Friday, August 18, 2006
Ft. Hood Action
Hey ya'll,
Here's a few pictures from today. I'm too beat to write up any text right now. But I'll work on it tomorrow (depending on activities and events around here). Must get some sleep! Goodnight...
Okeeee, I added my rough notes from Friday, followed by snippets of an email to a friend I wrote late last night describing my day...
Here's a few scrappy notes from during the day Friday, and from an email at the end of the day. First, here's a link to a story in the local Killeen paper about our "action" at Ft. Hood yesterday (see above pix). http://www.kdhnews.com/docs/daily/ourtexas.aspx?ad=3&sid=11969 In the print version they included a photo showing the GI hotline on one of our signs, which explains soldier's rights, so that was quite a success.
Anyway, here are some rough notes:
Morning meeting, Friday, August 18, 2006…
They played taps, tent by tent at 7:30 this morning, announcing breakfast. I slept through it and woke up at 8:45. So I missed breakfast, but still got some coffee and fruit.
Meeting was going on at the peace house when I showed up at 9:00. There are about 40 people at the meeting. Everyone introduces themselves and says why they’re here and how they’re involved in working for peace. Zachary goes through housekeeping and some chore signups (security food, etc)…..
Zachary turns the discussion over to Lisa to talk about actions and the plans for the day.
Organizing, and skill-building, and network are important for our time here, she says. We’ve identified five audiences: high schools, info on non-mil. Options. Ft. Hood, GI rights. Recruiting stations. Neighborhoods, door to door. And strip clubs, because that’s where a lot of GI’s are at night.
Kilene, Crawford, Waco.
Training, so we all know answers to questions. Also, skill-building in public speaking.
If the camp is going to continue permanently, we need to create things like infrastructure. Things like solar showers. So that is another goal while we’re here.
Also organization with our allies in Texas (Dallas peace house, etc). .
Information on Suzanne swift’s action. PTSD discussion – how can we expand this message? 70% are being turned away and being told it is a pre-existing condition.
Ft: Hood Action in Solidarity w/ Suzanne Swift:
Goals: **(Suzanne S. is setting up a tent city outside Ft. Lewis to draw attention to her demands – Washington State. She was sexually assaulted in Iraq. She finally pressed charges after getting out. She was redeployed, but decided to go AWOL. She was arrested and has been confined to barracks, but has not been charged. She is demanding treatment for PTSD, honorable discharge, and demanding the three men who sexually assaulted her are brought to justice.). Amplify her fight.
** GI rights (publicize hotline). This will be easier to get across to people.
Target
Message. Yo have rights, support troops, know your rights,
Scenerio
Logistics - large banners, flyers, tent, transport, maps, sunblock, car paint
Workshop at 3 o clock. About 20 of us want to go down to Ft. Hood.
Make stickers on mailing labels and place them around: “you have rights, know your rights, GI Hotline – telephone #) …..
1:30 advance team
3:00 departure
4:00 complete setup
The 3 pm workshop on “peaceful solutions to conflict” got moved to 11 am, so that the people going down to ft. hood wouldn’t miss out on it. I volunteered to be on scouting the area for future actions (high schools, coffee shops, recruiting stations).
- also this morning, the web guy for truthout.org volunteered to help me with coffee shop website, hosting, etc….yay…his name is wild horse, I think….
-nimbus, 11:44 EDT..
Evening program: (I arrived late)
Jamie Bratigan, talking about sexual harassment in the military. Someone else was speaking before her. These discussions were in solidarity with Suzanne Swift. I didn’t catch the next speaker’s name, but he (she –transgender) gave a discussion of an arrest where one protestor was sexually harassed in a bathroom while in custody.
Yell of “fuckin’ hippies” from a truck driving by (hwy 137).
Original song by “cool hand luke”
Tina, talking about a political campaign in Mo
Today. The message of solidarity for Suzanne, and the GI rights hotline, within the military system they were not helping her. We reached a lot of people today at Ft. Hood. A lot of people were stopping by for information. A lot of family members were stopping by for info.. We may have saved some people today. A lot of these people don’t know they have rights.
