Now is the time to join

nysdap!

NYSDAP – New York State Direct Action for Peace – is nothing more – and nothing less than – a coalition of nonviolent activists in the upper New York State region, working together to help end the occupation of Iraq.

We began meeting after a Syracuse Peace Council Rally in the fall of 2007. Our efforts lead to coordinated nonviolent protest actions in March 0f 2008, and following that we organized a historic New York Marches for Peace – a 10-day three-feeder March to support the soldiers at Ft. Drum, walking through many small towns and communities as marchers walked from Rochester, Ithaca, and Utica, meeting up for a collective walk into Watertown and ending at the Different Drummer Cafe.

We meet to  support one another’s nonviolent direct action efforts; to work together in unifying upstate New York nonviolent direct actions; to learn new skills; and to build a community of support from Buffalo to Albany and northa nd south as far as we can reach.

Give us a call:

In the Syracuse region, call Paul Frazier: 315-475-2811; <pauljfrazier@yahoo.com>

In the Buffalo region, call Vicki Ross: 716-884-0582; <victoryross@verizon.net>

After six years of war and the historic election of a new President, we as veterans, military and Gold Star families felt an urgent need to reach out to the larger peace/anti-war movements to make our position on Iraq clear during this time of political and economic uncertainty. Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For Peace continue to stand together in our demand to Bring the Troops Home Now! We ask all those who have stood with us in the past to stay faithful to the cause.
President Obama has announced a plan to gradually reduce troop levels in Iraq. Many in the peace/anti-war movements are breathing a sigh of relief, and suggesting that it is time for us to scale back our efforts to bring an end to the occupation of Iraq. But for our troops on the ground, their families and the Iraqi people, the nightmare continues. They need all of us to stay in the struggle. IVAW, MFSO and VFP have been20long united in our call for an immediate and complete end to the occupation of Iraq and will not shift our stance under any circumstances.

President Obama’s plan will result in more casualties and suffering for U.S. troops, their families and Iraqis. To the American public facing hard times here at home, two and a half more years of occupation may not sound like that long — but for our troops and their families it means two and a half more years of fear, pain, and separation in a war and occupation based on lies. Hundreds of the troops deployed in the next two and a half years will not come home alive. Many more will return forever scarred by deep wounds to their bodies, minds, and spirits. Well over a million Iraqis have died as a result of this war — many more will be killed as the occupation continues.
We cannot afford the cost of empire. Today we are in the midst of the worst economic crisis most of us have seen in our lifetimes. Yet our government continues to allow the occupation to drain $10 billion a month from our nation’s coffers. Meanwhile, veterans and military families struggle to put food on the table and get decent housing and adequate medical care. Women and men who risked their lives for this country are often forced to fight tooth and nail to get health care from an underfunded and overburdened Veterans Administration. Hundreds of thousands of veterans are homeless.

The occupation of Iraq is the source of the violence not the solution. Living under occupation the people of Iraq are held back from taking control of their own lives to determine their destiny. The continued U.S. military presence there is a cause of the violence they face, not its solution. U.S. continued interference contradicts the princ iples of democracy and self-determination our country was founded on.

IVAW, MFSO and VFP will continue to keep pressure on Congress and the President to bring all our troops home from Iraq NOW, ensure that veterans receive the care they need and deserve, and that the U.S. provides resources to rebuild a country we destroyed. But we cannot do that alone. We need your help to reach out to the vast majority of the American people who are completely isolated from the realities of this war. Please don’t abandon this struggle or shift your position before the occupation is over and our veterans and the Iraqi people are on the path to healing.

