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Boston Globe, August 27, 2006

A veteran sings for peace

Pat Scanlon writes two songs after being disillusioned by the war in Iraq Pat Scanlon says the war in Iraq is a ‘‘war of choice; it’s being done for a political agenda.’’ (Globe Staff Photo / David Kamerman) By Tim Wacker, Globe Correspondent | August 27, 2006 As the fighting in Iraq drags on and Americans see the carnage on their TV screens every day, Pat Scanlon has an awful feeling that he's seen this before. The Vietnam veteran has written two songs protesting the war in Iraq that he and a growing list of supporters hope will stir the kind of passion that helped end an even bloodier conflict more than 30 years ago.

The songs ``I've Got a Feeling I've Been Here Before" and ``Where Is the Rage?" were written in Andover and produced in Acton. But they have attracted national attention, including support from folk singer Pete Seeger, and are being promoted through a network of like-minded Merrimack Valley activists hoping to spark a peace movement throughout the country.

These songs are in the pain-wracked voice that can only come from someone who has suffered the consequences of a war built on lie after lie," said Jon Schuchardt, a member of the North Shore chapter of the Veterans For Peace, a national organization that emerged from the antiwar protests of the 1960s and 1970s.

``When Pat sings, people listen," Schuchardt said, ``and music and singing the truth often touch people right in the heart."

That's where Scanlon likes to affect them. A recycling industry consultant by day, he picks up his banjo after work and assumes the role of singing activist.

He has sung about saving whales and stopping pollution. When New York's Twin Towers where attacked, he penned a cautionary tune called ``Big Old Dog" to let other terrorists know the anger they had awoken in this country and the danger they faced in doing so.

A year's service in military intelligence in Vietnam in the late 1960s turned him into a vocal opponent of that war, but Scanlon said he is no peacenik. He believed in the war in Afghanistan and acknowledged some initially mixed feelings about the invasion of Iraq.

But, much like the way his feelings changed toward the Vietnam war, Scanlon became disillusioned, then angry, over the war in Iraq. When no weapons of mass destruction were discovered in Iraq and President Bush started talking instead about spreading democracy as justification for the war, Scanlon picked up his banjo.

``We didn't go in there to facilitate democracy; we went in there to find weapons of mass destruction," Scanlon said.

``Now we're trapped in a civil war over there . . . and I was once part of a situation where we were trapped as GIs.

``This was a war of choice; it's being done for a political agenda, it's being done for oil; and every time one of our soldiers dies over there, my stomach turns."

Similar sentiments shared by like-minded Merrimack Valley residents has helped jump - start Scanlon's campaign against the war in Iraq. Two weeks after he wrote and produced the two songs, he had $2,600 in donations to produce CDs containing the songs, along with promises from groups like Schuchardt's to promote the music within their membership.

The Merrimack Valley People for Peace , of which Scanlon is a member, endorsed the project with an article in its newsletter and is discussing mailing the CDs to members. Schuchardt's group handed out 100 of the CDs at the national organization's annual conference this month in Seattle.

Seeger, with whom Scanlon has swapped postcards since the Vietnam days, endorsed the songs with a promise to forward the CD to Sing Out! magazine, a quarterly publication of folk songs by the non profit educational organization of the same name.

And the 50,000-strong Unitarian Universalist Community Service organization, an outreach group founded by the church following World War II, is considering throwing its support behind Scanlon's songs in an effort to open greater national debate on the subject.

``Pat has an approach that I think is pretty good one and it's encouraging to see, whether one agrees with him or not," said Wayne Smith, the civil liberties manager of the Unitarian Universalist group based in Cambridge, and a Vietnam veteran. ``I think it's important that we as people express ourselves more with respect to this war."

Scanlon said he and his supporters believe they have to rise up against the war because young people are not as involved as they were 30 years ago.

Smith said he thinks the lack of interest exists mainly because there is no draft this time around.

His group reaches out to many Bay State youths through various community-service programs, and Smith finds today's youth do not have the war on their minds. ``In many ways, kids today are apathetic about the war," he said. ``Young people don't feel threatened by this war, there is nothing that our leaders are asking them to do, and there's been no open debate. Young people are not being asked these questions, so is it any surprise they are being apathetic?"

