will be invited to place red carnations at the nearby Abraham Lincoln Brigade marker. Chapter 25 namesake and founding member, the late Clarence Kailin, was a volunteer fighting fascism with the International Brigade in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. Program emcee is Chapter 25 member and Vietnam War veteran David Giffey.

During the May 25 program, graduates from area high schools will be honored for their participation in the annual Veterans for Peace essay and scholarship competition named after the late VFP member Dr. James Allen. This year, 40 students at seven high schools from Madison to Baraboo to Boscobel wrote essays on the topic “Why I Believe War Is Not the Answer.” More than $4,000 in scholarships have been awarded annually by Chapter 25 since 2007. Veterans for Peace is a non-profit organization. All funds are raised through donations and small grants. The program is free and open to the public. Good will donations will be accepted during the program and at the Memorial Mile site.

Chapter 25 member Steve Books will offer Veterans for Peace educational information. Audio assistance provided by Norm Stockwell and Steve Ringwood, WORT-FM Radio.

(Media: For more information contact David Giffey, 608-753-2199 or email barnowl1941@gmail.com. Interviews with participants available.)

2015 Madison College Scholarship Application

A $1,200 scholarship will be offered for the upcoming 2015-2016 academic year to a Madison High School student who writes the best original essay on the peace topic “Why I Believe War and Violence Are Not the Answer”.     (See scholarship application for more details.)

This scholarship is open to any senior student at a Madison public high school who will graduate in 2015.  Applicants must plan to enroll at Madison Area Technical College (Madison College)–full-time or part-time–beginning the fall semester 2015, to be eligible to receive this award.

Applications must be postmarked no later than Saturday May 2, 2015.

Veterans for Peace College Scholarship