Tag Archives: Madison

Raise Your Voice – No F-35’s – No to wasteful killing machines

Some of our public officials don’t know there is opposition to the F-35’s. They have heard from few of their constituents, and because of this some don’t even have it on their radar. Even if you know they oppose the F-35’s, your elected officials need to hear from you.

What you can do:

• Contact local representatives on City Council, Dane County Board, State Senate and Assembly, and US Senate and Legislature – especially Tammy Baldwin, Mark Pocan, Joe Parisi, and Satya Rhodes-Conway.

• Show up Sept 12 at our 5:00pm press conference at the Alliant Energy Center [see map] just before the Public Hearing on the Environmental Impact Statement. We will provide matching signs to hold and stickers or buttons to wear, to make it clear that we have a sizeable opposition.

*Please contact your alder and county supervisor AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

It can be simple, just that you oppose having the F-35’s stationed at Truax due to environmental and safety concerns.

Ask them if they’ll be attending the Sept 12th public comment session at Alliant Energy Center that the Air National Guard is holding to express their constituents’ reservations about the F-35 project.

If you want to provide more reasons go ahead. You can find lots of information attached and at safeskiescleanwaterwi.org

· Madison Alders – find your alder on this map: https://www.cityofmadison.com/Council/councilMembers/map.cfm

· Dane County Supervisors, contact information may be found here: https://board.countyofdane.com/Supervisors OR

Enter your address to find your supervisor:

https://dcimapapps.countyofdane.com/supervisors/

· Rep. Mark Pocan…. https://pocan.house.gov/contact
· Sen. Tammy Baldwin… https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/feedback
· Dane County Exec Joe Parisi… [email protected]
· Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway… https://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/contact

If you are interested in setting up a meeting with your alder or County supervisor, please contact Tom Boswell at [email protected] or 608/718-7312.

Please share this information with as many Madisonians as you can

Thank you, you make a difference.

Content from Vicki Berenson
for Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin
www.safeskiescleanwaterwi.org

Air Force Environmental Impact Statement…
http://www.angf35eis.com/Documents.aspx

Illustration by Bill Krupinski

Kruptoons

VFP at LaborFest 2019 in Madison

Veterans for Peace-Madison: Steve Books and Brad Geyer spent Labor Day educating the public at the Labor Temple in Madison [LaborFest 2019.]

Pic by Paul McMahon/Heartland Images

We were talking to people about war profiteering, the corrupt government, the massive pollution by the MIC and the boondoggle of the plan to bring F-35’s to Wisconsin and Madison.

[Steve speaking with commander of the National Guard, Governor Tony Evers ]

~Peace is the way Tony.~

Pic by Paul McMahon/Heartland Images

The South Central Federation of Labor (SCFL), Industrial Workers of the World, Madison Teachers Inc., American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Teamsters, TAA and other organized workers groups celebrated Labor Day with its annual LaborFest on Monday, September 2, at the Madison Labor Temple grounds. The Jimmys and Chris O’Leary Band performed.

There were family-friendly activities: magic shows, face painting, a bounce house, balloon

Pic by Paul McMahon/Heartland Images

twister, and caricature artist.

Veterans For Peace is an international organization made up of military veterans, military family members, and allies. We accept veteran members from all branches of service.

We are dedicated to building a culture of peace, exposing the true costs of war, and healing the wounds of war. Our networks are made up of over 140 chapters across the United States and abroad.

Vets for Peace: Our Mission

No Nukes in Madison ~ Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)

Back from the Brink Background

Back from the Brink Page – Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) Wisconsin

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) Wisconsin is launching a campaign calling on Madison to support a “Back from the Brink” resolution.

The resolution endorses the 2017 United Nations ban of nuclear weapons, calls for specific steps to prevent nuclear war, and a commitment to nuclear weapons-free contracts and investments.

Support Back from the Brink

In 1983, the Madison City Council passed an ordinance declaring the city a “nuclear free zone”. We are asking our City Council members (Alders) to pass a Back from the Brink Resolution which builds on this ordinance and commits the city to nuclear weapons free contracts and investments. Our City already has a socially responsible investment policy in place; it no longer invests in fossil fuel companies. We are asking the City do the same regarding nuclear weapons production.

Some say nuclear disarmament is an issue that should be taken up with our Senators and Representatives rather than our City Council members. But national policy has local consequences.

Plans are underway to expand the Truax Air Force base in Madison and bring in F-35 fighter jets designed to carry B61 nuclear bombs. If nuclear capable F-35’s were stationed here, Truax would become a nuclear target.

In the event of a nuclear-armed F-35 crash, Madison could be exposed to air, ground and water contamination with plutonium, even if a nuclear chain reaction did not take place.

No F-35’s – Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin

Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War is a national grassroots initiative seeking to fundamentally change U.S. nuclear weapons policy and lead us away from the dangerous path we are on. The Call lays out five common-sense steps that the United States should take to reform its nuclear policy. We are asking individuals and organizations around the country to endorse The Call and build support for the U.S. government to adopt it as its highest national security priority. Join the effort and help build a safer world for our children to inherit.