Scanlon said he hopes to end the apathy and answer the question: Where's the outrage? And he apparently is not looking to get rich doing it. He has been making the rounds of radio stations, handing out his CD, and the tunes can be downloaded for free off his web site: www.patscanlon.com.

``This war is not personal for people, and until it becomes personal, it's not going to end," he said. ``I'm trying to bring the experience of the fallen soldiers a little closer to home. I want to push those people who are just interested in this war into people who are interested in becoming active."

You can play Pat's songs from the Globe website

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

Wilmington Advocate August 31, 2006

Bobbie Goldman looks like everyone’s favorite aunt. She has a quick smile, a calming voice and a helping hand; taking a reporter’s camera lest he put in on a rain-soaked bench. Goldman has the temperament needed to be a social worker for the Department of Public Health in Chelmsford and Tewksbury who helps kids with special needs.

"There has been a definite change. It’s that more people are coming to our thinking," she said.

These are galvanizing times for people promoting a peaceful solution to conflict in the country and around the world, according Goldman. Polls show that people believe that American troops should be pulled out of Iraq and there is not much support for further military excursions.

"We don’t want to the bombing of people and invading countries. We don’t want this bullying approach seen as being about us," Goldman said.

But Wilmington - a town where the American flag is proudly display on parades and on front lawns - has been a hard sell for the peace activist. The vigils were small and not all that welcomed.

"You know, I look down my street and I can see that maybe it would be best not to fly my peace flag," said Goldman. "But people know where I stand. Some have commented on my letters to the editor and told me how interesting they were," she said.

"They can also can see the bumper stickers I have on my Prius," said Goldman, the ones about the war and peace.

Speaking helps

But in speaking to her, Goldman is not just a peace activist but also dialogue promoter. One of her core beliefs is that people who are talking together are not out hurting each other.

Born in New York City and raised in Bloomfield, New Jersey, Goldman is the child of parents who escaped Austria in 1938; just after the Nazi persecution of "Kristellnacht" took place.

While born of Jewish immigrants, they raised their daughters Unitarian, even sending them to the well-known summer camp, Rowe Camp, in Massachusetts, to "escape" the stigma of being Jewish and the Holocaust, said Goldman.

But her immediate families close call with being victims in genocide installed a certain activism in Bobbie.

"I was taught not to be a bystander," said Goldman. "It was all these experiences - Jewish, Unitarian, Quaker - all have to do with my work for justice and civil rights."

She matriculated at Quaker-run Earlham College in Indiana during the height of the Vietnam War, then receiving her Masters in Social Work at Wayne State University in Detroit.

While her initial fore into human rights was in the civil rights movement and opposition to Vietnam, her growth in advocating dialogue to resolve issues was a personal journey as she became involved with groups that bring together the survivors of the Holocaust and Germans and children of Nazis.

"I was taught when I was young that anything German and Austrians was bad but that didn’t sound right," she said. So later she visited Austria and discovered that there were people who were just as eager to want to build a relationship through understanding each other’s experiences.

She points to her own family as an example. Once she brought her father to a meeting at which he was invited to present a concert in Austria, a country he vowed never to return to. But after speaking to people explain their own sorrow and regrets for the actions of their parents and countrymen, Goldman’s father accepted the invitation.

"What I learned was that you have so much to gain from listening to the other side," she said.

After school, she lived in Detroit before moving to Quincy There she joined South Shore Coalition for Human Rights. A later move to the North Shore brought with the Merrimack Valley People for Peace.
MVPP is one of the oldest peace groups in the state, beginning 21 years ago, evolving from the North Andover People for Peace. It is one of many groups that inhabit the area, coming out to hold fast in their beliefs that public displays of political speech can affect change in the minds of their fellow citizens.

"I just don’t believe in violence and war. What is the point when there is so much more work to be done," she said

More work
And Goldman and MVPP believe that they have a lot of work to do. In the past year, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan continues, a conflict occurred between Israel and the Hezbollah militia has occurred, there are rumblings about Iran and nuclear weapons as well as what Goldman believes is the erosion of civil rights in the country.