Moan and groan at george bush. If you’re angry, be angry about this damn war that is killing our troops.
Let this be the peace mecca so the GI’s know to come here and find out about their rights. If nobody shows up to fight this stupid war, there won’t be a war. I don’t want them to send my son back. When I meet people like perry today (gold star father) and hear about there loss, I realize this war has the highest suicide rate of any war, because of what they’re making them do over there.
This is about saving lives. This is a life and death situation.
We have so many crosses that we don’t have enough people to get them into the ground. This is wrong. …..
-about 10:00 EDT, Camp Casey III
---------------
And some snippets from an email to a friend that I wrote late friday night:
Whew....
Finally a moment to relax. I think I'm going to try getting to sleep early tonight. I'm back at the peace house (AC environment and wifi). We rolled back into town after eight, and they were supposed to save us dinner, but my driver and I (his name is David Ham, and goes by "Ham") were pretty sure the food would be all gone. But sure enough they had saved dinner. yay! I can't even remember what it was. Some hummous and tabouli and lentil stew...yummy..plus some stir-fried veggies on rice. Plenty of veggie options here (last year was "food not bombs" and was all veggie, but this year they have meat options).
So I sent you that super quick email and headed over to the camp. I'm not sure how much I missed, but it was much less exciting than the previous night. maybe I missed a whole hour and a half (I got there about 8:30, and they may have started at 7:00). Harumph. I thought they would have delayed it for the 20 of us down at Ft. Hood (most of the more "hard-core" activists went down. )...oh well.. and they were about to show a movie, so I just decided to head back to the Peace house, download some photos and relax.
The "action" today was pretty successful. Killeen, Texas, is the home of Ft. Hood, a pretty big base. Ham and I scouted out the high schools, mapping out the area, looking for parking, sidewalk space, empty lots, etc, generally getting info we'd need prior to a protest/informational session. We want to educate the students about their options before the recruiters lure them in. We also checked out the local recruiting station, as well as a few coffee shops. Only one coffee shop was open, still in business, and able to be found (out of five).
The coffee shop experience (just me and ham) was pretty funny...I asked what kind of drip coffee they had. There was an empty home Mr. Coffee coffee pot, and she started reaching for the industrial sized folgers can when I said, nah, how about a double espresso. I observed the process, and it was pretty pathetic. The one thing she did right was to grind fresh. But she didn't tamp the portafilter at all (compress the coffee with a tamper), which is critical to making espresso. Then proceeded to pour about an 8 second shot. Any faster than 20 seconds, or slower than 30 will yield off flavors. An 8 second shot really should be tossed. The water just flowed right through it (maybe because it wasn't tamped??!!). Anyway. Terrible espresso. No wifi (they had terminals they rent for $6/hour). We took off quickly.
The "action" was actually well-received by most soldiers (driving by). Lots of peace signs, a few middle fingers and obscenities, but mostly positive. Our signs said "Know your rights...GI hotline 1-800-782-4555" (or whatever the number was), so nothing too radical. A few peace signs , end the war signs, etc were on people's cars too...And also we had signs expressing solidarity with Suzanne Swift. This was sort of a trial run for future actions, just to check police response, or whatever. But the cops stayed away. Ft hood is big. 340 square miles, 33,000 people, big! It is pretty important from the organizers perspective, because it is a way to reach an awful lot of soldiers, so we didn't want to be confrontational at all today.
But overall, it was a lot of work, and it was very very hot. It is amazing how much work it takes to accomplish just a little bit. But a lot of soldiers took our little info cards, and so did some of their family members. So now they have access to a hotline to find out their rights (including things like conscientious objection). Just because they're in the army doesn't mean they have to go fight and kill.
Hmmmmm...Trying to decide if I should load some photos, or go sleep. Guess I'll try a few more...
