Our December 21 our meeting was attend by Frank H., Ed B., Dan W., Hervie H., Lou I. and myself, John A. Frank gave a treasuer's report which was approved. We decided to send $70 to VFP National, $20 for the cost of newsletters and $50 toward M. McPearson's lifetime membership. It was an easy going meeting which ended early. Dan invited us all to his open house on New Year's day and we put together a list of what we had accomplished in the last 4 moths or so. We also discussed some of the upcoming events and how to increase participation. Dan would love to have us at his December 24, vigil in front of St. Peters hospital at the corners of Manning and New Scotland Blvd., from 5 PM to 6 PM. Below is the report of our last 4 months of activity. Best wishes for a Happy and peaceful 2010.
Chapter News
Chapter 10, the Tom Paine Chapter has been in high gear. In September we prepared and shipped 500 wooden crosses to Fr. Roy and the SOAW at Columbus, GA. for the annual close the SOA vigil and demonstration. In October we held our first awards dinner, honoring three outstanding peace activists in our community with the Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Award. This years Veteran's day saw our chapter involved in two major community events along with the parade. We were delighted to have Kathy Kelly and Dan Pearson from Voices walk with us in this year’s parade. In the evening of November 11, VFP members Dan Wilcox, Dayl Wise & Thomas Brinson read their poetry as part of a program on the effects of war at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY. Included on the program was a discussion between international peace worker Kathy Kelly and photographer Nina Berman, whose photos of injured Iraq war soldiers were on display at the Sanctuary. Also on November 11, 2009, our chapter organized a veteran's panel discussion after a premier show of "The Good Soldier Movie" featuring our VFP's Michael McPhearson amongst others. Our chapter also provided free tickets for high school students and approximately 20 high school students attended. "The Good Soldier" is an excellent documentary on the effects of combat on soldiers. Our veterans panel consisted of Ed Bloch, Jason Peterson, Tyler Boudeau and John Amidon. We joined with our larger peace community to protest against the Afghanistan escalation and met with our Representative P. Tonko to discuss a host of issues including the wars. Connie Houde also recently returned from Afghanistan and has been speaking to this concern and Elliot Adams has been presenting a dynamic and shocking slide show about the conditions in Gaza. Other local issues which we have been involved in are questioning the lack of information about the death of Staff Sgt. Amy Tirador, a woman soldier, found shot in the back of the head, execution style at Camp Cadwell in Iraq. Who killed Staff Sgt. Tirador? Another local issue concerning veterans is the Albany County Nursing Home. 33% of the residents are veterans and the County executive is attempting to close the home. Fortunately our Albany County Legislature is standing strong and it is likely we will continue our tradition of compassion and caring for the many veterans and other folks who need our help. Finally we were recently involved in shipping some much need hospital equipment to facilities near Chernobyl working with Conscience International, K. Bennett and others. This outline covers the major events of the last few months and has been extremely busy. Chapter 10 wishes everyone a healthy and happy New Year and best wishes for VFP's exceptionally important work.
Paz, John