Goldman only needs to look back at the shooting war between Israel and militants in Lebanon to witness what the inability to communicate has brought onto a people.

It was the lack of a dialogue that saw the death of hundreds of civilians in Lebanon. While she supports Israel’s right to exist, she asked "What did [the civilians] do but be in the wrong place at the wrong time "

The MVPP is not just an activist but a chief goal is education, informing those who stop by to remember to be informed. That includes issues such as depleted uranium - the rounds that are fired from US weapon systems that reportedly are causing health problems for veterans and civilians - and being active in counter-recruitment effort, providing schools and students with alternative information on military life.

Yet the group is hardly a single-issue group - there are diverse viewpoints with the organization, what level of civil disability is correct, veterans who support a vigilant armed forces, and old-style 60 radicals.

But the underlying cause that brings them back is the same cause: understanding peace.

"We all want something better for our country but also for the world," said Goldman.

The MVPP holds vigils in Andover Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Old Town Hall from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon and Sundays from noon to 1 p.m.

Daily News of Newburyport, September 11,2006

Protester has peace of mind
By Will Courtney

NEWBURYPORT - The seeds of Niki Rosen's calling to the peace movement date back many wars ago.
As a child living near an air base in Omaha, Neb., during World War II, her parents were air raid wardens because the base was deemed a possible target.

As she grew older, she connected with the '60s peace movement but watched from afar as a "hippie groupie." When Vietnam came, the pangs for peace work grew, but her focus was on raising five children, not on protesting war.

Then came the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. She remembers being shocked that day, but it was our country's reaction to the attacks that would change her life. Her children were grown. She was no longer married. It was her time to take a stand.

"I realized this was something I needed to do," she said.

A near-miss car accident, in which she fell asleep at the wheel and had a brush with an 18-wheeler, steeled her resolve. So, two weeks before the "shock and awe" attacks that would begin a war that continues today, she took to Market Square on a Sunday afternoon and rallied for peace.

She was alone, both in number and in her beliefs.

"Friends and family said it was really pointless. No one would pay attention," she said. "But if one in 100, one in 1,000 maybe rethink their stance, that was worth it."

The reactions she got that first day weren't pleasant. As drivers went by, they'd yell, "Get a job!" and "Get a life!" Two men laughed and yelled, "You're too late!" She doesn't remember one positive remark.

But Rosen, a small, 72-year-old, self-described "grey hair" who walks with help of a cane, did not waver. She feels very strongly that violence begets violence; until the world begins to think and act in nonviolent ways, there will be no peace.

She has found particular solace in the views of Frederick Franck, a Dutch-born artist and writer who created a sanctuary called Pacem in Terris - which translates to "Peace on Earth." Rosen once volunteered to weed the garden so she could spend time there. She has studied many philosophies, from Ghandi to Buddhism.

She notes that this Sept. 11 marks the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of Ghandi's nonviolent resistance movement.

Today, Rosen's personal nonviolent resistance movement is gaining its own followers. Now, when she goes out to Market Square, she has as many as 20 companions. She was even joined by her 11-year-old grandson on one occasion.

She says there are still naysayers, but now many people walk up to and thank her for being there. And Rosen is almost always there, every Sunday with her peace signs in tow, even when there's snow up to her knees. Only heavy rain keeps her away, because it runs the ink on her signs.

She'll keep going every week, she said, "as long as I can."

People tell her she'll die with her winter boots on, right there in Market Square.

"My life has changed many times," she said. "This is my life now - family and peace work."

____________________________________________________________________

Older letters can be found in newsletters.

Letters about the Israel/Palestine wall.

___________________________________________________

Merrimack Valley People for Peace meets monthly, on the fourth Tuesday,
at 7:30 pm, at North Parish Church, North Andover.
(NOT DECEMBER)

Contact Merrimack Valley People for Peace       (978) 685-1389
            P.O. Box 573
            North Andover, MA 01845

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