This past weekend was Rochester's long awaited Northeast Winter Soldier. The event was still in it's planning stages when I left for DC. What the activist community in Rochester can achieve is such a source of pride for me.
This Winter Soldier event is the third I've attended. Winter Soldier in Silver Spring and on Capitol Hill before the Progressive Caucus were powerful thought provoking events and I will never forget any of it. What these veterans have to tell us about the war, courage and humanity is awe inspiring. Holding a Winter Soldier event in Rochester brought this message to more people.
We started out from the DC IVAW Activist House. My traveling companions were Nick Morgan, Adam Kokesh and Geoff Millard. Don't tell any of them, but I had a freakin blast with them. I got to know them a bit better, eat some sour patch kids, and I learned a whole lot more words you shouldn't say in public.
I got to Monroe Community College, the site for the event, at 9 am and there was already a flurry of activity. So many folks showed up to volunteer that there were some leftover to organize a coffee run. (I have my priorities straight) It was freakin beautiful to see the number of people taking the time to make this event a success.
I got a ton of hugs, got to see Lobo and Elliott Adams shootin the shit together with Bill Fischer, got to see my homeboys Jake and Mark and it all just makes me smile thinking about it. Everything seemed to be running without a hitch. If anything was going wrong you would not have known it to look at Bryan Cassler, the president of the Rochester IVAW chapter, or Brian Lenzo, Rochester Against War Facilitator.
The first session were the speakers Elliott Adams, Michael Schwartz and Tod Ensign. Michael Schwarts and Tod Ensign addressed topics from their new books Elliott Adams' perspective as a Vietnam vet and his years of experience in activism is a great example to the Iraq vets.
The second panel was the Testimony of Iraq vets. I'm not sure I can find the words to describe the jumble of emotions one gets from witnessing the testimony of these brave veterans. The closest I can get to describing this is a combination of horror, sadness, anger, empathy and an overwhelming sense of honor for getting to be there with them.
The march that followed was great. The crowd left the auditorium and marched down East Henrietta Road to the VA Clinic that isn't open on the weekends, stranding local veterans without health care from Friday night til Monday morning. Not only did we take the street, but this one was a 6 lane job in the middle of a big old burb-o-tropolis. We did manage to piss off the police because we didn't pay any attention to them. At one point I had a cruiser right behind me blowing it's policey horn and I didn't even turn around to look. The organizers got a stern talking to and managed to send the officer away scratching his head.
The next morning (read 1:00 pm) we started out for our trip back to DC. We stopped quickly at the Storefront at the beginning of the RAW meeting. I was never so proud of the Rochester antiwar movement. I'm glad DC and Camp Casey friends got to see what's going on in Rochester.
On the drive back to DC I got to hear more good music, eat some suspect candy bars and learn even more words I should probably not say in polite company. Thanks guys!
RELATED LINKS...
Rochester Iraq Veterans Against The War
www.rochesterivaw.org
Iraq Veterans Against The War
http://www.ivaw.org
Veterans For Peace
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
Rochester Against War
http://www.rochesteragainstwar.org
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