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Saturday, March 6, 2010, 12:30 pm - 8 pm

By Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / February 10, 2010

Sgt. Travis Bishop has learned that the 12-month sentence he is serving at Fort Lewis will be reduced by three months. Sgt. Bishop was sentenced at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas, in August 2009 for refusing orders to deploy to Afghanistan.

Sgt. Bishop, a Kentucky native and country singer, enlisted in 2004. He was deployed to Korea and then to Iraq. He had served five years of active duty when he refused orders based on religious reasons.

One of the people testifying against Bishop at his court martial was the chaplain he had hoped would listen to his concerns. Instead, Lt. Col. Ronald Leininger had reduced the amount of time scheduled for their original interview and then repeatedly took phone calls during the session. In his official statement, the chaplain said that people with Bishop’s religious heritage were “generally pro-military service with no pacifist tendencies in doctrine or practice.”

Lt. General Robert Cone, commanding general of Fort Hood approved the sentence reduction on February 4, after considering Sgt. Bishop’s clemency application. The clemency request included a legal brief alleging problems in the processing of Bishop’s conscientious objector claim, problems with the trial proceedings, and mistreatment at Fort Lewis where Sgt. Bishop has been detained.

In large part, the reduction in sentence is due to the dogged perseverance of GI rights attorney James Branum, and the public pressure that was brought to bear. Sgt. Bishop’s clemency request included 433 letters (signed by a total of 538 people from 21 different countries). Many came from pastors who disagreed with the military chaplain’s view on their churchs’ support for conscientious objection.

Through his attorney, Sgt. Bishop relayed his thanks to all his supporters. He said he had no regrets and urged others who are feeling moral conflicts with war to follow their conscience, but not to wait as long as he did to get help.

Attorney James Branum released the news of Sgt. Bishop’s early release and ackowledged many supporters, including the GI coffeehouses, Under the Hood in Killeen and Coffee Strong near Fort Lewis in Washington, Amnesty International’s London office and Courage to Resist. Sgt. Bishop’s release is expected to be no later than March 31, based on the amount of good behavior credit he has earned.

Supporters of Sgt. Bishop can find instructions on writing him at www.couragetoresist.org.

http://instrumentsforpeace.org/calendar/

Million Musicians March for Peace, Liberty, Justice, and Truth

Saturday, March 20, 2010, Noon - 4 pm, Austin, TX

Noon-2, Texas State Capitol: Musical Rally On The Grounds;  2-2:30, March and Play Through Downtown Austin;  2:30-4:00, City Hall: Musical Rally for Citizen Action

Marching Band Charts available here.

San Marcos, 02/10/10

http://star.txstate.edu/content/rally-promotes-antiwar-movement

Rally promotes antiwar movement

Feb 11 2010 - 1:22 am | Allen Reed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kWU-JHetMM&feature=related

Added to
Quicklist4:40

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=38454

Jan. 16, 2010

By Rebecca LaFlure
Killeen Daily Herald

Despite chilly wind and rain, anti-war protesters huddled outside Fort Hood’s East Gate for six hours Friday calling for increased mental health resources for soldiers and veterans.

The demonstrators, toting signs and the occasional umbrella, said the military overmedicates its service members and does not provide adequate counseling for those returning home from multiple deployments.

Standing in front of a black banner that read, “Sick of fighting your wars,” Cynthia Thomas, manger of Under the Hood Café in Killeen, said she worries the Afghan surge will increase mental health issues in the military.

“We’re sending soldiers to war and not taking care of them when they get back,” she said. “It’s going to be another batch coming back with that many more traumas, both physically and mentally.”

The protest began with a faithful dozen Friday morning and gradually increased to 30 people by the end of the afternoon.

Mike Prysner, 26, a former soldier who participated in the demonstration, traveled from Los Angeles to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and advocate for soldier rights. Prysner said he had trouble obtaining mental health treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder upon his return from Iraq.

“It was a fight to get someone to see me,” he said. “When they finally did, they just wrote me a prescription and sent me on my way.”

Spc. Eric Jasinski, a Fort Hood soldier who also attended Friday’s event, turned himself in to Army officials last month after going absent without leave for a year.

The 23-year-old, who was diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression after he returned from Iraq, said he went AWOL at the end of 2008 after he was stop-lossed and ordered to return to Iraq. “I knew I couldn’t go back again,” he said. “We need to get a better understanding of PTSD. … I want the stigma to go away.”

The protesters hoped the demonstration would encourage more soldiers and their family members to speak out.

“We’ve gotten middle fingers and peace signs,” said Josh, a former Marine. “It’s been a good day.”

Contact Rebecca LaFlure at rlaflure@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7548. Follow her on Twitter at KDHeducation

Friday, January 15, 2010, 8:30 am - 6:00 pm

East Gate of Fort Hood, corner of fort hood st and veterans ave

We, the Soldiers and dependents of the military community are literally sick of fighting the wars of the past decade. Soldiers enter the Army ready and willing to fight for this country and come back plagued with nightmares, physical symptoms, PTSD, and TBI among other injuries. Instead of receiving adequate care from counselors and physicians, often Soldiers are over prescribed medications that conflict with each other and further debilitate rather than heal. Army counselors are over worked and not able to give the necessary treatment and the progressive treatment of the soldier reset clinic has yet to be branched out base wide despite the popularity and proven efficacy. Families of Soldiers are left emotionally separated by this maltreatment where oceans previously separated. Our Soldiers and families deserve better mental health and physical treatment beyond palliative care, but rather care that is progressive so that the we indeed can become “all that we can be” rather than the broken community that we currently are; plagued by suicides, alcoholism, domestic and child abuse, and joblessness following leaving the Army. COME STAND AT THE EAST GATE , CORNER OF RANCIER & FORT HOOD STREET, TO LET THE REST OF AMERICA KNOW THAT OUR SOLDIERS DESERVE BETTER TREATMENT!
0830-1800 COME AS YOU CAN
HOSTED BY UNDER THE HOOD CAFE

http://www.underthehoodcafe.org/

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