While we burn her blood in our busy lives, Mother Earth is bleeding into the Gulf of Mexico and vomiting into the atmosphere in Iceland. Our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters perish in the pits of coal mines in Russia, China and West Virginia and in the strategic petroleum reserves and transport lines of the Middle East.
As Veterans For Peace prepares for another major event, the national convention in Portland, Maine, I would urge members to consider how we can become a genuine force for peace by minimizing the impact of our events. VFP has voted unanimously at conventions to do this many times but convention organizers have never really made the transition. To his credit, national treasurer Nate is working on web casting some convention activities. While I do not have the expertise to assist him in this, I want to urge personal responsibility in transport to the convention.
This is about the time of the year that we began preparations for the Vets Rides for Peace (one family actually left about now). I would urge members who are concerned with the US oil consumption and the wars to secure future petroleum reserves to consider a vets ride of their own. It does not have to be the entire route. Just from your home to a transportation hub would be an action for peace! Although I live in Santa Barbara, the vets rides I participated in were from Eugene to Seattle:
http://www.squadron13.com/RideforPeace/default.htm
and from Chicago to St. Louis:
(media stories pasted below this message, they are from small papers and not archived)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13174975@N04/
respectively. I will try to give some real information about how the rides are organized. As you can see from the photos in the link above this, the drive to the ride and the ride itself were hosted by VFW halls in small communities across the west. We were also hosted by churches, most notably the Joliet Diocese of the Catholics and the United Methodists. Becky and Brian organized the first one with some help from me and I organized the second one with help from the national office and staff in St. Louis. I called or emailed different VFW halls and churches from the route/s and structured the route according to hosts offering shelter. As you can see from the photos, we were cared for along the way and were able to dialog with people in small communities. This is more than transportation, it is outreach. VFW halls and churches are community centers in the smaller towns.
As President Carter said, “every act of energy conservation is an act of patriotism” ( I would add true patriotism, not the phony flag waving kind!).
In solidarity, Lane Anderson Chapter 54
UPHILL BATTLE
Santa Barbara News Press
By MELISSA EVANS, Santa Barbara News-Press
An operation to remove cartilage, after his service in the Vietnam War, left Lane Anderson with arthritis in his knees. Riding a bike 40 miles a day doesn’t help the pain.
Then again, it could be worse. Some of the men participating in a bicycle trek to spread awareness about America’s oil consumption lost their legs in wars.
“We want to set an example to end our addiction to oil,” said Mr. Anderson, head of the Santa Barbara chapter of Veterans for Peace, a national organization.
He and about a dozen others will participate in a “Veterans Peace and Sustainability Ride” later this month. The men will ride from Eugene, Ore., to Seattle, where they will participate in the Veterans for Peace annual convention.
Mr. Anderson, 59, said America’s reliance on oil has worsened international conflict, including the war in Iraq. His organization has been deeply opposed to the war, staging a weekly protest near Stearns Wharf by assembling crosses to represent the more than 2,500 soldiers who have been killed.
The Arlington West display attracts hundreds of visitors every Sunday.
International conflicts such as this could be avoided, said Brian Willson, a veteran who will also participate.
“A revolution of consciousness is needed,” said Mr. Willson, a double-amputee who served in the Vietnam War. “Once that is internalized, we naturally make different choices based on mutual respect.”
Mr. Willson will be riding a three-wheeled, arm-powered handcycle that was specially made for the trip. Mr. Anderson will ride a bicycle that provides extra bursts of hand-generated power because his knees are so weak.
He has been training almost daily, slowly getting up to 40 miles a day by peddling through the cemetery off Castillo Street. The team will limit its daily travel to 40 miles becaus! e of the physical limitations of participants.
They will leave July 25, and expect the trip to take about 14 days — in time for the Aug. 10 Veterans for Peace conference.
The men will stop along the way at numerous places, urging people to use less oil and to support peace in the Middle East and elsewhere, Mr. Anderson said. They will ride to Eugene in a bus powered by biodiesel fuel, and will be accompanied on the ride by several alternative-fueled vehicles.
Americans, however, need to learn how to use less oil regardless of new innovations in gasoline and energy, Mr. Anderson said.
“We need to set an example,” he said. “Even these alternative solutions use more energy than they yield. Our mission is to get people to be conservation-minded — to think simpler is the real way to make a difference.”
e-mail: mevans@newspress.com
BLOOMINGTON — About a dozen anti-war veterans will pedal across Illinois on old Route 66 next week to stress the role they say bicycles can play to end the war in Iraq by reducing American dependence on foreign oil.
The Ride for Peace will visit Pontiac on Wednesday (Aug. 8), Bloomington on Aug. 9 and Lincoln on Aug. 10 as cyclists travel 400 miles from the 40th anniversary convention of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Chicago to the Veterans for Peace convention in St. Louis. A similar ride stretched from Eugene, Ore., to Seattle last year.
Ride organizer Lance Anderson, 60, a U.S. Navy veteran and retired U.S. postal carrier from Santa Barbara, Calif., said the ride emphasizes how anyone can take action to undercut what he sees as the main reason U.S. troops were sent to Iraq – the “American addiction to oil.”
Using bikes instead of vehicles for short trips can reduce gasoline consumption enough to offset the oil the U.S. gets from the Middle East, said Anderson, who, because of arthritis, uses a modified bicycle that taps power from his arms and legs for 80 percent of his transportation.
The Ride for Peace also underscores benefits people can have from bike riding, such as better fitness, while they strike a blow against global warming, Anderson said.
“It’s really because we can see that oil and energy are an intricate part of this war (in Iraq),” said Anderson, who served in Vietnam in 1967-68. “It’s probably not coincidence this is one of the largest crude oil reserves in the world.
“We want to take individual responsibility. … It’s a demonstration of personal action that we think can end war or at least make it easier to end the war and bring troops home,” he said.
“Everybody is waiting for the magic bullet, the right hybrid (car) or bio-fuel. But, if everyone would slow down and ride a bike when they can, they would offset the oil we get from the Middle East. … The new bio-fuels get plenty of press, but the fact an individual can make a difference doesn’t get much,” he said.
Roland James, 62, a retired energy policy advisor who spent his boyhood years in Bloomington, has worked on issues ranging from nuclear proliferation to basing vehicle taxes and license costs on fuel efficiency. A Vietnam-era veteran of the U.S. Air Force, James hopes the Ride for Peace raises the intensity of national debate on global warming and oil dependence in time for the 2008 presidential elections.
“What I’m trying to do is prime action at the federal level,” said James, who commuted to work on a bike during his career. He still rides a bicycle for trips of 10 miles or less around his home in northern California.
Local veterans’ organizations, church groups and families who share their anti-war stance will host the group during stops along the way. In the Twin Cities, Anderson said the Ride for Peace has the support of the Ecology Action Center and the Citizens for Peace & Justice.
The cyclists will spend the night at the Bloomington home of Mike Kerber, 62, an avid bicyclist and former sergeant in the U.S. Army. A member of the board of the Friends of Constitution Trail, Kerber returned from a tour in Vietnam in 1970 convinced the war was “an unnecessary loss of life.” He sees parallels between the conflict in Southeast Asia and the war in Iraq.
Kerber plans to join the Ride for Peace for a portion of the route. “The only reason we are in there is it is the No. 2 oil reserve in the world. I believe it is our true reason for being there, not because of terrorists.”
On the Net: www.squadron13.com/rideforpeace
Specifically, Anderson, a 60-year-old Vietnam veteran from Santa Barbara, Calif., is “demonstrating” against the Iraqi war, which he says is only being fought to protect the interests of big oil.
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