Many of us in MFSO were very heartened and encouraged to see how MFSO, Veterans for Peace, and About Face ( IVAW), collaborated to support the Poor People’s Campaign, Phase 1, last May and June. The National Poor People’s Campaign is a call for moral revival that supports Dr. King’s vision to oppose the 4 pillars he identified that uphold the ills of society: Poverty, Racism, the Environment and the War Economy. Dr. Barber, the national organizer of the PPC today, laid out a plan that for 40 days we would confront each pillar by organizing direct actions at each state capitol, as was successfully practiced in South Carolina with Moral Mondays. An essential part of the campaign included a call for people to risk arrest. Over 35 states had actions that resulted in what has been recognized as the largest mass demonstration across the US with over 2,000 people being arrested across the country.

MFSO, VFP and AF focused on week 3-the week on militarism and the war. In California, 20 MFSO, VFP members and supporters were arrested in Sacramento for disruptions that resulted in the halting of the State Assembly while in session. To do this, it required weeks of coordinating at many different levels. Three vans of participants drove up from S. CA, while others drove many miles across the state to participate. With the help of Veterans for Peace LA and Orange County, we set up an exhibit of crosses representing our troops who have been killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to represent the countless innocent civilians who also died, the PPC Arts committee helped us build a clothesline of torn garments and a display of empty shoes. Many of our members held up posters of of loved ones and set up informational booths-all on the capitol lawn! A speak out was held on the steps with MFSO members Tim Kahlor and Laurie Loving and VFP member Anthony Palacios among the speakers.

The goal of the direct action in Sacramento was to get our message heard and stop business as usual at the state capitol. MFSO members Tim, Laurie, Pat, Rossana and Arturo Cambron, Jeff Merrick, Kathleen Hernandez VFP Associate member and other VFP members and dozens of supporters boldly took up a whole section in the State Assembly. We held up posters of our loved ones who died due to war, suicide, substance abuse and deportation and interrupted the session by shouting the names of these victims of war and demanding the end of state tax breaks to those who support war, that we bring the National Guard home from the border, stop the privatization of the VA and provide housing and support for veterans. Some State Assembly members stood up and applauded . We shut down the State Assembly but 21 people were arrested that day including MFSO members Laurie Loving and Pat Alviso, and Kathleen Hernandez.. They were kept overnight in the Sacramento jail, but all charge were eventually dropped.

All of this was made possible due to the generosity, hard work and masterful organizational skills of MFSO members Laurie and Russell Loving, who provided housing and meals, media outreach and leadership for two of the six weeks. What was accomplished is immeasurable – groups that had never worked together before organized an unforgettable message with a collaboration that all wish to continue implementing for Phase 2 of the Poor People’s Campaign.

By Pat Alviso, MFSO CA, MFSO National Coordinator and Mary Hladky MFSO MO and MFSO Steering Committee

Pictured Below:  May 29, 2018 – Sacramento, CA – Military Families Speak Out & Veterans For Peace Memorial in conjunction with The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

Military Families Speak Out is participating in The Poor People’s Campaign activities that are taking place TUESDAY May 29th. Every week there are simultaneous nonviolent direct actions in DC and State Capitols across the nation. The 40 days of rallies and direct actions are an integral part of the Poor Peoples Campaign, which was started by Dr. King, who believed the US had lost its moral compass and it’s time to connect the issues of poverty, racism, the war, and now the environment.

My son was featured in a story done about Pathway Home in the Mercury News on 2/10/2011.  My son was an inpatient at Pathway Home and at that time the founder and director was Fred Gusman.   I started having concerns about the program and contacted them and requested to talk to Fred Gusman.   He never returned my calls or e-mails.  I was so concerned that I was going to drive from Southern California to Napa to talk to them in person and my son convinced me he could handle it.

My son had completed an actual VA PTSD treatment program in 2008 at Palo Alto VA hospital and it was an EXCELLENT PROGRAM and saved my son’s life.   He started having problems again and we learned about Pathway Home and he entered their program in 2011.   My first concerns about Pathway Home was I found out they were having financial problems.  Since they didn’t have an instructor for their PTSD class, they were having my son teach the class since he had completed the Palo Alto PTSD Program.   I told my son that you’re there as a patient not a paid instructor.  My son’s life was also being threatened by his roommate and Pathway Home wasn’t doing anything to protect my son.   That is when I tried to contact the director and he never returned my calls or e-mails.   I was also contacted by a reporter doing a story on Pathway Home and I told him I had some concerns, but at that time there were so few programs out their that any program is better than none.   Pathway Homes was doing a lot of media at that time to promote their program and to get donations.  That is probably why Mercury News did the story on Pathway Home in 2011.  I was concerned that they were more focused on funding and not on the treatment of PTSD.

I know Pathway Home closed in 2015 due to financial problems and Fred Gusman left.   Then a new board was formed and it was opened again in 2016 or 2017.

When I heard about the shooting my heart stopped.   I don’t know how the current Pathway Homes is being managed, but my concern is what are they doing with problem patients such as Veteran Albert Wong.   When a problem patient is released from the program are they being offered alternate care or other resources?   What was done to prevent a Veteran with PTSD from returning as Albert Wong did and killing these innocent women and protecting other patients and staff?   What are they doing to make sure we don’t have another Albert Wong in the future?  As families dealing with loved ones with PTSD, we need to know!  

