OpEdNews - Page 4 of Article: On Subway & Bus Veterans For Peace Denounce Media, Urge Calling Congress, Clergy

JJ: "How long have you been doing this?"

Vet: "Quite a few months now, but only when I have to take a bus or subway anyway, which means one or two trips a day."

JJ: "How many of you are there?"

Vet: "Not many, most of us are too self-conscious, or timid, or afraid of criticism."

JJ: "Do you get sometimes get criticized?"

Vet: "Amazingly, during the six months I've been doing this, have only had a few hecklers and so far they have actually helped me get the attention of the rest of the riders; only five cases of people telling me to shut up or to be quiet. One time the riders seated around defended my right to talk and said they wanted to hear me. The other times I was able to improvise a way to continue by either embarrassing the heckler by inviting him or her to speak about the dying children and what we should do about them, or asking, 'What branch of the armed forces were you in?' or explaining how I would like to hear other people taking about stopping the killing rather than talk myself."

JJ. "It was interesting that you spoke of 9/11 and Carter having the CIA arm, train and fund the Afghan hill tribes to sucker in the Soviets."

Vet: Yes, it is a bombshell for many; most are so ignorant of anything but the deception they get from the evening news. Its sad how many people don't know they have been had, misled, deceived, corrupted. So much so, the truth sounds impossible to for them believe. hey would defend to the death what they have been sold on TV as the honorable truth. We mainly want to plant a seed of mistrust in commercial media.

At our twice a month Veterans For Peace meetings we go to great lengths just to plan a demonstration or a presence to reach the interest of maybe thirty of forty passersby. But warmly asking people to call congress about what they already believe in on a nine stop subway ride, changing cars at each stop, one vet can reach up to more than four hundred on crowded rush hour trains. Alternatively, one can stay on the same car and literally lecture on the history of media war promotion, which is of course what I do on the bus.

One learns by one's mistakes, and I have a number of conditions that have to be present before I speak. If the bus air-con is noisy or if the train is rumbling, trying to talk above the noise sounds like shouting and is a turn off. And if there are too few passengers, it is awkward because it would seem to be one-on-one, intrusive and impolite to be making personal eye contact. And avoiding ALL eye contact makes it look like you are talking to yourself. People are more comfortable being addressed within a large crowd and I can dwell for a second on the eyes that are making themselves engagingly receptive or interested. Also, if it's a double-bus, nice to stay seated and just go easy with a soft voiced chat. Don't want to distract the bus driver in any case. But if there are only ten or fifteen passengers? Forget it! Its too much in face of individual riders.

I can feel that ninety percent of the time Afro-Americans are looking pleased or even smiling as I scan the faces around the car or bus. If I get a chuckle out of one of them, I usually remark, "The brothers and sisters know what I am talk'n about." and they know that I am referring to them.

You have to take into account the particular ethnic make up of the passengers. If I see a huge racial mix including many immigrants and foreign tourists, I'm careful not to get into details or complicated sounding historical background like I did today on this train full of white-collar office workers and students. Late at night or very early in the morning you get the blue-collar salt-of-the- earth coming into or leaving Manhattan from the outer boroughs. I have on occasion switched back and forth between English and Spanish, which makes a good impression on ALL the riders.

I really hope the young veterans just back from Iraq and Afghanistan will overcome their shyness and join us speaking on buses and trains. When you are young it's difficult to stand up and have the nerve to bother riders who think their own problems are more important. Of course it is kind of embarrassing for us old-timers too, unless we keep in mind that Americans need waking up to the death and destruction veterans have experienced bringing it to innocent people in their name.

But it is easier for many of us older guys. What have we to be self-conscious about? We are going to pass away soon. However in the States old folks are not respected as they are in Asian, Africa and Latin America. Americans are more inclined to listen to young people just back from Iraq or Afghanistan.

Iraq and Afghan Veterans Against the War is doing a great job speaking out as an organization. In March Iraq and Afghan veteran gave eyewitness testimony to the atrocities authorized by the U.S. war command. Our Veterans For Peace was in attendance.

A bitter veteran at our last meeting was saying that we are wasting our breath; that in general, white Americans are too foolish and selfish and uninterested in anyone but themselves; that most of the world figures that eventually America is going to get what it deserves.

It is true that there is a tremendous decadence and indifference in the States, but Europe is not much better.

I argue for the good number of sympathetic whites who feel just as alienated as we activists do. The trick is to encourage them to make the calls and at the same time make more people awake to the complicity we in the peace movement feel for the ongoing crimes against humanity of the government and the whole heartless corporate world mind
mind-set.

During this half year, a couple hundred people have shook my hand and thanked me - told me please continue doing it. About a thousand either applauded, nodded, gave me a warm smile, or communicated a their agreement – and I just give these exhortations to call Congress during my normal travel time.

If I ever feel tired, I just remember the horror of the My Lai Massacre, or the Abu Ghraib prison tortures, and the bombings taking the lives of children, and my energy level and intensity goes up.

I remind myself that all religions teach that the merciless and indifferent deserve our pity, our time, and our efforts, for in their desperate depressions and unhappy self-centeredness, they suffer more than the victims of their cruel indifference. So many Americans mentally are worst off than the millions of good people in the third world pained by hunger but loving and enjoying life as long as they are alive. That perks me up.

I bother some passengers who are reading or studying, but as you saw there are a lot of sweet people who are awake and compassionate and just need a little encouragement to act and follow their conscience in some sort of citizen activism."

With that the old vet left me and asked me to send him a copy the article when written.

Since that day, some acquaintances have heard vets on buses asking people to call congress and to urge their ministers to speak out.

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