Vets for Peace Booted from National Memorial Day Parade

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 21, 2008

5:03 PM

CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)

Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Veterans Group Disinvited to Memorial Day Parade

WASHINGTON, DC - May 21 - AP is reporting: "Veterans For Peace was initially granted a spot in the May 26 [Memorial Day] parade that is scheduled to travel down Constitution Avenue, past landmarks that include the Washington Monument and the White House. But the American Veterans Center , a nonprofit that organizes the parade, has pulled that approval, saying it does not allow the expression of political viewpoints."

ANTONY TEOLIS

MICHAEL MARCEAU

Teolis is treasurer and Marceau is vice president of the Veterans For Peace Delwin Anderson Memorial chapter in the D.C. area. Marceau said today: "We received a letter that we were in the parade and then the invitation got pulled. We have some World War II veterans in our chapter and we've lost several in the last year, so we want to make sure that they especially can participate. Other groups that are very political but are pro-war, like the American Legion, are participating. Some of the sponsors of the parade are CACI, Booz Allen Hamilton, Raytheon, United Technologies, and a lot of their contracts are in support of the military.

"I'm a disabled Vietnam War veteran and I have visited Walter Reed Hospital numerous times and it saddened me to see young men and women having to face the realization of a future where they are missing limbs, eye sight, dealing with traumatic brain injury and PTSD. They are not getting the help that they need from the military hospitals or Veterans Administration hospitals."

MICHAEL McPHEARSON

National executive director of Veterans For Peace, McPhearson said today: "We've had this happen to other chapters because we are against the war and the occupation in Iraq . Our members have children who are in Iraq . We're not being excluded because we're political as the parade organizers are claiming. We're being excluded because we're supporting the troops and not the war and occupation. Other groups with political views -- including political parties -- are allowed to participate. This is supposed to be about publicly honoring the loss and sacrifice of our fallen brothers and sisters, and we are veterans who are being prevented from doing that -- by other vets."

###

Published on Saturday, May 24, 2008 by The Progressive

Vets for Peace Booted from National Memorial Day Parade

by Matthew Rothschild

There is one group of veterans that isn’t allowed to march in the national memorial parade in Washington on Monday.

That’s the Veterans for Peace, Delwin Anderson Memorial chapter, based in D.C. It’s named after a World War II vet who fought in Italy and then worked for the VA for many years designing programs for injured veterans.

The group had applied to join the National Memorial Day parade.

And initially, anyway, it was accepted.

But then, late last month, the group was told that it didn’t meet the criteria to participate.

The American Veterans Center , which runs the parade, told them “we cannot have elements in the parade that have any type of political message or wish to promote a point of view.”

But other groups, like the American Legion, will be participating in the parade.

Its creed is to defend “God and country” and to “foster and perpetuate a 100 percent Americanism.”

And check out the list of major sponsors for the parade. They include: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, the nation of Kuwait , the U.S. Army, and even the NRA.

“We’re striving to keep political statements out of the parade,” says Jordan Cross, communications director of the American Veterans Center . “Last year, we had two groups who supported the war, and we turned them down.”

Cross says that when the American Veterans Center looked more closely at the Vets for Peace application and “saw what they were requesting, to carry a coffin in the parade, and all that jazz,” it decided not to let them participate.

Michael Marceau, a wounded Vietnam vet, serves as vice president of the D.C. Vets for Peace group. “We’re puzzled,” he said, adding that he felt “very disrespected.”

Caroline Anderson, the widow of Delwin Anderson, was supposed to ride in the parade in a convertible. Bashful, she doesn’t want to talk about herself or on behalf of the Vets for Peace chapter. But she is not happy about the expulsion. “It’s a great disappointment,” she says, “to feel that other veterans would not allow them to be with them and march, just because they’re for peace.”

Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.

© 2008 The Progressive

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center , 325 E. 25th St. , Baltimore , MD 21218 . Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has ha