A Decade Too Long: two Afghanistan veterans explore nonviolence in Afghanistan

Sponsored by VFP Chapter 099

Saturday, October 1, 2011 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Simpson Lecture Room, A-B Tech, 340 Victoria Rd., Asheville, NC

~ Donations appreciated ~

Brock McIntosh is a student who is still in the National Guard pending his Conscientious Objection application. His views are his own and do not represent those of the Army National Guard or any other branch of the United States military. Brock had dreams of becoming a special forces medic until he started learning about the people and realities of Afghanistan, at which point he realized that the US military would never be capable of bringing peace - through force - to Afghanistan. Brock spoke in Asheville at Speaking Truth to Power: a permanent state of war on April 9, 2011.

Jacob George served in the Army Special Forces and completed three tours in Afghanistan. After leaving the Army, he briefly returned to school before selling all of his possessions and embarking on a bike tour, A Ride Till The End, with other veterans and supporters, speaking in schools, churches, and other community spaces about his transformation toward peace and reconciliation.

They recently returned to Afghanistan with a delegation from Voices for Creative Nonviolence where they joined forces with Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, who seek to encourage widescale, person-to-person relationships towards peace and reconciliation, with a resolute commitment to nonviolence, non-killing and the well-being of ALL people. We hope to Skype with them for live conversation.

They will be accompanied in Asheville by Russ Ritter, a well-known poet from the Ozarks, who is the 2003 Association of College Unions International (ACUI) National Poetry Slam Champion, 03-04 Ozark grand slam Champion, and 2004 Arkansas Poetry Slam first runner up and, Jerrad Hardin, an organizer with civilian/soldier alliance and the acting (civsol) regional coordinator for the SE United States. He has worked as a civilian ally to IVAW since the launching of their first campaign, Operation Recovery, in 2010.

This group of impassioned peacemakers will educate, enlighten, endear and entertain you with their stories, music and poetry.

Come meet them! Youʼll be glad you did!

Organizing 101: Effective Social Change — led by Mike Ferner* September 23 & 24, 2011

Grieving about dashed hopes for change? Don’t mourn—Organize!

Friday evening 6:30-9pm North Asheville Library, 1030 Merrimon Ave, Asheville

             Presentation, Discussion

Saturday 10am-4pm: (Battery Park Apartments—Rooftop Garden, 1 Battle Square, downtown Asheville)

            Workshop I, Lunch, Workshop II

Presented by VFP Chapter 099's Center for Peace Education & Training

Reserve your spot. Contact:  Clare Hanrahan    828-242-5610    email:  newsouthnetwork@gmail.com

Donations welcome

If you advocate for change, this event is for you whether your issue is peace, social justice, the environment, the economy, human rights…whatever.

What can we do to: stop these wars; save the planet; distribute wealth equitably; end racism…???

Mike says: “There may be more ways than one to get there, but this much is certain: we, the relative handful of committed believers, aren't going to get there on our own. Gleanings from history and my own experience tell me the best way is still found in Joe Hill’s last words: ‘Don't mourn for me, organize!’

“We must do more than fix the wrongs. We must make the rules, define the terms, run the show—in a word: govern ourselves….It is precisely when we learn how to gain the power to govern ourselves—not  just the power to fix the wrongs—that we will be able to reorder these systems to serve the common interest and create a better life. And not coincidentally, it is when we begin to take organizing seriously that we will begin this journey.

“As Asheville goes, so goes the nation—or at least the movement! I am so looking forward to working with you on the most time-tested (and unfortunately these days, seldom used) method for social change. Warning: Numerous times through this process you will say to yourself, ‘What?? (or possibly even “WTF”)  I know that!’ or ‘Huh?  We're already doing that.’ You will be right. We will be teaching each other.  It will be exciting, tedious, frustrating, great fun...and revolutionary.”

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Recommended reading (whether you attend the event or not) : Introduction to THE POPULIST MOMENT: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America by Lawrence Goodwyn

http://www.ratical.org/corporations/PMSHAGAintro.html

* Mike Ferner is a writer and activist from Ohio who served two years as the national president and is currently interim director of Veterans For Peace. He was elected twice to Toledo City Council, organized for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for 5 years, worked as communications director for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee the first three years of the Mt. Olive Co. boycott and worked as Communications Director for the Program on Corporations, Law &  Democracy. Mike also worked as a volunteer on the FLOC Campbell Soup Co. boycott through the 1980′s.  In the 70′s, organized two local anti-nuclear power groups in northern Ohio.

Mike traveled to Iraq twice, with a Voices in the Wilderness delegation just prior to the U.S. invasion in 2003, returning in 2004 for two months as an independent journalist. His book about those trips, Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq, was published by Praeger in 2006.

His activism includes several arrests for “disturbing the war,” including disrupting a session of Congress.  During the Vietnam War he served as a Navy Hospital Corpsman, took care of hundreds of wounded soldiers and was discharged as a conscientious objector.  Mike wrote the “Veterans For Peace Case for Impeachment and Prosecution.”

His main interest is in learning more about how the Populists organized the largest mass democratic movement in U.S. history and what that might mean today for popular uprisings looking for a better life.

09/21/11 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

The Second Annual Asheville International Day of Peace celebration, 4:30 to 7:30 PM at Pack Square. 

Mike Ferner, Executive Director of Veterans for Peace National Office will speak.  Entertainment includes Daniel Barber, Gerri LittleJohn, Deja Vu & Rhonda Weaver, Thomas Rain Crowe, and Greg Olsen.  For more information: www.peacetownasheville.org. 

Sponsored/endorsed by Veterans for Peace Chapter 099, Asheville Peacetown, Arts to People, the local UN Association, the B'hai community, the Mountain Area Interfaith Forum, the Social Action

Committee of the First Congregational United Church of Christ and other faith groups.