-------------
Here's a few pictures from today. I'm too beat to write up any text right now. But I'll work on it tomorrow (depending on activities and events around here). Must get some sleep! Goodnight...
Okeeee, I added my rough notes from Friday, followed by snippets of an email to a friend I wrote late last night describing my day...
Here's a few scrappy notes from during the day Friday, and from an email at the end of the day. First, here's a link to a story in the local Killeen paper about our "action" at Ft. Hood yesterday (see above pix). http://www.kdhnews.com/docs/daily/ourtexas.aspx?ad=3&sid=11969 In the print version they included a photo showing the GI hotline on one of our signs, which explains soldier's rights, so that was quite a success.
Anyway, here are some rough notes:
Morning meeting, Friday, August 18, 2006…
They played taps, tent by tent at 7:30 this morning, announcing breakfast. I slept through it and woke up at 8:45. So I missed breakfast, but still got some coffee and fruit.
Meeting was going on at the peace house when I showed up at 9:00. There are about 40 people at the meeting. Everyone introduces themselves and says why they’re here and how they’re involved in working for peace. Zachary goes through housekeeping and some chore signups (security food, etc)…..
Zachary turns the discussion over to Lisa to talk about actions and the plans for the day.
Organizing, and skill-building, and network are important for our time here, she says. We’ve identified five audiences: high schools, info on non-mil. Options. Ft. Hood, GI rights. Recruiting stations. Neighborhoods, door to door. And strip clubs, because that’s where a lot of GI’s are at night.
Kilene, Crawford, Waco.
Training, so we all know answers to questions. Also, skill-building in public speaking.
If the camp is going to continue permanently, we need to create things like infrastructure. Things like solar showers. So that is another goal while we’re here.
Also organization with our allies in Texas (Dallas peace house, etc). .
Information on Suzanne swift’s action. PTSD discussion – how can we expand this message? 70% are being turned away and being told it is a pre-existing condition.
Ft: Hood Action in Solidarity w/ Suzanne Swift:
Goals: **(Suzanne S. is setting up a tent city outside Ft. Lewis to draw attention to her demands – Washington State. She was sexually assaulted in Iraq. She finally pressed charges after getting out. She was redeployed, but decided to go AWOL. She was arrested and has been confined to barracks, but has not been charged. She is demanding treatment for PTSD, honorable discharge, and demanding the three men who sexually assaulted her are brought to justice.). Amplify her fight.
** GI rights (publicize hotline). This will be easier to get across to people.
Target
Message. Yo have rights, support troops, know your rights,
Scenerio
Logistics - large banners, flyers, tent, transport, maps, sunblock, car paint
Workshop at 3 o clock. About 20 of us want to go down to Ft. Hood.
Make stickers on mailing labels and place them around: “you have rights, know your rights, GI Hotline – telephone #) …..
1:30 advance team
3:00 departure
4:00 complete setup
The 3 pm workshop on “peaceful solutions to conflict” got moved to 11 am, so that the people going down to ft. hood wouldn’t miss out on it. I volunteered to be on scouting the area for future actions (high schools, coffee shops, recruiting stations).
- also this morning, the web guy for truthout.org volunteered to help me with coffee shop website, hosting, etc….yay…his name is wild horse, I think….
-nimbus, 11:44 EDT..
Evening program: (I arrived late)
Jamie Bratigan, talking about sexual harassment in the military. Someone else was speaking before her. These discussions were in solidarity with Suzanne Swift. I didn’t catch the next speaker’s name, but he (she –transgender) gave a discussion of an arrest where one protestor was sexually harassed in a bathroom while in custody.
Yell of “fuckin’ hippies” from a truck driving by (hwy 137).
Original song by “cool hand luke”
Tina, talking about a political campaign in Mo
Today. The message of solidarity for Suzanne, and the GI rights hotline, within the military system they were not helping her. We reached a lot of people today at Ft. Hood. A lot of people were stopping by for information. A lot of family members were stopping by for info.. We may have saved some people today. A lot of these people don’t know they have rights.
