“Footage from this month’s Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemoration, an annual event in which members of the Corvallis community gather to mourn and remember the devastating nuclear attacks on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, is now available to the public. The event, sponsored by the Women’s International League of Peace & Freedom (WILPF) and Veterans for Peace Linus Pauling Chapter (VFP), was held at the Riverfront Park on August 5 and featured a variety of speakers from within and beyond the Corvallis community. Live traditional koto music was provided by Masuma Timson, who teaches and records musical sessions from her home studio in Salem.
Linda Richards, a member of the WILPF and VFP and an instructor at OSU’s School of History, Philosophy and Religion, remarked in her opening speech that those in attendance had gathered “as a type of ceremony to send healing” to all of those harmed by nuclear weapons, including the hibakusha — survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — and the victims of radiation exposure.”
Messages based on themes from supporting local groups to address civics issues.
VFP Linus Pauling Chapter is a founding sponsor of the Corvallis-area low-power FM station, KORC-FM. We recently offered several suggested themes to the station manager, John Ellis, to create some short public service announcements (PSAs).
Here is the first VFP PSA message scheduled to air occasionally.
KORC is also running interviews with members of affiliate organizations. Here’s one with our member, Joel Inman. When you visit the Podbean link for this interview, you’ll find another interview with our chapter President, Rick Staggenborg, and other interesting clips.
AND, please mark your calendar for the KORC Community Celebration, September 25, 1pm – 5pm at Common Fields, 545 SW 3rd St., Corvallis. It’s outside and we can social distance easily. SEE YOU THERE!
The local chapters of the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF) and Veterans For Peace hosted a commemoration for the victims of the United States attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.
The ceremony was held at the Riverfront Park in Corvallis, Oregon on August 5, 2021.
On May 27, 2021, local Corvallis Hiroshima survivor June Ikuko Terasaka Moore, came to visit and bless (with her and her family’s presence) our Peace Tree.
The Peace Tree was planted April 11, 2019 at the Oregon State University (OSU) Asian & Pacific Cultural Center (APCC) with the help of local Veterans For Peace member, Dr. Linda Richards, OSU’s School of History, Philosophy and Religion and the APCC. The tree planting honors Ms. Hideko Tamura Snider, a Medford peace advocate and Hiroshima survivor.
To learn more about Ms. Snider’s history and peace activism and about the Hiroshima Peace Tree project in Oregon, see this link.
Dr. Linda Richards (kneeling with a jar of peace cranes folded for June’s family) visits with June Ikuko Terasaka Moore beside the APCC Peace Tree.
For more details about this project, please email Dr. Richards: atomiclinda[at]gmail.com.
“…NATO seeks to launch its new strategic initiative “NATO 2030,” which identifies its principal security concerns as not only Russia, but also China, terrorism, cyber attacks and emerging disruptive technologies. This forebodes a dangerous expansion of NATO even further into the Asia Pacific region….”
On June 14, the US-led imperialist military pact, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), will hold its annual summit meeting in Brussels, Belgium. The Resist US-Led War Movement calls for Global Actions to Resist NATO and Build the People’s Movement for Just Peace!
Since its founding in 1949, NATO has acted as an armed wing of US-led war and imperialism, mobilizing its 29 member states in North America and Europe to unleash lethal military campaigns in the name of “collective defence, crisis management and cooperative security.” That is, in defense of the interests of US imperialism and its allies, threatened by its rivals or movements for genuine sovereignty and independence.
The truth is that NATO has been a prime actor in wars of aggression, the enforcement of sanctions, and military occupations that have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in countries from Afghanistan, to Iraq, and Libya. As part of its policy to surround and contain Russia, NATO has built up its presence in the Black Sea and Mediterranean including US bases and use of bases in Greece and Cyprus. NATO continues to destabilize sovereign countries and prop up fascist governments across Europe, including in Poland, Ukraine, Turkey and Hungary. NATO gives unwavering support to Israel’s genocidal occupation of Palestine, and NATO member Turkey has initiated military aggression in North and East Syria and in South Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) in a brutal war to eliminate the Kurdish people, toward the goal of strengthening NATO in the Middle East. So-called humanitarian missions conducted by NATO place humanitarian aid in a military framework that prioritizes making regions secure for investment and geopolitical interests of its member states. Around the world, NATO states maintain an intricate network of military bases and military installations, which violate national sovereignty and cause environmental damage and social disruption.
To support its insatiable hunger for militarism, NATO continues to demand larger military budgets and greater military spending from each of its member states, leaving much-needed social services for working people chronically underfunded. NATO pushes the bogus line of nuclear deterrence, essentially supporting the nuclear build up of its nuclear-armed members and even preventing its members from signing the TPNW (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons).
Now NATO seeks to launch its new strategic initiative “NATO 2030,” which identifies its principal security concerns as not only Russia, but also China, terrorism, cyber attacks and emerging disruptive technologies. This forebodes a dangerous expansion of NATO even further into the Asia Pacific region, as NATO increases its intelligence activities, investment in military readiness–including weapons, military exercises, bases and installations– and collaboration with repressive regimes in the region.
As the preeminent alliance of the most economically and politically powerful allies of the US, NATO is still the premier force bolstering US-led war today. Through NATO, the US has access to any military base, domestic or overseas, of any of its members. The US also is the primary decision-maker when it comes to NATO missions, meaning that all of the pooled resources of member countries are at the US’s fingertips to fund its destructive operations. Truly, the US would not be at the helm of the majority of wars of aggression today if it were not for the NATO alliance.