As a father of a disabled Iraq Veteran that has been dealing as a family with our son’s PTSD since 2006.   I want to make sure that these programs are doing all they can to help prevent and protect the Veteran, the staff and other patients from what happened at Pathway Home this week.

I have been a member of Military Families Speak Out since 2006 and with other members of our group that have lost their loved ones to suicide and like my family trying to keep our son healthy and alive as he suffers from PTSD.   We tell our stories and are a voice for our loved ones making sure that their problems with PTSD is being taken care of by the VA, DOD and other programs like Pathway Homes.

From the article: “Lauri Loving of Davis and Military Families Speak Out/Veterans for Peace decried the “spiritual death” of the U.S. and its military incursions all over the planet. “It’s time to bring the troops back and take [care] of them,” said Loving, whose son suffers from PTSD and other physical ailments because of his deployment in Iraq.

She criticized the “economic draft” that preys on young men and women in high school to use as “cannon fodder” in “unpopular, unwinnable wars.””

http://www.davisvanguard.org/2018/02/wave-arrests-california-u-s-promised-poor-peoples-campaign-citing-fight/

Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) members Linda Valdez, Ed Garza, Jeff Merrick and Pat Alviso loading down Ed’s truck with donations for our deported veteran visit in Tijuana.

Adelante companeros!

In 2007, our application was rejected by the city of Long Beach and Pageantry Productions because of our political stance. We were only asking for the right to march under our organization’s banner and with our organization’s t-shirts. Because we stayed the course, meeting with several officials, and making the front for several days in our local newspaper and some national television news, we were eventually granted permission to march. That was after our friends from Iraq Veterans Against the War rejected an offer to sit on the fire truck, sans IVAW t-shirts, but showed up and saluted all parade marchers in the median on the day of the march.

It was a moment we will never forget and that is another reason to continue to take this annual opportunity to be part of the parade, so we can point out that the wars continue.

We do not participate to glorify war but remind people that we want peace now. Also, we continue to have students pass out informational materials to youth, so they consider the truth and consequences about enlistment and war.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day and many thoughts are racing through my mind. You’d think after having a son in the military for over 20 years and he being currently deployed to the Persian Gulf  (and that’s after five previous deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan),  that I would be a little jaded right now about Veterans Day. In some ways I am. Military families are worn out from 16 years of war.

We currently have over 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, and who knows how many in Iraq/Syria today.  I’ve seen data stating between Iraq, Syria and Kuwait, we could have over 12,000 troops.  As Secretary Mattis adds even more troops to the African continent, I try to contain my thoughts that wonder what is the real threat to the U.S. from Africa? I try to contain control these thoughts because our troops are stationed in too many places right now and for way too long. I just can’t wrap my head around that right now.

Just last month, Iraq’s government was debating whether or not they should ask the US to stay- update pending on that. A civil war between Kurds and Iraq’s central government is escalating, partially due to a new law that limits who can export oil, (businesses hold a monopoly on oil and the government could stop the oil flow in northern Iraq that is under Kurdish control).

Yes, something more frightening is brewing on the horizon and we all know it. The topic of nuclear war with Korea is tossed about like a bargaining chip and it scares the hell out of all of us- no one more than military families. Not even our troops are as scared as we are. We have the benefit of the long view.  We already witnessed the tragic crumbling of any diplomatic efforts after 9-11 and suffered though unspeakable losses and destruction when President Bush concocted a war in Iraq and Afghanistan and locked us into endless war. Now any diplomatic efforts are in the hands of an even a greater war monger. Even if the president’s own appointed Secretary of State dares to tone down President Trump’s dangerous and threatening language, President Trump is quick to undercut him in a moment of rage. So we feel the déjà vu.  Military families know the stench of impending war like no one else.

Hopefully, my son will be home soon. I pray that this will be his last deployment and for that wonderful day when all of our loved ones will return home for good.  I know I am luckier than so many of my Gold Star brothers and sisters. I also know the outcome won’t be a simple welcome home and we’re all good now. After after, all we do live in the Los Angeles area, the home of the largest homeless veteran population in the nation and there’s no getting away from the nightmarish fact that 21 veterans die by suicide daily and one active duty service member every day.  It’s always on my mind, but I just want him home now.

Back to Veteran’s Day. I am pestered by my inner voice of reason that keeps asking me, “Why we celebrate Veterans Day anyway?  Why was it changed from Armistice Day in 1952- a day celebrating peace and the end of World War I?”  Everyone says it’s to honor all veterans instead of just veterans from that era and theater. I’m having serious trouble with that rationale as I begrudgingly get ready to march in our local Veterans Day Parade . There’s going to be a whole lot of glorifying of war, and kids under 12 will be twirling fake rifles like batons. And oh, yeah, funnel cake.

Next year will mark the 100^th year of Armistice Day. Let’s try to remember all of our loved ones on this day and that they are still fighting in a war that never should have happened in the first place. Let’s remember their needs are many, but we as a nation cannot give them our full attention that could help them heal until all of them are home safe and we are not creating more veterans in need of our care. So let’s take a moment tomorrow and consider how we can really help our veterans. Let’s bring them home now.

Veterans For Peace has a good article on Armistice Day at https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/armistice-day/

Pat Alviso

Military Families Speak Out-Mom