Lee Thorn writes:
Hi Friends-
This note has nothing to do with IT directly. If that is your only interest in Jhai Foundation, you might as well quit reading now.
I am writing you to tell you about how our work at Jhai is related to peace-making and how just the thought of bombing - anywhere - effects people like Bounthanh and me ... and particularly about a veterans march on Washington on March 23 and 24. I ask you, as always, to please pass the word.
I was involved in the bombing in Laos. Bounthanh and her whole village -those villagers that survived - were forced out of their ancestral homes by American bombing. All the villages in her home province, Xengquang, sometimes called the Plain of Jars, were destroyed by American bombing. The villages we are bringing IT connectivity to were ALL founded by internal refugees made homeless by American bombing 25 years ago. In some ways, villagers' suffering continues --28 years after the end of that war.
Now, the American and British governments are preparing for another war. This one in Iraq. This one, the American government says, will start with the most intensive bombing � 3000 sorties in one day � the world has ever known.
Bounthanh knows about intensive bombing. She went to school under her house at night, in a hole, by candlelight, to avoid the bombing. All the farmers in her village did their work with leaves on their backs and ducked into the paddy whenever they heard the sound of planes. Their objectives were to stay alive and to maintain their way of life. For them it was not about politics whatsoever -at least, not at that time. Her village spent six years in refugee camps before they settled in Phon Kham. They built Phon Kham out of the jungle. They hand-dug all the canals in the rice fields. They hand-built all their houses, foraged for food, and survived. Most of them. As Bounthanh's mother told me one day as she, Vorasone and I gazed over her perfect garden, her family survived all the bombing intact. But they all did not survive the first year in Phon Kham. Two of Bounthanh's sisters died that year -one from Malaria and one from Cholera.
I also know about intensive bombing. For years I had nightmares about one particular night in June 1966 when, under an order from the White House, all available planes from Guam to Japan to Thailand to South Vietnam to the Gulf of Tonkin were used to bomb the city of Haiphong. That bombing started fire storms. The air caught fire. I showed the movies of this three times to the pilots of VA-55 and VAW-11. I loaded bombs for this run. I am sure thousands of people, perhaps tens of thousands, were killed that night. The vast, vast majority were civilians. The scene was horrific, vast waves of fire sweeping across that city. It sticks in my memory like a cancer.
The vast, vast majority of war dead - if there is a war in Iraq - will be civilians: civilians that our military people will kill. Many of our soldiers and sailors and marines - and certainly many Iraqi people - will never forget this slaughter, will be haunted by these murders for decades - as am I. In war everyone loses.
Just writing these words shakes me emotionally. I know almost the whole world, certainly the vast majority of the developing world and poor people everywhere, know what I am talking about. Fortunately most Americans do not. Almost all the civilian planners of this war do not. If they did, they might take their decisions with more gravity. They want to trade civilian lives for ... something ... oil, glory, ego, a new world order ... I don't know. I can't get inside their heads. But I'm home in my body and I've been traumatized by war and we need to do something else, I know ... and changing America's mind is worth serious effort.
We are doing the opposite of war at Jhai Foundation and you are part of that. We come to Phon Kham and other villages as whole people which means as wounded people and flawed people, and we meet other whole people there. We get to know one another, little by little. We do this, partly, by working side-by-side. We tell our stories. We get past our denial about our past, one small step at a time. We mourn as we can. We continue to work on our friendship. And in that process we are installing things like computers and wi-fi and phone connectivity together. And this friendship building is working. We�ll be back to Phon Kham fairly soon to complete the IT job ... because the villagers and all of us try to act honorably with one another.
But as a whole human being I am also a veteran of war. As such I join with other veterans supporting a veterans march on Washington, what we call "Operation: Dire Distress". I am not sure I can get there with them - Jhai is a bit broke, this rescheduled launch is costing us something like $15,000 extra - but I am not going to stop working for peace. If you are press, I hope you cover this event. If you are not press, I hope you do what you can to stop this war before it starts. And I thank all of you for your time and for the support you have given Jhai Foundation and continue to give.
Please see the press release below.
Yours, in Peace,
Lee Thorn
USS Ranger (CVA-61), Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam, 1966
Chair, Jhai Foundation (for identification)
PRESS RELEASE: IMMEDIATE DATE: MARCH 10, 2003
VETERAN'S TO MARCH ON NATION'S CAPITOL
MARCH 23 - 24
Veteran's Against Iraq War, a coalition of veterans organizations and individuals opposed to the impending war in Iraq will conduct a march and lobbying effort in the Nation's Capitol on March 23rd and 24th. The event is being designated "Operation: Dire Distress".
Declaring their support for current United States military forces deployed to the Middle-East the coalition comprised of Veteran's For Common Sense, Veteran's For Peace, Vietnam Veteran's Against The War, Military Families and others agreed that the voices of America's veterans must be heard on this major issue confronting our nation.
"We join this debate from the perspective of men and women who have answered our nation's call during past times of war and crisis", stated David Cline, coalition member and National President of the Veterans For Peace. "We consider the placing of United States Armed Forces in harm's way as one of the gravest responsibilities of our nation and our elected officials, one which we believe must not be taken without broad debate as towards its implications", he added.
The coalition of veterans organizations will assemble at the Memorial Gardens near the Viertnam Veterans Memorial at 12noon on Sunday March 23rd. A solemn procession to visit the Vietnam Veterans, Korean and World War II memorials will be conducted. The veterans then will gather at the Ellipse Area where a press conference and a statement of opposition to the war in Iraq will be presented and speakers will address the issue. A delegation of veterans representatives will deliver a petition against the war in Iraq to the White House.
On Monday March 24th, the veteran's coalition representatives will conduct a series of meetings with bi-partician representatives of Congress, who both oppose and favor the war.
According to Charles Sheehan-Miles of Veterans For Common Sense, "We support our men and women in uniform and we support all diplomatic and political efforts to solve the current situatuion without going to war. This would be a disaster for all of us".
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For further info on the Veteran's Against Iraq War Coalition please contact:
Jaime Vazquez (cell) 201-832-1395 201-659-7664
David Cline (cell) 201-294-4598 201-876-0430
Diane Evans (406) 431-8445
Lee Thorn
Jhai Foundation www.jhai.org
921 France Ave., San Francisco, CA 94112
1 415 334 2100 (fax/voice)
JHAI Foundation {great coffee!}
