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Blood on the TRACKS: the Life and Times of S. Brian Willson by S Veterans For Peace JUNE Humboldt Bay 2011 Chapter 56 “Cutting Through the Fog of War” BlOOD ON THE TRACKS: The Life And Times of S. Brian Willson By S. Brian Willson About the Publisher: PM Press Introduction: Daniel Ellsberg was founded in 2007 as an indepen- dent publisher with a veteran staff boasting a wealth of experience in “We are not worth more, they are not worth less.” This is the mantra of S. Brian Willson and print and online publishing. We seek the theme that runs throughout his compelling psycho-historical memoir. Willson’s story begins to create radical and stimulating in small-town, rural America, where he grew up as a “Commie-hating, baseball-loving Baptist,” fiction and non-fiction books, pam- moves through life-changing experiences in Viet Nam, Nicaragua and elsewhere, and culminates phlets, t-shirts, visual and audio ma- with his commitment to a localized, sustainable lifestyle. terials to entertain, educate and in- spire you. We aim to distribute these In telling his story, Willson provides numerous examples of the types of personal, risk-taking, through every available channel with nonviolent actions he and others have taken in attempts to educate and effect political change: every available technology. tax refusal, fasting, and obstruction tactics. It was such actions that thrust Brian Willson into the public eye in the mid-’80s, first as a participant in a high-profile, water-only “Veterans Fast for Subject Category: Life” against the Contra war being waged by his government in Nicaragua. Then, on a fateful day Biography/ Politics-Activism/ U.S. in September 1987, the world watched in horror as Willson was run over by a U.S. government History munitions train during a nonviolent blocking action in which he expected to be removed from the tracks and arrested. Price: $20.00 Throughout his personal journey Willson struggles with the question, “Why was it so easy for ISBN: 978-1-60486-421-2 me, a ‘good’ man, to follow orders to travel 9,000 miles from home to participate in killing people who clearly were not a threat to me or any of my fellow citizens?” He eventually comes to the Page Count: 500 realization that the “American Way of Life” is AWOL from humanity, and that the only way to recover our humanity is by changing our consciousness, one individual at a time, while striving Size: 6 X 9 for collective cultural changes toward “less and local.” Thus, Willson offers up his personal story as a metaphorical map for anyone who feels the need to be liberated from the American Way of Format: Paperback Life—a guidebook for anyone called by conscience to question continued obedience to vertical power structures while longing to reconnect with the human archetypes of cooperation, equity, Publication Date: 05/11 mutual respect and empathy. Distributed By: About S. Brian Willson: S. Brian Willson is a Viet Nam veteran whose wartime experiences Independent Publishers Group transformed him into a revolutionary nonviolent pacifist. He gained renown as a participant in (312) 337-0747 a prominent 1986 veterans fast on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. One year www.ipgbook.com later, on September 1, 1987, he was again thrust into the public eye when he was run over and ° PM Press ° nearly killed by a U.S. Navy Munitions train while engaging in a nonviolent blockade in protest P.O. Box 23912 of weapons shipments to El Salvador. Since the 1980s he has continued efforts to educate the Oakland, CA 94623 public about the diabolical nature of U.S. imperialism while striving to “walk his talk” (on two www.pmpress.org prosthetic legs and a three-wheeled handcycle) by creating a model of right livelihood including a simpler lifestyle. Submitted by Peter Aronson About Daniel Ellsberg (Introduction): Daniel Ellsberg is a former United States military ana- lyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers. Page 4 VFP 56 News other thing to throw a kegger celebrating his death at the site where Some Final Thoughts on the Death of Osama the remains of his victims are still occasionally found. Is that who bin Laden …a letter from Michael Moore we are? Is that what Jesus would do? Is that what Jefferson would do? I was reminded of the tale told to me as a kid, of God’s angels “The Nazis killed tens of MILLIONS. They got a trial. Why? singing with glee as the Red Sea came crashing back down on the Because we’re not like them. We’re Americans. We roll different.” Egyptians chasing the Israelites, drowning all of them. God rebuked – Michael Moore in an interview Thursday, May 12th, 2011 them, saying, “The work of My hands is drowning in that sea – and you want to friggin’ sing?” (or something like that). This month, President Obama fulfilled a campaign promise and killed Osama bin Laden. Well he didn’t actually do the killing him- I remember my parents telling me how, on the day it was an- self. It was carried out by a very brave and excellent team of Navy nounced that Hitler was dead, there was no rejoicing in the streets, SEALs. Not only does Mr.. Obama have the overwhelming support just private relief and satisfaction. The real celebration came six of the country, I think there are millions who gladly wish it could days later at the announcement that the war in Europe was over. have been their finger on the gun that took out bin Laden. THAT’S what the people wanted to hear – not just the demise of one evil madman, but the end to all the killing. When I heard the news a week ago Sunday, I immediately felt great. I felt relief. I thought of those who lost a loved one on 9/11. When the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, people didn’t And I was glad we finally had a President who got something done. pour into the streets to whoop it up. Yes, people were happy that it This is what I had to say on Twitter and elsewhere on the internet in might help end the war, but there was not a public display of “Yip- that first hour or two: pee! A hundred thousand Japs have been fried!” If they had done that, well, who could have blamed them after so many tens of thou- I want to point out that Barack Obama took two years to do what sands of their sons and fathers had been lost in the war (including Bush couldn’t do in over seven. That’s the difference between STU- my uncle, a paratrooper, killed by a sniper near Manila). But the PID in charge and SMART in charge. STUPID pursues two reckless sailor kissing the girl in Times Square was on August 14th, 1945, wars, lets OBL escape from Tora Bora, keeps looking for him in when the Japanese surrendered and the war was officially over. caves and invades the wrong country. He bankrupts us to the tune That’s when America went crazy with joy – not over a killing, but of $1.2 trillion for the Iraq War (it will eventually actually be over over an announcement of peace. $3 trillion), and worse, he cost us the lives of almost 5,000 of our troops, not to mention hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in We are a different people now, aren’t we? Well, sorta. There was Iraq and Afghanistan – and, after all that, he STILL couldn’t bring no bloodlust euphoria on the day Timothy McVeigh was executed. the perp to justice. In fact, in 2005, Bush closed down the CIA sta- We were silent. The families of the Oklahoma City dead were silent, tion that was devoted to looking for bin Laden! What does SMART relieved. What is the difference between McVeigh and bin Laden, do? He sends in a small elite strike force, no troops are killed, and other than the number they slaughtered? I wonder. I think we know the perpetrator is stopped for good. the answer. I was thrilled that the Osama bin Laden era was over. There was Though bin Laden is dead, we are told that Orwell’s Permanent now an end to the madness. War – the “War on Terror” – must continue! Not allowed to have our V-J day and run into Times Square with exhilaration! No, there Being near Ground Zero that night, I decided to head over there could be terrorists there. So all we’re left with is to cheer the death and join with others who saw this event as a chance to have some of one evil man, and that is supposed to make us feel powerful and closure. On 9/11, Bill Weems, a good and decent man I knew and good. There can be no celebration for the end of the Afghanistan worked with (we had just recently completed a shoot together in War because the war isn’t ending. The war must continue! Even Boston), was on the plane that was flown into the Twin Towers. I though our own CIA tells us there are no more than a few dozen al dedicated ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ in part, to him. Qaeda left in Afghanistan. We still have 100,000 troops there fight- ing a few dozen crazies? We say we’re fighting the Taliban, too, but But before leaving to go to the former World Trade Center site, the Taliban are Afghan citizens, not an invading force, and, for bet- I turned on the TV, and what I saw down at Ground Zero was not ter or worse, they seem to enjoy the support of many of the common quiet relief and gratification that the culprit had been caught.
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