Ryan, Recruited! - Band of Buddies Series

RYAN had talked non-stop over dinner about the military recruiters in his high school…and the cool free stuff like t-shirts and video games! They said he could be a helicopter pilot and get a job anywhere. His little brother said helicopters were cool… His sister said a friend’s boyfriend died in Afghanistan. She was dumb…the recruiters said he wouldn’t even have to go to combat!

His folks said not to sign anything the night he and his friend went with the recruiter to visit a military base. But they’d stayed in a hotel and never got to the base - the recruiter said the CO had called to say it wasn’t a good time to visit.

Then the recruiter talked all friggin’ night about how cool the military was, how much they’d learn, how much people would respect them, what a great opportunity it was to get money for college…. They’d signed after he offered a $10,000.00 bonus!

His folks had been furious and asked the recruiter to tear up his papers. But the recruiter said it was all legal and binding and even a lawyer and a lot of money couldn’t break the contract.

So Ryan went to basic training where he learned he couldn’t train as a helicopter pilot as his test scores were too low. Now he’s an infantryman….

Basic was pretty weird… kinda like high school with buzz cuts and uniforms. There was funny shit too: a recruiter had promised a vegetarian guy that of course the military served vegetarian food. So at Basic he couldn’t eat anything! He just cried and cried; finally, when he couldn’t take it anymore -- everybody laughing at him and dragging him out of bed for another midnight blanket party – he slit his wrists at morning chow.

They stuck him in the brig for damaging military property – that is, he was the property!

Two weeks after Ryan arrived at his permanent duty station his unit got order to deploy to Iraq. When he told them his recruiter had promised he wouldn’t be in combat they’d just laughed and called him a “pussy.”

Now Ryan can’t reach his recruiter on the phone….

See other pieces in the Family of War Series:
Daniel, Deployed! - Band of Buddies Series

Ryan, Recruited! - Band of Buddies Series

Bob, Burned in Combat

Luis, Corporate Warrior

Jerry and Candy, family of war

Governor Goldie Myron

Oil Spill!

Day before Halloween, Oct 30, helicopters hovered over my home for much of the day. Not looking for me. Looking for an oil spill on the beach practically on my doorstep. Ironically, I live on a marine sanctuary... not so safe right now!
I didn't know about the spill until Saturday (no TV helps keeps this sort of news out of my immediate living space). I thought the air traffic was about the emergency closure of the Bay Bridge (a few iron bars fell off the old bridge onto traffic below - yes, life is precarious for all living creatures around here right now).
Bunker fuel pumped into the Dubai Star - Panamanian registration, what else? -- missed the slot and spilled into the bay...apparently for some time before anyone noticed.
A 3-mile long slick south of the Bay Bridge threatens the sea and shore birds -- about 300,000 in transit right now which is the middle of their migration. 
One woman, on learning that about 30 sea birds had been treated for oil contamination by Saturday said, "Oh, is that all?"
Perhaps my imagination is too active for I experience what it must be like to dive into clear water, eat some delicious greenery on the bay bed, then pop up into bunker fuel. It is the really heavy, sticky stuff. Hard to recover if you have feathers!
Pix below taken late afternoon on Halloween. Foggy pix taken morning after...the fog makes it tough for bird clean up crews to see our struggling feathered friends.

Blessing in Disguise...SF Chronicle Nov 2, 2009

My Letter to the Editor in San Francisco Chronicle today....

or read it here:

Blessing in disguise

A quarter of a million cars use the Bay Bridge each weekday. Much of the time, drivers and Bay Area residents, intent upon goals and destinations, take this for granted.

When something unique happens and the bridge closes for major repairs, many realize how profound is our interdependence. Yes, some complain loudly and blame the transit systems, other drivers - someone else. Others marvel at the treasured lesson inherent in these moments.

The truth is we depend deeply upon one another. We are not the individualized and atomized entities our culture promotes and valorizes. The more than 7 million people here - socially, economically, educationally, politically disparate - must reach beyond differences and toward similarities.

The bridge closure was our blessing in disguise. Use this opportunity to create interdependent futures. Look into your neighbor's eyes. See, feel, encounter that actual, real, live human being. She or he is not a hurdle in your path, an obstacle to your goal. That other human being holds a key to your mutual humanity, even survival.

The Chinese say chaos is opportunity. Horace said, Carpe diem! I say, there's no moment like this moment.

SUSAN GALLEYMORE Alameda

Bob, Burned in Combat - Band of Buddies Series

(Sharing my art work created to express the horror faced by families of those injured in war. And holding that the suffering of Iraqis and Afghans- and so many others - are not yet receiving much attention. Feel free to comment on the symbols used here.)

BOB had been completely surprised by the car that came outta nowhere and rammed into the Bradley Fighting Vehicle! All hell had broken loose.

