Veterans for Peace Message to Obama 12/16/2010 131 Arrested

131 people, many of them US Veterans get arrested in front of the White House and the major news outlets decide it isn’t news for Americans.
Share the News since the “News” won’t.
I got back this yesterday morning at 3am from Wash DC where I participated in a civil disobedience with fellow members of Veterans for Peace and citizens who are disgusted in our governments continuing policies in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. It is estimated that 2/3rds of those arrested were US Military Veterans including myself, who is also a veteran police officer. I don’t take lightly violating the law, but when those in power violate our laws and will not respect the will of those whom they govern then extreme, nonviolent, actions must be taken.
Veterans for Peace had asked for a meeting with President Obama to address these concerns, but never received a response, so we took our messages and delivered them to a snow covered White House lawn. One hundred and thirty one of us refused to leave the restricted area without a meeting with the President or being arrested. The latter is what occurred.
I was in good company with Daniel Ellsberg, Ray McGovern, Chris Hedges…and many other dedicated citizens. Chris Hedges’ speech before the action was inspiring.
There are plans for our return in April with hopefully even more veterans and citizens who are determined to get our leaders to listen to the reason of peace.