Camilo Mejia speaks at U.T. Austin Thursday, Oct. 16
| October 16, 2008 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
Thursday October 16, 7:00 PM University of Texas at Austin,
Garrison 0.102
CAMILO MEJÍA
Iraq War Veteran and Author of Road from Ar Ramadi: An Iraq War
Memoir
Camilo Mejía grew up in Nicaragua and Costa Rica before moving
to the United States in 1994. He joined the military at the age
of nineteen, serving as an infantryman in the active-duty army
for three years before transferring to the Florida National
Guard.
After fighting in Iraq for five months, Mejía became the first
known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight the war in Iraq, citing
moral concerns about the war and occupation. He was eventually
convicted of desertion by a military court and sentenced to a
year in prison.
Mejía currently serves as the chair of the board of Iraq
Veterans Against the War, and is the author of Road from ar
Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia: An Iraq
War Memoir (new edition, Haymarket Books 2008).
In Road from ar Ramadi, Mejía tells his own story, from his
upbringing in Central America and his experience as a
working-class immigrant in the United States to his service in
Iraq – where he witnessed prisoner abuse and was deployed in the
Sunni triangle – and time in prison. In this stirring book, he
argues passionately for human rights and the end to an unjust
war.
“The truth as I see it now is that in a war, the bad is often
measured against what’s worse, and that, in turn, makes a lot of
deplorable things seem permissible. When that happens, the
imaginary line between right and wrong starts to vanish in a
heavy fog, until it disappears completely and decisions are
weighed on a scale of values that is profoundly corrupt.”
–Camilo Mejía, Road from ar Ramadi
PRAISE FOR ROAD FROM AR RAMADI:
“This is the extraordinary journey — geographical, intellectual,
moral — of a U.S. soldier, from the front lines of Iraq to a
military prison. Camilo Mejía, the first Iraq veteran to
refuse to return to Iraq, gives us a close look at the day-to-day
brutality of the war. We learn what happens when a young man
decides to challenge the entire military establishment in order
to follow his conscience. It is an inspiring memoir.” –Howard
Zinn
“A very moving, beautifully written book.” –Amy Goodman
Camilo Mejía is speaking around the country as part of
Haymarket Books’ Resisting Empire authors tour. UT event is
co-sponsored by Campus Antiwar Movement to End the Occupation,
International Socialist Organization, Palestine Solidarity
Committee, Iranians for Peace, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o
de Aztlan, and Campus Progress. Special thanks to Iraq Veterans
Against the War and CodePink-Austin. More info:
camiloinaustin@ yahoo.com or http://resistingemp ire.org
Tags: Austin, Camilo Mejia, Iraq war, October 16