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) was founded by Iraq war veterans in July 2004 at the annual convention of Veterans for Peace (VFP) in Boston to give a voice to the large number of active duty service people and veterans who are against this war, but are under various pressures to remain silent. From its inception, IVAW has called for: Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq; reparations for the human and structural damages Iraq has suffered, and stopping the corporate pillaging of Iraq so that their people can control their own lives and future; and dull benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health), and other supports for returning servicemen and women. IVAW’s membership includes recent veterans and active duty servicemen and women from all branches of military service, Nati onal Guard members, and reservists who have served in the United States military since September 11, 2001.
Military Families Speak Out is an organization of people opposed to the war in Iraq who have relatives or loved ones who are currently in the military or who have served in the military since the buildup to the Iraq war in the fall of 2002. Formed by two families in November of 2002, MFSO now has over 4,000 member families. MFSO’s national chapter, Gold Star Families Speak Out includes families whose loved ones have died as a result of the war in Iraq.
Founded in 1985, Veterans for Peace is a national organization of men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations spanning the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and current Iraq wars as well as other conflicts cold or hot. It has chapters in nearly every state in the union and is headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Our collective experience tells us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the innocent. Thus, other means of problem solving are necessary. Veterans For Peace is an official Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) represented at the U.N.< span style=”font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’,'sans-serif’;”>
A shortened version of the above letter was published in City http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200903260300/OPINION03/903260352.

Adopt Resistance: Share a Soldier’s Burden identifies a number of campaigns (such as Bring the Guard Home),  resisters and veterans organizations (such as Courage to Resist), and antiwar organizations (such as Rochester Against War) — all under one blog.

The theme of Adopt Resistance: We all have to share the burden with the soldiers who stand in opposition to the occupation of Iraq.

March 31, 2009

PETER JOHN DE MOTT
Jan. 6, 1947 – Feb. 19, 2009

Peter De Mott, 62, loving father, husband, son, uncle, friend, peace activist and Catholic Worker, died after a work related accident, February 19, 2009. He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Ellen Grady; and their four daughters, Marie (23), Kate (20), Nora (16), and Saoirse (6); his mother, Marie Ryan De Mott; siblings, Joseph (Katherine), James (Lynn), Michael (Gemma) and Catherine Steel (Richard); mother-in-law, Teresa J. Grady; sisters and brothers-in-law, Mary Ann Grady Flores (Oscar Flores), Clare Grady (Paul Sayvetz), John Grady (Laurie DeFlaun), Teresa B. Grady; and many nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his father, John Irving De Mott; and siblings, Mary, Stephen, John, and Charles.

Peter was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Crookston, MN and Omaha, NE. Peter was a graduate of St. Margaret Mary’s Grade School, Creighton Prep, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He served in the Marine Corps and spent 1969 in Vietnam. He also served in the Army where he received training as a linguist and was assigned to a NATO post in Ankara, Turkey.

Peter wrote: “My experience in the military convinced me of the futility of war and of the sad misallocation of resources which war making requires. In l979 I joined the Catholic Worker movement and began to work nonviolently for justice and peace by addressing some of the root causes of poverty, unemployment and homelessness.”

From that point Peter committed his life to Jesus’ message of non-violence. “My faith in God prompts me to work for a world which unifies us all by ties of love and solidarity and mutual cooperation.”

This commitment brought Peter on a journey that sought to confront the works of war. He was arrested and jailed numerous times and served over three years cumulatively in prison for his nonviolent civil disobedience.
“It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to nonviolently confront our leaders who break the law with impunity, through their use of lies, deceptions and forgeries to promote and prosecute war,” he wrote. “The law should promote life and the well being of everyone and should preserve and protect the earth and its creatures.”

We remember Peter this St Patrick’s Day, the sixth anniversary of the March 17, 2003 action where Peter, Danny Burns, and Clare and Teresa Grady poured their blood at the local Army/Marine recruiting center, two days before “shock and awe” began, in an act of nonviolent symbolic action.
We commit ourselves to continue the work for peace and justice whenever our government persists in a policy of war that takes the lives of the innocent at home and abroad.

“Nothing of good and lasting value comes without a price,” Peter wrote, “and I have been privileged to be part of the world-wide struggle for peace and justice, along with so many others who have done so much. To the extent that we sit passively by during these challenging times-when the fate of the earth and all its life forms hangs in the balance, to that very extent we give our tacit approval to the forces amassed to destroy us.”
We thank God for the gift of Peter’s life. His loving spirit, warmth, generosity, caring, and hope, have endeared him to so many. He was our papa, our dad, our husband, our rock, our teacher, our guiding light, our love. This loss is hard to comprehend, it seems so unreal, but we must try to hold onto the faith that he taught us. We walk in his love.

Contributions can be made to the Ithaca Catholic, 133 Sheffield Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850.