The bomber dude must have been sitting on a huge pile of explosives because the impact killed our tank commander right off and hurt two of our guys, one of them burned even worse than Bob….

It was cool that his mom flew to Germany to be there even though Bob was unconscious for the first few days. She told him that he’d been able to breathe only with a respirator. Funny thing about being hurt that bad, you don't feel that much. Even burns are not as bad as he imagined. Drugs are great… although too much of a good thing also means you can’t think straight or do physical therapy.

Man, when he saw his arms and hands on fire right after the explosion - what he could see out of his messed up eyes and his bloody face - he thought for sure he was dying. Next thing he was being e’vaced to Brooks burn unit in San Antonio. That was after the emergency craniotomy to release pressure on his brain.

In Brooks he learned the extent of his injuries: burns on his hands, arms, face, multiple injuries to his neck, torn cheek muscles, severed artery in his wrist, metal and shrapnel lodged in his skull and brain, and unknown injuries to his eyes. The silver-dollar-sized hole in his cheek healed from the inside and the long-term prognosis looked good. The eye surgeons removed shrapnel from his right eye and still worked on his severely injured left eye.

The TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] is tough: sometimes Bob can't remember things from the day before. Some days in class he can't remember shit – other days are okay. He hopes the dizziness will just go away so he hasn’t told the doc about it. At least his teacher understands what’s up: his kid brother is in Iraq. Anyway, Bob's gone through some rough shit before… but will he ever get back the life he left behind?

See other pieces in the Family of War Series:
Daniel, Deployed! - Band of Buddies Series

Ryan, Recruited! - Band of Buddies Series

Bob, Burned in Combat

Luis, Corporate Warrior

Jerry and Candy, family of war

Governor Goldie Myron

What goes around, comes around....Olmert hounded in San Francisco

Former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert may have hoped for a victory lap around the US during his recent visit. Instead, in several cities, including San Francisco, he met with calls of "war criminal," and calls for his arrest.Olmert's visit to San Francisco was courtesy of and hosted by the World Affair Council.
As you watch this video clip, keep on eye on the audience... a lot of young people look mystified by the protests and the protesters. A sad comment on how little young folks know about how the world works these days. On the other hand, some of the older audience members look as if they're ready to explode with anger. Nothing like this sort of firm reminder to agitate folks who prefer not to believe the physical evidence right in front of their faces. In this case, that Olmert - and Israel - presided over a slaughter of Palestinians in Dec '08 and Jan '09 while too many in the world looked on.
Ehud Olmert accused of war crimes in San Francisco - video clip.

Then there are folks like Laura Abraham of The Peace Cycle who see the physical evidence in front of their faces...and vow to do something about it. Laura co-founded The Peace Cycle and just wrapped up another annual trip, this one from Amman to Jerusalem and visiting many towns in the West Bank. Listen to Laura Abraham describe this trip on Raising Sand Radio.

Moscow, mon amour...

Moscow, Idaho, that is! (Pronounced Mos-co, not, as a friend pointed out, Mos-cow as I mispronounced it.)
From the SF bay area, fly to Seattle then Pullman, WA. Sally Perrine and Jerry Swenson, of The Palouse Peace Center, met me at Pullman and we drove together to Moscow.

Flying over The Palouse for the first time was sheer wonder. As far as the airborne eye can see, contoured farm land without the unsightly circles indicating irrigation. Instead, a landscape of golds, beiges, assorted browns, even shades of black in some places. Here are natural hieroglyphics that communicate directly with the heart.  I'm still searching for words to describe how seeing The Palouse affected me. This is more about feelings and less about logic though; the geomorphic message bypasses the head and goes directly to my...well, yes, soul. I look forward to seeing it in the green shades of spring- and growing-season -- although these shades of fall are soothing and spectacular.

Moscow is small, coherent, university town that has its peace and justice people as well as its more extreme religious and militant (yes, the right word is "fundamentalist") factions. In other words, it is like most other places in the world where people strive to make sense of their lives as they make a living and, at the same time, mesh conflicting worldviews.

An aside about small towns and big cities. 
I like small towns because they are suited to what humans beings can "manage" about community life and still feel like they are managing. It is not easy to get lost in a small town. This, of course, is what so many of us like about city life - "getting lost" allows us to experiment, try out different ways of being, try on new ideas, all the things that small towns, often, disallow.

City life is excellent if people feel as if they city is serving them and not that they are serving the city. It is very easy to get lost in a city.  As has been said before, "small is beautiful" and I see "small" coming back in vogue. Our cities will become more neighborhood oriented - more like small towns - and still allow experimentation of various sorts.


