Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Four years ago, I was involved in the most prolific documentary film in the history of the world, and looking back, I can still say that I am quite humbled by that experience. My participation in "Fahrenheit 9/11" would catapult me into a limelight that I was not looking for nor ever expected, but I took it all in stride.
I was a Marine, and as crazy as it seemed at the time, I was opposed to my country’s involvement in what I believed was an illegal invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq. The political climate indicated that the majority of Americans were in favor of the war, and then along comes little ole me with a small band of brothers and sisters and something contrary to popular belief.
Upon returning from Iraq, I felt that I had participated in an injustice, and with the help of Michael Moore, I did everything I could to try to make that wrong, right. Unfortunately, the 2004 presidential election would go to the incumbent, giving the War President another four years in office.
After touring with Michael on the Slacker Uprising Tour, I returned to Los Angeles to try to resume a “normal life.” I enrolled into Cal State Los Angeles with yet another attempt to graduate from college, while the threat of deployment to Iraq loomed over me. Fortunately, the deployment never came. The most bizarre thing was that the Marine Corps had developed a policy stating that the only way Marine reservists could be redeployed was if they volunteered to go back. The threat of going back to Iraq quickly vanished, but the open ended investigation about whether I misused my uniform by appearing in the documentary would linger on for close to a year. In the end, I never received any punishment or reprimands for my appearance in "Fahrenheit 9/11."
As I sat in class during the Spring 2005 semester, my mind often wondered about what I had done in Iraq and during the past election cycle. Most vividly, I struggled with my war experiences and being labeled an anti-war protestor. I was anti-war, and more importantly to me, anti-Iraq War.
I believe that sometimes war is necessary, if your freedoms are threatened or you desire to be free from an oppressor, you do what you have to maintain or become free. However, I do not believe in imperialism. I believe that all people of this earth should have the equal chance to prosper.
Ultimately, these thoughts and images of my brothers- and sisters-in-arms, being butchered in an unjust war, would bring me back to the public eye. I began to travel the country visiting colleges and universities advocating the importance of participation in America’s democratic process and the need for young people to seek careers in public service. I believe public service is a noble profession that needs the attention of the best and brightest minds of America’s youth, debating and seeking solutions to the problems that our future generations will have to deal with. Public service is not the highest paying profession in comparison to private sector jobs, but the reward for a fair and balanced country is priceless.
Congresswoman Diane E. Watson and I have a unique relationship; she is the reason behind my appearance in "Fahrenheit 9/11." While I was deployed to Iraq, I wrote Rep. Watson a series of letters explaining how the war was developing. After I returned from Iraq, in September 2003 she requested my presence at a hearing hosted by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, also from Los Angeles. Originally, I was not on the schedule to participate on the panel, but towards the end of the hearing Rep. Waters asked if I wanted to say something. I said yes and gave a ten minute impromptu speech about my experience in Iraq. After the speech, which was aired on C-SPAN, I was approached by a field producer for Michael, who was working on the documentary. From then, the rest is history.
In June 2005, Congresswoman Watson asked me if I would work for her as her military/veterans caseworker. I moved to Washington, DC in January 2006 to work on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Aide to Rep. Watson. I cover a myriad of issues, but military and veterans affairs are my expertise. I am blessed to work for a member who shares the same sentiments about the Iraq War, an absolute and unequivocal withdrawal of US troops now. I still do casework, and I love this work because I get to fight the Federal Government on behalf of veterans.
I’ve been on the Hill almost two years now and I have seen first-hand how poorly veterans are treated once their service obligations end. With that in mind, I have focused a lot of my work on planning for the next generation of disabled veterans that will flood VA hospitals. If we think Vietnam vets suffered -- especially in regards to mental health problems -- just take a moment to think about the more than 479,000 troops that have been fighting the Iraq War and are now on their third and fourth deployments. Just think about the trauma they are exposed to on a consistent basis.
I said in "Fahrenheit 9/11" that I wouldn't go back to Iraq to kill poor people and I didn't. Now it's up to all of us to help take care of the troops once they come home. They are counting on us.
Decorated Marine Lance Corporal Abdul Henderson's principled decision to refuse any future orders to return to Iraq under threat of jail time is born of his conviction that the war being waged there is an unjust one. Lance Corporal Henderson embodies a unique and instructive courage. His story is featured in Fahrenheit 9/11.
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http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=1009
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