Chapter 25 works for peace and justice with Peace Rally and Memorial Mile

Featured speakers at the May 25 peace rally in Madison, Wisconsin, sponsored by Veterans for Peace Chapter 25, are pictured in this photo montage by photographer Paul McMahon, a member of Veterans for Peace. Clockwise from lower left: David Newby, president emeritus of Wisconsin State AFL-CIO; Father David Couper, former Madison police chief and ordained Episcopalian priest; social justice advocate Everett Mitchell, pastor of Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church; and Will Williams, Vietnam War veteran, activist, and peace movement spokesman. Rev. Mitchell is pictured wearing a stole of Kente cloth, a traditional fabric used for West African garments and worn at times of great importance. – (Photos by Paul McMahon)

By David Giffey

The historic Gates of Heaven building resounded with applause and affirmation during the annual peace rally sponsored May 25, Memorial Day, in Madison, by Clarence Kailin Chapter 25 Veterans for Peace.

Four featured speakers delivered important and thoughtfully prepared comments, high school student scholarship winners were honored, and names of war casualties were read to live bagpipe music as the audience of 100 people received red carnations to be placed at the Lincoln Brigade monument at James Madison Park. The Gates of Heaven building, a former Jewish Synagogue, was moved to its present site at the park and served as a home for the peace rally.

A somber display – The Memorial Mile – also was erected by Chapter 25 members on May 23, and was scheduled to remain in place along Atwood Avenue until May 30. The Memorial Mile consists of 6,675 symbolic grave markers, which stretch a saddening and impressive distance along the street to be viewed by thousands of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

The peace rally began with a stirring set performed by the band Old Cool.

Veterans for Peace member David Couper, an ex-Marine, and former Madison police chief and advocate of community policing, told the crowd: “Excessive militarism is dangerous in a free society…we have seen it manifested in our nation’s police. As soldiers, we fought an enemy, but police in a society such as ours must be our guardians, especially of those among us who are most vulnerable…” After Couper retired from his peace keeping work he was ordained a priest in the Episcopalian Church. His invocation was included in his thoughtful comments.

Activist and labor leader David Newby, president emeritus of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, described the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal as being devised in secret to benefit powerful corporations. “Memorial Day is such an important day,” Newby said, “for remembering those killed in this nation’s wars…It’s an important day for remembering too that the reasons for our being in these wars are so often not what we are told. So often it has been not the American people who we went to war to protect, but rather powerful corporations whose interests and profits were considered more important than the lives of the women and men sent to war.”

Everett Mitchell, a social justice advocate, attorney, activist, scholar and pastor at the Solid Rock Baptist Church, devoted some of his comments to lessons taught about war and peace by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As injustice and police violence reach into the lives of African Americans in Madison and communities across the U.S., Rev. Mitchell repeated a message for peace and justice activists: “Until there is justice, we can’t stop.”

Chapter 25 Veterans for Peace is heir to anti-war history. Beginning in 1967, this hand-sewn flag made in Madison, Wisconsin, was used by Madison Veterans for Peace in Vietnam at numerous public demonstrations and protests against the war. Chuck Goranson, a Vietnam veteran, was a grassroots organizer of the group. “Vietnam” was dropped from the group’s name in 1970, when the war was expanded into Cambodia and Laos. Clarence Kailin Chapter 25 Veterans for Peace is a 21st century renewal of the earlier veterans for peace organization. This photo, by Chapter 25 member Phillip Fransen, was taken during the peace rally May 25, 2015, at the Gates of Heaven in James Madison Park. The aging flag serves as a reminder that veterans have long been active in the peace movement. (Photo by Phillip Fransen)

Two of seven 2015 high school scholarship winners, Lyric Simonson and Jose Hernandez, read excerpts from their prizewinning essays titled: “Why I Believe War Is Not the Answer.” This year, Chapter 25 provided a total of $4,200 in scholarships to seven high school graduates. A record 39 students from seven high schools in Central and Southwestern Wisconsin wrote essays for the contest.

Closing comments by Chapter 25 member and Vietnam War veteran Will Williams pointed out the injustices of war that he realized after serving in war. Williams emphasized the importance of educating and supporting young people in order to overcome traditions of militarism and violence.

The peace rally ended with an invitation from the family of Clarence Kailin, namesake of Chapter 25 and a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from Madison, to join in scattering some of Clarence’s ashes near the monument at the park. Norman Stockwell, of WORT-FM, offered the invitation on behalf of Clarence’s family, some of whom attended the peace rally.

Names of Wisconsin residents killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those of civilian casualties were read.

See more photos of the event here. Courtesy of Tom Glassel.

Montage of Chapter 25 and Chapter 970 members marching in Monona Memorial Day Parade. (Youtube Link)