She's on Activist Duty Now (30 Yrs Army quits to Protest War)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wright20jan20,0,592492.story?coll=la-home-nation

In a dingy meeting room with walls the color of day-old oatmeal, 40 people in plastic chairs formed a ragged circle. Sharing first names, they went around the room: teachers, students, nurses and at least three active-duty service members. They had come to hear about military buildups around the world, but what they really wanted to do was hash out their feelings about the Iraq war.

Fred wanted to know what to tell his 10th-grade grandson, who already worried that he would be sent to Iraq. Catherine questioned whether the high school students she counseled should believe the promises they heard from military recruiters. Army veteran Tom asked if conditions for the troops were as bad as he had heard.

Finally, the circle ended with Ann. With her smiling sincerity and sleek hairdo, she looked like she belonged on the suburban charity circuit. Not hardly: As an Army colonel and diplomat, Mary Ann Wright served her country for more than 30 years in some of the most isolated and dangerous parts of the world — then quit because she felt she could not defend this war.

"I resigned when the Iraq war began in March 2003 because I felt the policies of this administration were making the world more dangerous," Wright said. "I felt it was an illegal war and I could not be a part of it."

[Peace Patriot]

1. The L.A. Times sometimes does excellent, in depth reports like this,

letting the real people of the country speak for themselves. They did one in the midst of the invasion about a Spaniish-language Catholic parish in L.A. where the war dissenting pastor was giving sermons and engaging in dialogue with his parishioners about the war, some of them pro, some con (mostly con). That's why I still bother reading the Times.

It is people like Ann Wright --the peace lovers, the justice lovers, the courageous--who are going to change this country very profoundly. Believe me, the great majority of Americans are with her, and only need to be re-empowered (cast off the illusion that they are the minority, fed to them constantly by the rightwing corporate media), and, above all, RE-ENFRANCHISED.

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Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!