The people reject NATO as a tool of US-led war! NATO and its proponents will never achieve real peace and security for the masses of the world. The people can only attain a genuine just peace by organizing for justice and social equity and by forging solidarity amongst peoples, including the recognition of the right to self-determination, economic, and food sovereignty, and self-defense of nations and oppressed peoples from reactionary violence, including US and NATO-led aggression.
Resist US-Led War Movement calls for actions June 10-14, to coincide with the NATO summit in Brussels, to denounce NATO and build the grassroots people’s movement to oppose NATO and US-led war! Join our online rally on June 10 at http://bit.ly/notonatorally, join us at in-person actions in Brussels on June 13, or hold an action in your own city or town!
Letter to the editor, mid-Valley newspapers, May 30, 2021
“This Memorial Day, honor the fallen U.S. war hero if you will.
But, where is the memorial day for victims of U.S. aggression? If you have studied the true history of the U.S. empire, you know that this country has waged war for empire or some perceived threat to U.S. interests since the country’s inception. We have created literally countless victims, including Native Americans. None of these victims will be memorialized this Memorial Day.
Many of those who joined the U.S. military had the best intentions. But how many were misled into combat service by politicians and their corporate backers? Some voice support for the “good” wars. But those too could have been avoided through savvy diplomacy and other actions short of war.
Some U.S. veterans and current military members have committed atrocities and even war crimes. This is well documented. Are we honoring them too? When you say “Thank you for your service,” do know whether the recipient served honorably? Do you care? Many veterans we know prefer not to be thanked, as that can trigger memories of the horrific destruction in which they took part.
As we honor the U.S. war dead, we must also acknowledge our longstanding militant foreign policy, and we must honor and mourn the victims of U.S. hegemony. These were fellow human beings routinely swept away silently and promptly from American consciousness and under the historical rug.
This Memorial Day, please honor all victims of war.”
Bart Bolger, Former president, Veterans for Peace, Mid-Valley Chapter, Corvallis
What would Memorial Day look like if we commemorated all the victims of war, and not just the military fallen from our own country? What would it be like to honor all the dead and acknowledge all the destruction wrought around the world by U.S. military actions?
Join us to explore this theme, as we pair Americans, mostly military veterans, with speakers who have been on the receiving end of U.S. military aggression.
Speakers:
Cheyenne Arapaho Nation: Larry Bringing Good
Afghanistan:Nematullah Ahangosh, Basir Bita, Kathy Kelly, Danny Sjursen
Iraq:Matthew Hoh, Lubna Mousa
Vietnam:Peggy Akers, Theresa Mei Chuc, Doug Rawlings
by Rick Staggenborg. Published as a letter to the editor in the three mid-Valley newspapers May 28, 2021.
“Palestinians in Gaza are dying by the hundreds under relentless Israeli missile attacks. Several Israeli citizens have also been killed by Hamas rockets. The predictable US response is “Israel has a right to defend itself.” While true, those concerned about lost lives on both sides must look beyond the misleading media characterization of the violence as a “tit-for-tat” exchange.
This isn’t a clash between equals, but between one of the most powerful armies on earth against fighters interspersed among nearly 2 million civilians. While Hamas rocket attacks on civilian populations are war crimes, so is the completely disproportionate Israeli response. To understand why Hamas would provide a rationale for the Israeli slaughter, one must examine the sequence of events leading to the exchange, something American politicians and media never do.
As reported in several Israeli newspapers, several provocations preceded the Hamas response. These included forced evictions in Jerusalem, violent suppressions of resulting protests, ignoring or supporting settler violence against Palestinians in Jerusalem, and raiding the sacred al-Aqsa mosque during observances preceding a Muslim high holiday. The Times quotes Israeli politicians who argue that Netanyahu deliberately set the stage for civil war and the massacre in Gaza to save himself from prosecution on charges of corruption.
Netanyahu’s actions prove that equating American interests with the political interests of an increasingly out-of-control Israeli government doesn’t serve the real interests of Israel or the U.S., not to mention the Palestinians caught in the crossfire.
Members of VFP Linus Pauling Chapter 132, Mid-Valley joined many community members and Oregon State University students for two demonstrations, on May 14 and 20, in support of Palestinian resistance against the brutal attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Veterans For Peace are calling calling on Microsoft (Xbox) and Sony (PlayStation) and Valve not to host or digitally distribute the soon-to-be-released video game “Six Days in Fallujah,” developed by Highwire Games and published by Victura.
CAIR and Veterans for Peace believe at its core, the game is an “Arab murder simulator” that glorifies violence that took the lives of over 800 Iraqi civilians, justifies the illegal invasion of Iraq and reinforces Islamophobic narratives.
Join Veterans For Peace and CAIR for a discussion on May 4th on the upcoming game titled “6 Days in Fallujah” and the truth behind the deadly U.S. military assault on Iraq. Panel consists of CAIR Director of Government Affairs Robert McCraw, CAIR Research and Advocacy Coordinator Huzaifa Shahbaz, veterans of the war on Iraq, Ross Caputi and Chris Velazquez with an introduction by VFP Executive Director Garett Reppenhagen.
