Veterans for Peace Rally, Pack Square, downtown Asheville, NC.

by Ronald Harayda

On Sunday, March 14, from noon to 6 p.m., the Western North Carolina Chapter of Veterans For Peace will host an open house with entertainment, refreshments, and information at their new downtown Asheville headquarters at the Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut, 1-D (downstairs), Asheville.

Chapter president Kim Carlyle explains, “Since President Obama’s escalation of the war in Afghanistan, we have stepped up our efforts to engage the public and inform them of the futility and wastefulness of this counter-productive military adventure. This open house and our ‘PeaceTown’ project are extensions of this work.”

The entertainment program will include music with Stack Kenny and Donna Schutt and Lyle Petersen as featured performers; poetry and stories from chapter members; a tribute to the late Howard Zinn (a longtime member of VFP); and two films. The live entertainment is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m.

The film, Scarred Land and Wounded Lives: the Environmental Footprint of War, will be shown at 12:30 p.m.; and Rethink Afghanistan will run at 4:30 p.m. Chapter members will be on hand to provide information and answer questions. Hats, t-shirts, and sweatshirt will be available for donations.

VFP Chapter 099 was organized in 2003. Since its inception, chapter members have been active in the region conducting workshops, demonstrating, and speaking to raise awareness of the costs of war. Chapter 099 has also assisted other veterans in need, most recently by donating truckloads of household items to help furnish new apartments for formerly homeless vets. Chapter member Ken Ashe, once a homeless vet himself and now a Veterans Administration volunteer, says, “Veterans are often the forgotten victims of war. Their struggle to fit back into society is a cost of war that can’t be quantified.”

Two recent projects have helped civilian victims of war: one was fund-raising for badly-needed improvements to two orphanages in Afghanistan; the other provided sewing machines for Iraqi women to begin cottage industries. The chapter has also been active providing “truth in recruiting” counseling for military age youths. According to Lyle Petersen, a former chapter president and one-time drill sergeant, “Young people usually hear only the recruiter’s spiel. Unless they also hear from a vet, it’s like buying a car without checking the Carfax.”

The chapter is also quite active in the media with a television show, VFP-TV, broadcast at 7:30 p.m. each Tuesday on URTV (www.urtv.org); a radio program, Veterans Voices Radio, broadcast at 5:00 p.m. each Thursday on WPVM-LP 103.5 FM (www.main-fm.org); a blog (www.warcrimestimes.org); and a nationally-distributed quarterly print publication, the War Crimes Times.

Chapter 099 also invites the public to its headquarters for monthly business meetings on the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., or for a visit during office hours: Tuesdays through Fridays from 1 to 5 p.m. Find more information at www.vfpchapter099wnc.blogspot.com.

About Veterans for Peace

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 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. VFP is an official Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) represented at the U.N.