A story about Moscow. 
Recently the town decided it was okay for residents to keep chickens in their  backyards - chickens,  not roosters. (This is happening in other US towns and cities too. Some bay area cities now allow households to re-use gray water - essential to fight our ongoing drought and to encourage backyard vegetable gardening and so on.) The family that hosted me in Moscow added five chickens that contribute an egg a day to the household.

One morning, I overheard a brief exchange between daughter Mattie who trains dogs for sled races, and her mother.
Matiie: "I'm going out to visit the girls."
Her mother: "You mean the chickens?"
Mattie: "No, I mean the dogs."
That snippet said a lot to me about the seamlessness of life, that other creatures - here dogs and chickens - are part of our family, that we are part of a larger whole, that each creature contributes to the coherent community of our planet. And that is something I like to get behind.

Thanks for Sally Perrine, Jerry Swenson, Corrie and Lynn of U of I Social Forum and to Martha and Dan who shared their house and their hospitality. And to Moscow.

Leigh and Sallie - the faces behind the voices of Radio Free Moscow.

Jerry, Susan, Sallie, Dahr, and two friends

Jerry, Stephanie, Dahr, Susan, and Jack, veteran of The War on Terror.

Remembering things past,...and future

Way back in 2004, in the Agadeer Hotel, Baghdad, I met a number of folks I want to recognize here.

Mike Ferner, currently Veterans for Peace president, former corpsman (that's a medic for the US Navy) drafted into the Vietnam War. Mike helped me understand the lay of the land in and around Baghdad and Balad, the huge US military base where my son was deployed. He also helped me contact the Public Affairs Officer at Balad. I emailed her, told her I was coming to visit my son, and never heard back from her although the lads in uniform at the gate to the base seemed to expect me. (My hijab threw them off and one did threaten me with an M4 or M16 until I removed the hijab and showed my US passport.) Mike's book is "Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq."

Dahr Jamail was there in January 2004 too. He and I just did an event sharing our work and our books at the University of Idaho. His latest book, The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan , shares the stories of US troops refusing to fight.
Listen to our combined event on Raising Sand Radio or visit the Raising Sand Radio web site for all archived shows.

David Martinez was making a film in Baghdad. He and Robert Eischelman tried to help me get online so I could continue to find my son and await his email. (That didn't really work - for some of the reasons Christian Parenti outlines in his book below, particularly the sections about the informal power structure in the Agadeer Hotel.) Anyway, after a big anti-war rally in San Francisco Civic Center, someone called to me on Market Street. Turned out to be David. We've run into one another here and there - usually after long passages of time. He just turned up again through another friend. These days David is busy with all kinds of things you can find out about at his blog, Cafe DMZ. Check it out.. 

Christian Parenti describes the scene in the Agadeer Hotel in his book, The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq. The Agadeer Hotel, I hear, is shut down and has been since about 2004 or so.

I would like to know what happened to Staff Sgt. Juan. I met him, first, at a lovely coffee shop near the fully fortified Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad. He came into the cafe in full BDU with an M16 or M4, took off his helmet and ordered coffee. I was there for the online internet cafe - again, looking for my son. I struck up a conversation with Juan and learned his wife was deployed to the Baghdad Airport. Their kids - 2 and 4 at the time - were living with Juan's folks in the SF Mission District. The next time I saw SSgt Juan was on the main drag in Baghdad after an IED had been discovered at Firdos Square. I'd gone into an internet cafe - a different one - and came out half an hour later to a cordoned off street and US military everywhere with tanks at the ready. I describe this scene in my book including SSgt Juan's description of an 18-year-old member of his unit who shot and killed a civilian. The young man was not able to function after that, wouldn't touch his weapon, wouldn't go out of patrols. He was sent back to the US with PTSD.

So this posting acknowledges a few of the brave and creative folks I've met over the last few years working for peace and  toward understanding who and what we are as human beings.

Let me finish with a letter from M'kesha, a National Guardswoman of Jordanian Arab descent, who has had a very hard time with the US NG. From her deployment to Iraq she wrote:
"...I may not be able to change the situations I face or the world here but I hold true to things that make me who I am. I will change. I'll return home a different person but I"ll not let go of my joy in life. I will not let go of my ability to find beauty in squalor. I can't explain the faith that surges through me but I know that I will return whole. I will not let this tear me apart."
M'kesha has a child today. He's about 5 and suffers from dyspraxia - an inability to use language - believed to be a result of the toxics M'kesha was exposed to in Iraq.

When people ask me how I keep doing the work for peace and understanding I share M'kesha's letter. She found that life is not one thing OR the other - beauty or squalor, for example, that it is BOTH beauty AND squalor, BOTH good AND bad, BOTH evil AND heavenly, BOTH warlike AND peaceful. It is our work as humans to become more human and more humane in understanding and practicing BOTH this AND that, simultaneously.

Do try this at home!