Peace walkers come to Bridgeport

     

         By Reginald Johnson

        BRIDGEPORT, CT ---- A group of veterans and others taking part in the “Peace Walk 2024” from Maine to Washington, DC came to Bridgeport yesterday bringing their message of peace, nuclear disarmament and an end to war.

  Participants in the 700-mile walk organized by Veterans for Peace, which began May 7 in Ogunquit, Maine, walked along Route 1 from Milford and Stratford and then into Bridgeport following Barnum Avenue and then onto other streets over to downtown and then eventually to the Islamic Community Center on State Street. The walkers held aloft the Veterans for Peace flag, the Palestinian flag and a huge black and red banner which read “Ceasefire Now.”

   As they stopped for a bite to eat at Frankie’s Diner on Barnum Avenue the walkers and others who accompanied them in support vehicles said they came from all over the country for the peace walk. Alexis said she was from a small town near Sacramento California; Tito was from a town near Waco, Texas; Russell and Diane were from Buffalo, New York. Another participant was from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 Others joining the group at the diner were Jim from West Haven and Angelo from Milford.

  “We’re kind of a band from every different location, right?” said Alexis.

  She said she found out about the walk by looking at the Veterans for Peace website because she was looking for peace walks to participate in.

 “I knew about Veterans for Peace but I’d never been involved with them,” she said. “So here I am deeply involved with Veterans for Peace.”

  Alexis and the others said they were taking part because they want to see an end to wars in general but were particularly motivated recently because of the brutal war that is going on in Gaza. Israel is waging a relentless campaign in the Palestinian enclave and some 34,000 people, a majority of them civilians, have been killed. There have been widespread calls for a cease-fire but so far Israel has balked at stopping its military assault. The Biden administration is being criticized strongly for continuing to send arms aid to Israel.

         

Participants in the Veterans for Peace "Peace Walk 2024" stop at Frankies Diner in Bridgeport. The walk, a protest against wars and militarism, began in Ogunquit, Maine and will end in Washington, DC in July.

 

Several members of the group were veterans of the Vietnam War. Angelo, who is 95, is a veteran of the Korean War.

 Friday the group will march to Black Rock in Bridgeport then into Fairfield and continue in the next few days into lower Fairfield County and New York State.

   The peace walk will conclude on July 5 in Washington, DC and participants will take part in a demonstration against NATO which is holding its 75^th anniversary celebration.

 

 

Veterans walk for peace

 

 By Reginald Johnson

 

 One time they marched to war.

Now they’re walking for peace.

Members of the national group Veterans for Peace are walking 700 miles from Maine to Washington, DC to highlight the need to end wars and militarism.

They’re also pressing for action on the existential threat of climate change.

The long walk is entitled “Peace Walk 2024 --- Silencing the Drums of War.”

“What these veterans want is independence from the dark prison of war and militarism so that our nation can focus its attention, energy, resources, and creativity on addressing the real threats of nuclear war, climate collapse and future pandemics,” said a release from Veterans for Peace.

  “They believe that our focus on military and economic primacy in the world is misguided because the only way to address these global threats is collaboratively through global cooperation,” the statement read.

The walkers started out from Ogunquit, Maine on May 7 and are now in Connecticut. They marched through eastern Connecticut towns along the shoreline last week, were in Norwalk for the Memorial Day Parade on Monday, will be in Milford Wednesday and in Bridgeport on Thursday.

 The walk will end on July 5 in the nation’s capital, where participants will take part in demonstrations against NATO at that organizations 75^th anniversary celebration.

  VFP leaders said anyone can take part in the event and walk any distance they can along the designated route. To register to walk, volunteer or donate, go to this website: http://peacewalk2024.org/get-involved/

 Jim Brasile, a Vietnam War veteran from Newington who walked a number of miles in eastern Connecticut, said marchers carry a variety of anti-war signs, like “Stop War” and “Stop the Killing in Gaza” and “Nuclear Weapons are Illegal."  

 People are walking on either the sidewalks or in the bike lanes.

Brasile said while most drivers ignore the walkers, others honk or give them the thumbs up.

