Posted on 04/10/2005 8:50:22 AM PDT by tgslTakoma
Every Friday, 8-10 P.M. Shed Light On US War Casualties: Vigil Contacts: Ann Wilcox 202-xxx-xxxx; Ellen Taylor: 202-xxx-xxxx, dc@codepinkalert.org
CODEPINK recently held a nightly vigil at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Friday, March 25 to Friday, April 1, at the North Gate (7200 Georgia Ave. at Elder Street, NW- see below for directions). It was a very successful action bringing together peace activists, soldiers, military families and neighbors. We will continue the vigil every Friday as a reminder that physically and psychologically wounded soldiers are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan every night. Late at night – several nights per week – gravely and seriously wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan arrive at Walter Reed, and Bethesda Naval Medical Center, for treatment – under the cover of darkness. These soldiers are the most seriously-wounded, with shattered limbs requiring prostheses and physical therapy, brain injuries and mental disorders. Soldiers are flown from US military hospitals in Germany – arriving at Andrews AFB and Walter Reed under the cover of night. We believe the nighttime arrivals are scheduled on purpose so as to prevent the public from knowing about the numbers of soldiers wounded and the severity of their injuries. The “hiding” of the severely-wounded is in keeping administration policy of prohibiting photographs of coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base. (For investigative reporting of the Walter Reed arrivals, see Mark Benjamin’s articles, “The Invisible Wounded,” at www.salon.com on March 8, 2005. For Benjamin’s reporting on the psychiatric ward at Walter Reed, see “Behind the Walls of Ward 54,” Feb. 18, 2005.) Even after their stealth arrival at Walter Reed, soldiers must begin a bureaucratic battle to obtain sufficient disability benefits to provide an adequate quality of life. Initial determinations of military pension amounts (10-20% of salary, for example), made by the Army’s Medical Review Board, are often inadequate, and must be appealed to the Veterans Administration (which, to its credit, often increases the lifetime disability payment). We also vigil to protest ongoing cuts in the Veterans Administration budget made by the very same administration that sends these soldiers to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. For example, the FY05 budget institutes a new health care enrollment fee and increases prescription drug co-pays for middle-income veterans. The VA budget is not fully funded, failing by more than $2.6 billion to fully fund quality veterans’ health care. Despite strongly lobbying by veterans organizations, the Bush administration fails to recognize veterans as an extension of the costs of war. Other FY05 budget cuts in educational, vocational and adult education, and family support programs also directly impact veterans and their families. VIGIL WITH US – to honor the sacrifice of the troops and bring to light the seriousness of their injuries. We refuse to allow the government to conceal the true face of war – and the true cost of war – under a blanket of darkness.
As they are taken from the FRONT LINE to the BACK DOOR
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 7200 Georgia Ave., at Elder St., NW
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=38.975647,-77.022290&spn=0.014526,0.024560&saddr=7200+Georgia+Ave+NW,Washington,+DC+20012&daddr=327+Cedar+Street,NW,+Washington,+DC&hl=en
Here is a map from the closest Metro Station (Red Line Takoma)
Much, much worse.
I need sign ideas. FReepmail me.
Uh huh, of course THAT comment isn't hateful or bigotted.
When you get your head out of your butt, maybe you won't be such a hater and bigot yourself, but maybe it's a birth defect, and in that case you have my pity.
P.S. The war's over, get over it. (And you didn't fight it.)
Oops. What was I thinking! :-)
Code Sicko.
This "support" reminds me of the crosses on the beach south of Santa Monica Pier. Yeah, right...
This could well be a HIPAA violation.
maybe you should head on over to DU, where fools dwell. they'll like you.
free dixie,sw
I'm not interested in hearing about your family reunions.
You folks who hate this country and want to divide us all over something you never experienced make me wanna puke. You and the slave reparation people and the socialists hate this country, so maybe you should be over at DU with the other US haters.
Code pink is full of disgusting human beings.
No, they're useful... idiots!
Bump.
Gotta research Amtrak.
we southrons do NOT hate this country & we want to FIX the continuing problems, which resulted from the WBTS.
what we DO want is an ADMISSION of GUILT from the government for the WAR CRIMES & CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY,which the lincoln administration committed against our families AND a DAY of NATIONAL REMEMBERENCE, PRAYER & MOURNING in their memory.
such a day would go far to bind up the still bleeding wounds of MANY THOUSANDS of families.
free dixie,sw
perhaps "beings" is appropriate, but HUMAN???
of that i'm not so sure.
free dixie,sw
Blah blah blah, another blast of ignorance--YOU never suffered because of the Civil War, YOU never accomplished anything of note, so you live off the memories of your dead elatives who did.
Get a life, fool, and stop reminiscing over the slave-owning past which YOU never even experienced.
Like welfare leeches claiming victimhood because of things that never even happened to them, your HATE for this country rots you from inside, turning you into a "I am owed!" robot who is owed NOTHING. Lincoln is one of the great presidents, and you never suffered an ounce of this "pain" you beat your chest over.
These supposed "horros" never even happened to you--they happened to people you never met, and are the whines of losers who need to be victims because they can't achieve on their own. Get over it!
LOL! Like Andersonville?
"& CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY,"
LOL!!! Like slavvery????? Oh, right, southerners weren't fighting to continue slavery! ROFL
"which the lincoln administration committed against our families AND a DAY of NATIONAL REMEMBERENCE, PRAYER & MOURNING in their memory."
Ah, so you are supporting a day of national rememBRANCE, prayer and mourning for slaves, too? Oh, no, only for white southerners. (Not for northerners slaughtered by barbaric confederates.)
Hide behind your dead relatives all you want, your nauseating true self is on display for all to see.
less than 2% of Jews living now were there for the Nazi terror.
92 UNARMED/civilian members of MY family were slaughtered like cattle by the damnyankee army just because they were NOT WHITE people.
should i (and every other person in the world, who had THEIR family slaughtered)just "get over it"???
free dixie,sw
on the other hand, the damnyankees under lincoln INVENTED the CONCENTRATION CAMP. ONLY a lack of modern efficiency kept Point Lookout from being DACHAU.
get your FACTS straight & we'll talk again.
free dixie,sw
"ARROGANTly ignorant,self-righteous, DAMNyankee BIGOT & DUMB-bunny."
free dixie,sw
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