http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Convention_reports_2008.vp.html

Reports Back from 2008 Convention / RNC Protest

I got back late Monday night from spending 5 days in St. Paul. One of the literary stories that we have received from Persian literature is the story of the elephant in the dark room. People go into the room and everyone who comes out has a different view of what an elephant is. With all the lack of coverage by mainstream media of reporters being roughed up and detained and the heavy provocative police/military presence, I feel that I need to tell what the elephant was for me. I will only mention the first hand experiences and not the stories told to me. Democracy Now's website is a good place to go to get some of those stories.

The first three days were spent in a hotel by the airport at the annual Veterans For Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War conventions. It was also the hotel where the Alaska and Tennessee delegations stayed. During this time preemptive raids were being carried out on the locations of organizers of activities planned outside of the convention. Jeremy Scahill told us Saturday night about covering the raid on the "eye witness video" group who bear witness by recording events. The next morning a team of 20 swat members with automatic weapons came to our hotel to go through our conventions with a show of force to heighten fear and discourage anyone from exercising our Constitution rights of free speech. Betsy, a young staff member of Veterans For Peace, refused to let them enter and they left. The majority of the attendees at our convention are war vets. We may be carrying a lot of war related mental baggage, but there is no show of force that is going to intimidate us.

Later that day the Veterans For Peace had a permitted march from the capitol building to the RNC and back. While we were on the capitol steps listening to remarks by a few vets and a song by the Code Pink ladies, 6 military helicopters were constantly circling overhead. The march was designed to be a solemn quiet march with the names of the dead US and Iraqis being read. It was to be completely nonviolent as are all of our events. The police were informed before the march that some would continue on beyond the permitted route towards the RNC as a civil resistance in support of defending the Constitution. I had no desire to be arrested since I had volunteered to help the Iraq vets with their march Monday morning, but had decided to stay with gold star parents Carlos and Melida Arredondo. Carlos was pulling a coffin draped with the US flag from his son's unit and his son's uniform as his way of honoring his son and making people aware of the cost of war. I told retired Lt. Col Leah Bolger who was holding the other end of one of the VFP banners that I was following the coffin. At the turnaround point Carlos, Mel and another gold star parent from Chicago turned towards the RNC. Ret Col. Ann Wright who was holding the US flag also turned and Leah decided to follow the flag towards the RNC also. There were about 6 Vietnam vets and a dozen other vets and supporters who also decided to use civil resistance. During the entire march we were surrounded by media who were literally tripping over each other at times. When we reached the cages blocking entrance to the RNC, we were surrounded by national guard troops and police. Nine of the group decided to go under a fence to willingly be arrested.

Once we stopped the media came in for interviews. After several minutes the sirens announced the arrival of several squad cars to further surround us. I was pleased to be interviewed by my favorite reporter, Jeremy Scahill. I also did a long interview with the Al Jazeera news organization. They were taping the entire event entire event and I am sure they can show their Middle East viewers what US democracy really is like. After a while you could feel the ground pound as the storm troopers marched in from a side street. They had the all black heavily padded Darth Vader suits with every part of their bodies covered including full face shields. They had no individual marking to identify who they were individually or collectively. I do not know if they were Blackwater, police, FBI, CIA, homeland security or some military related group. At no time could we get any of them to talk to us, so we could tell them that we were just walking in public areas and were ready to walk back to the capitol. They lined up in military formation behind us in rows with their extra long clubs at the ready across their chests. There was no communication from any of them about what they wanted us to do. No communication, just force. When their leader gave the command to march forward, we knew that they were there to clear us out. Carlos had to turn the casket around, so when they got to us I went up to them and told them that we were getting ready to head back to the capitol. They halted and then stomped behind us as we slowly and reverently followed Alex's casket back to the capitol.
That evening we older vets went over to the Sacred Heart church to meet with some of the Iraq vets and practice our assistance as marshals for the Iraq Veterans Against the War march. Our job was to assist by walking with ropes on all sides to insure the integrity of the marchers and to keep the media from going into the platoons of Iraq vets. All aspects of the march were shared with the police and McCain's people. The plan was to march to the gates of the RNC and demand entrance by a representative of the group to present a letter of demands for veteran's care to the McCain campaign. In Denver the Iraq Veterans Against the War were able to march without a permit along with 5000 supporters to the DNC to have a couple of their members go inside to give a letter to Obama's representative. Obama's people did meet with the representatives of IVAW and a meeting is being set up with Obama's vet coordinator and the Senator himself. If the McCain people were unwilling to meet and be given the letter, the IVAW had one platoon of arrestables. One vet would walk to the police line and continue until subdued and physically stopped. Every minute another vet would step forward until all 40 were physically stopped. The McCain people were wise enough to let in a representative who was arrested for a short time but released. The first few of the arrestables carried a US flag that had flown in Iraq and a copy of the Constitution. The image of bloody Iraq vets and scattered flags and copies of the Constitution on the ground would not have enhanced the Republican image. As the Iraq vets marched back to the capitol after their successful mission, they did so while calling cadence. Democracy Now's Amy Goodman was walking a few feet behind me next to the rope recording the cadence. I could not help but notice how frail she looks. Two hours after I left the next day, she was roughed up and arrested by police.

The major march of some 70 groups started about 1 pm. It was led by the Iraq Veterans Against the War and then followed by Veterans For Peace and Military Families Speak Out members. As is normal in these large marches, the people sort of morphed together after a while. Estimates of 5 to 40 thousand marchers have been reported. I only saw one policeman that lost control. After trying to catch some young protestors who ran away from them into the crowd, one of the policemen lost it and hammered down one of the marchers. Most all vets feel a sense of empathy because most of us were at one time doing jobs similar to the police. The police were obviously instructed to not say anything to us, but when we talked to them many would give us a smile. The local St. Paul police could not have been nicer to me. The Iraq vets reported that at Denver when their unauthorized march reached the DNC, some of the police on the line had to leave their posts with tears in their eyes because they knew they could never arrest their brothers and sisters who had served their country and were exercising their Constitutional rights.

Paul Appell