 “With about 70%, there is no response. They’re busy. About 20%, we get thumbs up or the peace sign. And then with 10 percent maybe, you get half the peace sign turned around and a lot of them shaking their heads. They can’t mentally understand what we’re trying to say.”

  But Brasile is happy with the people that are responding positively. “Every little bit helps.” he said.

     

Members of Veterans for Peace are taking part in a 700-mile walk from Maine to Washington, DC to protest war. Here some of the walkers stop in New London, Connecticut, holding anti-war signs outside the Electric Boat company, which makes submarines for the Navy.

  John Miksad, a Veterans for Peace member from Wilton said a group of about 30-40 people joined together to take part in the Norwalk Memorial Day Parade where they carried peace banners and got a good reception from the crowd.

  The peace group had veterans (including a 92-year-old Korean War vet), members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Norwalk, Quakers and others.

 “I’ve been marching in the parade for about five years and this is the best turnout we’ve had,” said Miksad.

   “This is a good sign because it appears the peace movement is growing again. My guess is what’s happening is, particularly young people, are seeing this war in Gaza, the horror of civilians being killed, 14,000 children killed, people buried in the rubble and I think they’re seeing firsthand the violence and the barbarity of war.”

 He added, “People are repulsed by it. It’s being live streamed onto people’s phones and tablets and computers and they’re saying, ‘Not in my name.’ Certainly that’s what these veterans who are are walking are saying, ‘Not in our name.’ “

  The peace walk is dedicated to Daniel Ellsberg, the long-time anti-war activist who died last year.  In 1971, Ellsberg released the trove of classified documents known as "The Pentagon Papers" which revealed the lies the government had told about the Vietnam War.  The revelations helped swing public opinion against the war and led to an end to the conflict.

 

 

    

 

 

 

Right-wing media smears student protesters, genuflects to Israel

                                                          

                                                         OPINION

    By Reginald Johnson 

 

 

  The bias being shown by right-wing media towards the college students protesting Israel's brutal war on Gaza is really extraordinary and quite frankly, shameful.

 Citing little or no hard evidence to back up their characterizations, commentators on FOX and Newsmax are labeling university protesters as “pro-Hamas sympathizers,” “anti-Semites,” and even terrorists.

I heard Jesse Waters on FOX call the campus protesters “Hamas lunatics” and “Jihadists.”  Sean Hannity and other talk show hosts on FOX say much the same thing.

  Dick Morris, a pollster/commentator who years ago worked for the Clintons and who I thought was a fairly critical thinker, said on Newsmax recently that the campus protests were a burgeoning form of “Naziism.”  Really? Naziism?

  Morris offered no video to back up his wild claim --- showing, say, large numbers of students marching around shouting “Seig Heil!” while waving swastikas or calling for Jews to be killed. No. Zero proof. This is just incredibly irresponsible and I think defammatory.

It is true that a small minority of people in and around the demonstrations, some wacky extremists, have said irresponsible things. A few people have uttered anti-Semitic comments or said stupid things like  “Long-live Hamas!”

 But from what I’ve seen, the vast majority of the students are involved in legitimate and constructive protest. They’re calling out the utter brutality and carnage that is going on in Gaza perpetrated by the Israeli military and saying they don’t want their schools to be in any way associated with helping the Israeli state. They are saying they want a cease-fire in this terrible war and they want aid to be sent in to help the people of Gaza. Again, this is the message from the vast majority of demonstrators and I have not seen any evidence to show otherwise.

 I saw FOX News show a clip of one person shouting from the outside of a protest that the slaughter of October 7 should be take place “again and again and again.” This clip was shown repeatedly over a number of days but it was just one person ---  there were no other people picking up the chant. This person was either a sick extremist or possibly a provocateur sent in by people who support Israel and are trying to discredit the student protest movement.

 The fact that FOX would show this kind of a clip of just one person repeating a depraved chant over several days and then acting as if it was somehow indicative of the way many protesters feel is really the height of the irresponsibility. You have to wonder sometimes whether that news organization is being paid by somebody to carry out this kind of propaganda.

  FOX talking heads have also been claiming recently, without evidence, that protesters in different places are shouting “Death to America!” But again no videos are shown.

