This past summer has been a very busy one for Chapter 115 in Red Wing, MN. We again hosted the sixth annual Pigstock (the former name of Peacestock) event on July 12th at VFP member Paul ( and Trudi) Schaefer’s Windbeam Farm in Hager City, WI which is just across the Mississippi River from Red Wing, MN.
Over seventy people attended the event and many expressed their appreciation of Chapter 115 again hosting this outstanding event.
The program began with area peace organizations reporting on recent and upcoming events they had been working on. Professor David M. Green from Hofstra University, NY, NY then spoke on the mistakes made leading up to the Iraq War and he discussed a seven point plan on how we can work to end this war.
After lunch a panel of Iraq Veterans Against the War led by Wes Davies and moderated by Michael and Cynthia Orange gave a terrific discussion of their experiences in Iraq. It was like a small version of the earlier Winter Soldier event. People were very moved by the discussion and of the advice of what we can do to help our returning veterans.
Following that, Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt Col. USAF, retired, gave her presentation Will the Anitwar Movement Strangle the State? Her presentation was very interesting and was different than many of the things we had heard before as she took a very Libertarian approach to the Iraq War problem. You can view the transcript of her presentation at www. LewRockwell.com. Following that was our famous pigroast and discussions around a large campfire and some more lively discussions took place in a much more informal atmosphere.
Chapter 115 then jumped into intense preparations for the Veterans Silent March which was to take place on August 31st just prior to the Republican National Convention. A great deal of time was spent promoting this even and working on logistics and in making the commerative cardboard tombstones.
We also had members volunteer for the VFP National convention in Bloomington, MN.
Finally we just recently participated in the annual Red Wing, MN Diversity Festival. We promoted Veterans for Peace by passing out literature and having people learn about the costs of war by playing our “Cost of War Quiz Game”. The game was very popular and many people learned things about the Iraq War that they did not know before. Yes, a very busy summer but one we look back on with great memories.