Anonymous Comrade: writes

"Memorial Observance 2005"

New York City, May 29, 2005

New York City -- Veterans and military family members will conduct
a memorial observance on Sunday May 29th beginning at 1:00 PM at
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at 55 Water Street, at the end of
the FDR Drive, in lower Manhattan.

The program will start with an invocation by Joe Cross of the
Caddo Nation. Speakers include military family members Dante
Zappala and Debbie Anderson, and veterans David Cline, Alex
Ryabov, Greg Payton, and Ricky Singh. After laying a wreath at the
memorial, Iraq veterans and Gold Star family members will lead a
solemn and silent procession to the water's edge in Battery Park.
There participants are invited to cast flowers into the harbor in
memory of the dead, and to speak briefly about the nature and
meaning of their losses. The program will end with a rendition of
Taps.

"This year again we see our soldiers fighting, killing, and dying
every day in Afghanistan and Iraq," observes David Cline. "We
ended the second world war sixty years ago. Now we have a third
world war, this time a campaign for global military domination by
our own government. We ended the American war in Vietnam thirty
years ago. Now we have once again sent our young men and women
into a brutal and pointless occupation of once sovereign nations,
which posed no military threat to the United States.""And in Iraq," adds Alex Ryabov, "we are the reason for the chaos
- we are the problem, not the solution. The sooner we leave, the
better - the fewer of our sisters and brothers get maimed or
killed, the quicker the Iraqis themselves start taking charge of
their own destinies."

Dante Zappala looks to the future. "My mother says the explosion
which killed her son in Baghdad will go on in our family's lives
forever," he relates. "And we all share the responsibility of what
has been destroyed in our name. We must remind ourselves that the
war with Iraq was not a mistake but rather a flagrant abuse of
power by our leaders - and a case of shameful negligence by the
rest of us for letting it happen. The consequence is more than a
quagmire. The consequence is the death of our national treasure -
our soldiers. We can begin to right the wrongs we have done to our
country by accepting that responsibility."

The memorial observance is sponsored by Veterans For Peace,
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade, Black Veterans For Social Justice, Iraq Veterans Against
the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Gold Star Families For
Peace.

For more information call 201-876-0430 or 212-726-0557.

Speakers:

Debbie Anderson is a member of Military Families Speak Out. Her
husband is serving in Iraq.

David Cline served in the Army in Vietnam where he was awarded two
Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with "V". He is the National
President of Veterans For Peace.

Joe Cross served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. He and his wife
Donna Couteau Brooks frequently perform traditional native
American narratives.

Greg Payton served in the Army in Vietnam. He is a long-time
member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and active in the War
Resisters League.

Alex Ryabov served in the Marine Corps in Iraq. He is a founding
member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Ricky Singh directs the Homeless Veterans Re-Integration Program
for Black Veterans For Social Justice in Brooklyn.

Dante Zappala's (Gold Star Families For Peace.) brother Sergeant Sherwood Baker was killed in Baghdad April 26, 2004, while serving with the Pennsylvania National Guard. Sergeant Baker left a wife and a 9-year old son.

[Contact Peter Bronson at 917-453-3666.]