Fighting for Peace: Veterans and Military Families in the Anti–Iraq War Movement

3. Building a Family and Transforming Activists’ Emotions

| 123 3 Building a Family and Transforming Activists’ Emotions The Walkin’ to New Orleans Veterans and Survivors March for Peace and Justice, which lasted from March 13 to 19, 2006, was one of many political activities that brought members of the military peace movement into close contact and where they ate and lived together for extended periods of time. The march was requested by a VFP chapter in Mobile, Alabama. The theme of the march was, “Every bomb dropped in Iraq explodes along the Gulf Coast,” which is a rewording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s statement, from his autobiography , “Yet bombs in Vietnam also exploded at home.”1 The activists hoped to create a link between the lack of progress in that area ’s recovery in the six months following Hurricane Katrina and the spiraling costs of the Iraq War. The march was organized largely by three Army combat veterans of the Vietnam War: David Cline, Elliott Adams, and Stan Goff. Goff served in the Army Special Forces (the RangersandDeltaForce)inSouthandCentralAmerica,Somalia,and Haiti and was the father of an Iraq War veteran. VFP invited the other military peace movement organizations and local groups organizing for Hurricane Katrina survivors’ rights to join them in the march. Although the tactic garnered some national and much local media coverage , the action is better understood as a bonding activity wherein activistssharedphysicalexhaustion,extensivepoliticalconversations, and close, primitive living quarters for approximately one week. This sharingaidedactivists’healingfromwar-inducedanger,fear,andguilt by encouraging reciprocal emotions of love between activists and focusing their anger on the causes of war. During one evening’s program with local community members, activists spoke of the horrors of war, racism, and misplaced government priorities to an audience at Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in 124 | BUILDING A FAMILY AND TRANSFORMING ACTIVISTS’ EMOTIONS Long Beach, Mississippi.2 The emotional speeches covered activists’ personalreasonsforseekinganendtotheIraqWar.AVietnamveteran elaboratedonhisroleinthatwarandtheresultingshameheandothers feltfortakingpartinanunjustifiedwar,andthroughtearsamotherdescribed the “mind-numbing fear and sadness” brought on by her son’s deployment. A male Army medic and Iraq War veteran choked up as he described the death of a friend in Iraq, and he stared at the floor as he held his head in his hands as he described his involvement in Iraqis’ deaths. The activists focusedtheir anger on governmental and military leaders for dragging them or their loved ones into the war. A number of militarypeacemovementactivistsintheaudiencecriedoneachother’s shoulders while holding onto one another as activists told emotional stories.Theseactionsdemonstratedhowactivistssoughttoreplacethe emotions of war, which could have left them feeling powerless, with emotions such as directed anger and love for the group. Over the nextfew days, activists revealedintensely personaldetails FIGURE 12. On March 16, 2006, IVAW members sit on rubble in Biloxi, Mississippi. The majority of their march from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans saw little recovery from Hurricane Katrina, which had destroyed most of that coastline in August 2005. Photograph by the author. BUILDING A FAMILY AND TRANSFORMING ACTIVISTS’ EMOTIONS | 125 of their lives, discussing abuse, medical conditions, politics, travels, romantic relationships, and emotions. These conversations were a space to share their joys and sorrows. They shared food, alcohol, and other drugs and a camp-like space that was primitive but made livable thanks in part to their military experience. Participants were very communal and also very protective of each other, rotating watch duties for the night’s encampment and other jobs necessary to make the week safe. Activists carefully arranged themselves in the camps in order to protect one another and offered to act as lookouts for those who wanted to bathe in makeshift military-style outdoor showers. They created a sense of community by sharing their daily routines. In addition to learning about each other and bonding over shared personal and political interests, activists faced a daily multiple-mile march through a devastated countryside and primitive camping conditions in new locations every night. This shared experience provided them with a sense of accomplishment. They even made a T-shirt to commemorate the march, which was given to all military peace movement participants in attendance. When we marched, I was herded into a group of MFSO activists who were marching with Gold Star family members in the middle of a 100-to-500-person crowd whose numbers increased as we came closer to New Orleans. These military families marched behind IVAW and sometimes behind and sometimes ahead of VFP; the activists from otherorganizationsmarchedbehindus.EvenGoldStarmotherCindy Sheehan, who was then at the...