CALIFORNIA REGIONAL CONFERENCE OF VETERANS AND MILITARY FAMILIES

Ventura, CA - April 16^th, 17^th and 18^th.

By Steve and Carolyn Crandall

It was over a year ago when the VVAW West Coast Tour came to our home in Camarillo, CA. From this tour came the spark to create a gathering of like minded groups that support veterans and want to put an end to war. Read the “CA Central Coast Chapter Continues a VVAW Tradition” - Enter 2010 and you will understand how we took this spark and made it grow. 

The conference was held on April 16^th, 17^th and 18^th. We had VVAW members come from Florida and Colorado to participate in the workshops as well as VFP members from Texas. We were honored to have visitors and workshop participants from Vietnam representing the Vietnam Agent Orange and Relief Campaign. Our younger brothers from IVAW came from as far north as San Francisco along with members of VFP and MFSO. VVAW, VFP and MFSO came from as far south as San Diego and stretched inland as far east as Palm Springs to bring in members of VFP. Locally we were represented by all participating groups and then some. You couldn’t ask for a much better California geographical representation of like minded groups that want to support veterans and put an end to wars.

We kicked off the event Friday evening with a social meet and greet. We listened to tunes from Annie and the Vets then later blues from a local singer and song writer Teresa Russell.

Saturday started out with an early 7:30am breakfast and while breakfast was in progress Capt. Paul Chappell lead the conference opener with Development Strategy and Actions Towards Peace – Why Peace is Possible and How to Achieve It. After breakfast we heard National Organizational Campaign updates, learned about Banished Veterans and how our voices can be heard and ways to link through VetSpeak.

We posed for a group picture prior to starting the workshops and as the day wore on, more and more people arrived to bring our final headcount to 130. Some of the groups tabled and displayed brochures and sold tee-shirts, DVDs, caps, buttons and bumper stickers.

The first of nine workshops started at 10:00am. Because we only had one day for the workshops some of them had to compete with each other for the hour long time slots. We considered adding another day but were concerned that having a four day conference might be problematic for most attendees due to work schedules and the cost of lodging.

We put the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign together with Depleted Uranium into one workshop. It only seemed fitting since DU is the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans Agent Orange. Again, like Agent Orange in the beginning, the government is denying that there is any real proof or concern that DU presents a hazard to our GI’s health.

Jeff Paterson presented the “Courage to Resist” workshop. Jeff was brought to tears as he played a cell phone message from Marc Hall, received that morning, that Marc was released of all charges and will be discharged immediately. Marc was jailed back in December for writing a song about the personal impact of being forced to remain in the military beyond his contract date due to the stop-loss policy.

Also sharing the 10:00 time slot was the workshop about Re-thinking Afghanistan hosted by Jeff Merrick of Orange County MFSO.

The three workshops sharing the 11:00 time slot and they were Sexual Assault in the Military by Ann Wright, who later gave an evening presentation to the public regarding the same subject. Homeless Veterans workshop by Maurice Martin and Lane Anderson and a Media workshop on how to put your news on Your Tube and Facebook, hosted by Jeff Merrick and Marshall Blesofsky.

After lunch we continued the workshops with Membership Expansion and Fundraising by Doug Zachary of VFP. War’s Hidden Wounds, Effects of PTSD on Troops and Families by Dr. Judith Broder and Informed Enlistment Strategies by Peter Dudar, Sally Marr, Arlene Inouye and Michael Cervantes.

On Saturday evening, we hosted an event that was open to the public featuring the following speakers: Sexual Assault in the Military by Col. Ann Wright; Empire vs. Veterans: Who Pays and Who Benefits from Global Wars by Dr. Michael Parenti: and Rules of Disengagement by Professor Marjorie Cohn.

A little background on the speakers:

Col Ann Wright is a retired United States Army Colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department, who holds a Masters in National Security Affairs from the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island. She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Her resignation letter sited her reasons as being the decision to invade Iraq without the approval of the U.N. Security Council, the lack of effort in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the lack of policy in regards to North Korea and the curtailment of civil liberties within the United States. One of her current focuses has been on the military’s intolerably high levels of sexual assault, largely hidden, inadequately investigated, without consequences for perpetrators and only serving to re-victimize those who have been assaulted.

Dr. Michael Parenti is an internationally known award winning historian, author and lecturer with a profound grasp of diverse topics including economics, the media, social and political issues. Ongoing themes in Parenti’s work include who gains and who pays as a result of U.S. policies at home and abroad. One such issue of relevance to Parenti is how the G.I. Bill has been undermined leaving our veterans and their families to bear the burden of the human cost of U.S. military actions abroad. Raised in a working class community, Parenti earned a PhD in political science from Yale and has taught for many years at various universities. He now devotes his time to writing, lecturing and political activism.

Professor Marjorie Cohn is the immediate past President of the National Lawyers Guild and a law professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She has written for MWC News, AlterNet, CounterPunch, CommonDreams, After Downing Street, ZNet and Global Research. In addition she is a commentator for BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR and Pacifica Radio. In mid 2008, she testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties concerning the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” and their legal status. Professor Cohn lectures throughout the world on human rights and U.S. foreign policy.

Sunday morning a breakfast was held to wrap up the three-day event and to discuss what we got out of the conference, what went right and what improvements could be implemented for the next conference. We hugged, shook hands and congratulated each other on an event that we believe accomplished our goal of bringing together veterans and veterans’ families to listen, learn and take back information to share with others who were not able to attend. In the words of VVAW / VFP member George Johnson we get a 97% rating and this was after George realized we just ran out of coffee.