Everything has changed. Here we are unexpectedly hunkered down at home, alone, not doing any of what used to keep us active, just waiting it out, wondering if we'll be next. Some good things happened. Fracking is on the skids, needing at least $40 per barrel to make that work. The pall of sooty air has been lifted in places where people thought that smog was a fact of life. But something else is happening, as we focus on the latest COVID-19 casualty counts, or the latest possible cures, on the struggles to obtain equipment, on the personal tragedies and heroism. The rug is being pulled out from under us, but without our being aware of it. What we have treasured as our support system, the very fabric of our social network, is slipping away from us, Social Security weakened, government accountability moving toward ineffectiveness, violence repeatedly promoted, rights of workers undercut again and again, internal government oversight attacked with firing of four Inspectors General this spring, fossil fuel industry propped up, the U.S. Postal Service heading for privatization. Our way of doing business has shifted from local to megalith corporations. We don't know if we will still have an occupation, or have a place or purpose in this new reality when we are able to venture forth. We'll likely not be safe, we're thinking, to visit a hospital, go to school, travel, go to a performance, and don't know how any of that could possibly be paid for. We just sit here, helplessly, not doing any of those favorite things we use to do.

~ VFP161 Webmaster

People and Events

Stand up for Peace! Fridays, New hours: 3:30 to 4:30 pm at the intersection of Iowa Avenue and Clinton Street on the University of Iowa Pentacrest Iowa City

Are you ready to show up for peace? Join us for an hour, or even just a few minutes, to voice your support for peace. We citizens must stand as a reminder that the military option is an unacceptable option. Come with your friends, your family, your neighbors, or just yourself — all are welcome.
 

Veterans for Peace 161 gather on Armistice Day, November 11, 2018
 

Dave H, John C, Jim Bradley, Louie, Ron McCall, John Fyotek, and Ed Flaherty participated in the June 16, 2018 Gay Pride Parade.
Thanks to Tom Jacobs for the photo.

Photo by Master Sgt. Joshua Kowalsky

On Friday, March 15, 2019, VFP 161 member, Linda Fisher was handed the baton to direct the U.S. Air Force Concert Band at the Hancher to conduct Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever in a rousing finish to the nights outstanding full house performance. Chief Master Sgt Stacy Newbrough Ascione, an Iowa City native, performed a classy flute improvision.
Linda had been a former member of the Women's Air Force Band, serving with the WAF Band from 1960-1961. She even marched in the Inaugural Parade for President John F. Kennedy!

In 1958, four peace lovers sailed the 30' Golden Rule from California, bound for the Marshall Islands, where another above-ground nuclear bomb test was scheduled. They got arrested in Hawaii, and the boat got sold. It was found in 2010, a wreck. Some VFP folks who knew its story restored it. Here it is, in San Diego bay last week, for the national VFP convention, in conjunction w/the 70 year commemoration of the A-Bomb devestation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atmospheric nuclear bomb tests were banned world-wide in 1963. The Marshall Islands are suing the nuke bomb holding countries now to make them honor the intent of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to reduce and get rid of all nuclear weapons. Orion Sherwood, one of the 1958 crew, was at the VFP convention, as determined a peace-maker now as then.

 

Rendered for inclusion on website

 

Everything has changed. Here we are unexpectedly hunkered down at home, alone, not doing any of what used to keep us active, just waiting it out, wondering if we'll be next. Some good things happened. Fracking is on the skids, needing at least $40 per barrel to make that work. The pall of sooty air has been lifted in places where people thought that smog was a fact of life. But something else is happening, as we focus on the latest COVID-19 casualty counts, or the latest possible cures, on the struggles to obtain equipment, on the personal tragedies and heroism. The rug is being pulled out from under us, but without our being aware of it. What we have treasured as our support system, the very fabric of our social network, is slipping away from us, Social Security weakened, government accountability moving toward ineffectiveness, violence repeatedly promoted, rights of workers undercut again and again, internal government oversight attacked with firing of four Inspectors General this spring, fossil fuel industry propped up, the U.S. Postal Service heading for privatization. Our way of doing business has shifted from local to megalith corporations. We don't know if we will still have an occupation, or have a place or purpose in this new reality when we are able to venture forth. We'll likely not be safe, we're thinking, to visit a hospital, go to school, travel, go to a performance, and don't know how any of that could possibly be paid for. We just sit here, helplessly, not doing any of those favorite things we use to do.

~ VFP161 Webmaster

People and Events

Veterans for Peace 161 gather on Armistice Day, November 11, 2018
 

Dave H, John C, Jim Bradley, Louie, Ron McCall, John Fyotek, and Ed Flaherty participated in the June 16, 2018 Gay Pride Parade.
Thanks to Tom Jacobs for the photo.

Photo by Master Sgt. Joshua Kowalsky

On Friday, March 15, 2019, VFP 161 member, Linda Fisher was handed the baton to direct the U.S. Air Force Concert Band at the Hancher to conduct Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever in a rousing finish to the nights outstanding full house performance. Chief Master Sgt Stacy Newbrough Ascione, an Iowa City native, performed a classy flute improvision.
Linda had been a former member of the Women's Air Force Band, serving with the WAF Band from 1960-1961. She even marched in the Inaugural Parade for President John F. Kennedy!

In 1958, four peace lovers sailed the 30' Golden Rule from California, bound for the Marshall Islands, where another above-ground nuclear bomb test was scheduled. They got arrested in Hawaii, and the boat got sold. It was found in 2010, a wreck. Some VFP folks who knew its story restored it. Here it is, in San Diego bay last week, for the national VFP convention, in conjunction w/the 70 year commemoration of the A-Bomb devestation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atmospheric nuclear bomb tests were banned world-wide in 1963. The Marshall Islands are suing the nuke bomb holding countries now to make them honor the intent of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to reduce and get rid of all nuclear weapons. Orion Sherwood, one of the 1958 crew, was at the VFP convention, as determined a peace-maker now as then.