Taking a stand in Far West Texas for Impeachment

By Eve Trook and Paul Schaefer

In July Big Bend Veterans for Peace, Chapter 151, initiated a weekly HONK TO IMPEACH action in Alpine, Texas, population 6,000. This fall we expanded the action to include twice a month demonstrations in another small town, Marfa, Texas, population 2,200, 26 miles west of Alpine.

We are a small chapter, 11 of us, chartered in August of 2007, covering three large counties in a remote rural area on the Texas-Mexico border. In a region dominated by cultural conservatism and living in small towns where it seems like everyone knows each other, we’ve had to struggle with our fears about losing friends and jobs if we speak out publicly.

There has been some polarization and there have been moments of confrontation but our peace community has grown. Big Bend citizens, including other veterans, have come to stand with us and hold banners, marveling that there are others who share their beliefs. Tourists from the East and West Coasts have stopped and expressed their surprise and delight at finding that an isolated spot has engaged with issues of impeachment and peace.

Previously isolated people now work with us to make papercrete tombstones, paint them, and help clear catclaw from two rangeland acres for our regional Arlington memorial. They are helping us surround the memorial with an electric fence so that range cattle will not deface the tombstones.

The local public radio station and the local newspapers have interviewed us about HONK TO IMPEACH and Arlington Southwest. None of us expected the local papers to even mention our activities; the reality is that HONK TO IMPEACH made the Alpine front page in full color photo plus text. By our counts, using clickers, 27-37% support impeachment. Less than 1% have indicated overt opposition.

Big Bend VFP believes it has locally pushed back some of the national attempts at fear and intimidation against the peace movement but realizes that local peace efforts must also be connected with regional and national, even international, work.

· Chapter members Eve Trook, John Tuck, and Paul Schaefer participated in Camp Casey, Easter 2006.

· Member Jim Goodnow, Terlingua, has been on the road for almost two years with his Yellow Rose Peace Bus (www.yellowrosepeacebus.com), taking IVAW members to East Coast bases, providing transport to marches and demonstrations across the country and creating a highly visible symbol of protest.

· Paul Schaefer, a member of the core crew of Cindy Sheehan’s Journey for Humanity and Accountability, July 10-29, from Crawford to New York City, was arrested in John Conyers’ office with 45 others after Conyers refused to initiate impeachment.

Big Bend Veterans for Peace invite you to join us in dedicating Arlington Southwest (4 miles east of Alpine, Texas, on U.S. Hwy 90), November 11, 2007, Veterans’ Day.

Alpine is 55 miles south of I-10 and 100 miles north of Big Bend National Park. November can be one of the best months for visiting and camping. For information, call Big Bend Veterans for Peace at 432-837-7150 or email pcschaefer@yahoo.com

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"Arlington Southwest" planned by Big Bend Veterans for Peace

Publish Date: October 1, 2007 Permanent Link (click on permanent link for photos as well as text)

A memorial to Texas troops killed in Iraq – 367 tombstones (the number of Texas military persons killed in Iraq was 349 in mid- September) to be installed four miles east of Alpine on private ranchland fronting Highway 90 – is being planned by the Big Bend chapter of the national organization Veterans for Peace.

Named after Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, the installation, to be known as Arlington Southwest, will resemble a military cemetery and will be formally dedicated on Veterans Day, November 11. Additional tombstones will be added if Texas men and women die in the Iraq war.

Veterans’ groups in other regions have erected similar tributes in Santa Monica, California (Arlington West); Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts (Arlington East); Seattle, Washington (Arlington Northwest); Duluth, Minnesota (Arlington North); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Arlington North at the Liberty Bell); and Miami, Florida (Arlington Miami).
The purpose of the Arlington Memorials is, according to the national Veterans for Peace organization, “to make the consequences of war real, and to allow people to express their grief, respect and thoughts.”

Brian Kokernot, the Arlington Southwest site landowner, added his hope that “this type of memorial would enhance the possibility of peace for all our children and grandchildren.”
The several Arlingtons are primarily in honor of fallen U.S. service members, the VFP said, but they are also intended, in accordance with the group’s mission, “to increase the public awareness of the cost of war and to seek justice for veterans and victims of war.”

Shoes, photographs, and other appropriate images and symbols accompany the Arlington memorials in remembrance of the Iraqi and other civilian deaths. Artist Tom Curry, Vietnam veteran, and Alpine architect Mark Battista are co-designers of the memorial and the white-painted papercrete tombstones. The two-acre artwork, they said, “honors our fallen Texas soldiers.”

Joe Goldman, a Korean War veteran and another member of the local VFP group, stressed that Arlington Southwest is not a partisan effort, and that it is meant to save the lives of our troops by creating for the civilian public a graphic image of the real cost of the Iraq occupation.
Clarence Russeau, a Gulf War veteran, said he sees the memorial as a way of supporting U.S. troops without supporting administration foreign policy.

Paul Schaefer, a Vietnam veteran, noted that “The war in Iraq was declared an illegal act by the United Nations’ president. Support of our troops requires bringing them home safely from their illegal assignment.”

On Wednesday, Sept. 19, dedicated members of Veterans for Peace gathered in northwest Alpine, at Alan King’s, to work on preparing papercrete tombstones for the installation planned for a site 4 miles east of Alpine along Highway 90, on a ranch owned by Brian Kokernot. While work parties to prepare the tombstones continue, weather permitting, the next steps towards creating the memorial include weed-eating, measuring and marking tombstone placement, and installing an electric fence, “so cows won’t eat our tombstones,” said Eve Trook.