 Another claim from right-wing outlets is that Gaza War  protesters are advocating  the “destruction of Israel” because they are chanting “From the river to the sea Palestine shall be free.” This is a complete smear. The meaning of the chant is that Palestinians who are NOT free now in their homeland because they are under military siege in Gaza and under a nearly 60-year Israeli military occupation in the West Bank, should be set free.  They’re saying that the Palestinians should have their rights and freedoms just like Israelis have in their country.

 The false accusation relating to the use of this slogan is particularly irresponsible given the fact that it is the Israelis going back to the Zionist leaders who were pushing for an Israeli state in the 1920s and 1930s who were using the same line --- declaring that from the Meditteranean Sea to the Jordan River there should be a Jewish homeland. Likud Party members wrote in their charter in 1970 that from ‘the river to the sea Israel should have sovereignty.’

 As recently as early October last year, prior to the October 7 attack, the foreign minister of Israel was saying the same thing about Israel’s rights, restating that from the sea to the river Israel should have dominion. So it is complete hypocrisy by Israelis and their allies in the US media to be saying that the use of this line by pro-Palestinian activists is ‘threatening’ and irresponsible. Israelis are using it themselves.

   Meanwhile, there has been little effort by FOX or Newsmax, especially, to send reporters to the demonstrations and make a concerted effort to find out what the protesters are thinking. The basic “Why?” question of journalism is not being asked. Why are you here?

 If they did ask this, they’d find people deeply concerned about the slaughter going on in Gaza, considered by international officials to be a genocide. They desperately want a ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate delivery of massive amounts of food to the area, to stave off a famine.

 But right-wing outlets don’t want to hear about genocide or war crimes or famine created by Israel blocking deliveries, because such truths hurt Israel, and they’re on Israel’s side.

 Some of the show hosts are very open about this. For instance, I heard Greg Kelly on Newsmax say one night,  “I’m rooting for Israel.”

 So shows on FOX and Newsmax are not journalism, they’re propaganda for Israel. These stations cannot call themselves “news” outlets anymore. They’re in public relations.

(By the way I have watched the conservative channels in recent years, in addition to the others, simply get a more balanced picture about American politics and also to hear discussions about important issues that you don’t hear on the other channels such as the attack on civil liberties including censorship and curbs on free speech. So they have had their moments in the past but relating to the Gaza war and Israel these stations have been a disaster.)

Coverage by the so-called moderate or liberal cable news channels like CNN and MSNBC of the student protests and the Gaza war has been a little bit better. Their coverage is not outright public relations like FOX and Newsmax. But then again, the reporting is not very strong, either. MSNBC has been spending recent weeks obsessively covering the Trump trials and devoting precious little time to this absolutely horrendous war going on in the Middle East. Reporting on the Trump circus day and night is really not very good journalism.

CNN, from what I can see, has not been covering the war terribly well either, but there have been a few segments that I thought were good.

The only TV/cable news outlets that have been doing a good job on the protests and the Gaza war are of course, foreign-based, namely Euronews and BBC. BBC in particular has been doing a nice job, making a real effort to talk with people on the ground whether they are demonstrators in the US or Palestinians themselves who are being directly impacted by the war. They’ve delved into the issue of genocide, talking with officials of the UN and human rights organizations. There’s also been interviews with leaders of the Palestinian Authority and leaders of Arab countries.

 The BBC has also aired a number of interviews with Israeli officials to get their side. This is the way it’s supposed to be done.

 I've also heard a lot of good things about al-Jazeera coverage, but I can't get this on cable TV. I'll have to check it out on-line.

 I'm not going to focus on print media coverage, because I'm not reading papers much. I gave up on the New York Times several years ago after they blew it on the Russia-gate affair and have been uncritical in their coverage of the Hunter Biden scandal. The Times reportedly did a poor job on the big story they put out in December on alleged sexual assaults by Hamas fighters against Israeli hostages. Many questions have been raised about the accuracy of the claims.

  Two tabloids in New York, the Post and Daily News are hopelessly pro-Israel and their coverage of campus protests has been very disparaging.

 So that's a smattering of the quality of the Gaza War coverage by the print media. Not too good. But there may be exceptions.

 It is time some protests land at the door of FOX, Newsmax and the New York Times over their one-sided coverage of the Gaza-Israel War.