Moan and groan at george bush. If you’re angry, be angry about this damn war that is killing our troops.
Let this be the peace mecca so the GI’s know to come here and find out about their rights. If nobody shows up to fight this stupid war, there won’t be a war. I don’t want them to send my son back. When I meet people like perry today (gold star father) and hear about there loss, I realize this war has the highest suicide rate of any war, because of what they’re making them do over there.
This is about saving lives. This is a life and death situation.
We have so many crosses that we don’t have enough people to get them into the ground. This is wrong. …..
-about 10:00 EDT, Camp Casey III
---------------
And some snippets from an email to a friend that I wrote late friday night:
Whew....
Finally a moment to relax. I think I'm going to try getting to sleep early tonight. I'm back at the peace house (AC environment and wifi). We rolled back into town after eight, and they were supposed to save us dinner, but my driver and I (his name is David Ham, and goes by "Ham") were pretty sure the food would be all gone. But sure enough they had saved dinner. yay! I can't even remember what it was. Some hummous and tabouli and lentil stew...yummy..plus some stir-fried veggies on rice. Plenty of veggie options here (last year was "food not bombs" and was all veggie, but this year they have meat options).
So I sent you that super quick email and headed over to the camp. I'm not sure how much I missed, but it was much less exciting than the previous night. maybe I missed a whole hour and a half (I got there about 8:30, and they may have started at 7:00). Harumph. I thought they would have delayed it for the 20 of us down at Ft. Hood (most of the more "hard-core" activists went down. )...oh well.. and they were about to show a movie, so I just decided to head back to the Peace house, download some photos and relax.
The "action" today was pretty successful. Killeen, Texas, is the home of Ft. Hood, a pretty big base. Ham and I scouted out the high schools, mapping out the area, looking for parking, sidewalk space, empty lots, etc, generally getting info we'd need prior to a protest/informational session. We want to educate the students about their options before the recruiters lure them in. We also checked out the local recruiting station, as well as a few coffee shops. Only one coffee shop was open, still in business, and able to be found (out of five).
The coffee shop experience (just me and ham) was pretty funny...I asked what kind of drip coffee they had. There was an empty home Mr. Coffee coffee pot, and she started reaching for the industrial sized folgers can when I said, nah, how about a double espresso. I observed the process, and it was pretty pathetic. The one thing she did right was to grind fresh. But she didn't tamp the portafilter at all (compress the coffee with a tamper), which is critical to making espresso. Then proceeded to pour about an 8 second shot. Any faster than 20 seconds, or slower than 30 will yield off flavors. An 8 second shot really should be tossed. The water just flowed right through it (maybe because it wasn't tamped??!!). Anyway. Terrible espresso. No wifi (they had terminals they rent for $6/hour). We took off quickly.
The "action" was actually well-received by most soldiers (driving by). Lots of peace signs, a few middle fingers and obscenities, but mostly positive. Our signs said "Know your rights...GI hotline 1-800-782-4555" (or whatever the number was), so nothing too radical. A few peace signs , end the war signs, etc were on people's cars too...And also we had signs expressing solidarity with Suzanne Swift. This was sort of a trial run for future actions, just to check police response, or whatever. But the cops stayed away. Ft hood is big. 340 square miles, 33,000 people, big! It is pretty important from the organizers perspective, because it is a way to reach an awful lot of soldiers, so we didn't want to be confrontational at all today.
But overall, it was a lot of work, and it was very very hot. It is amazing how much work it takes to accomplish just a little bit. But a lot of soldiers took our little info cards, and so did some of their family members. So now they have access to a hotline to find out their rights (including things like conscientious objection). Just because they're in the army doesn't mean they have to go fight and kill.
Hmmmmm...Trying to decide if I should load some photos, or go sleep. Guess I'll try a few more...
-------------
# posted by Nimbus Couzin @ 8:46 PM 
