As a pacific commercial fisherman when offshore I listened to news on shortwave radio from around the world. When I would return I would ask what other people thought, they never heard of very important issues. The sins of ommission are promulgated thruout the United States and we live in the dark like mushrooms. No information is as bad as misinformation, nothing to consider and make rational sense out of. Ignorance is the problem. No wars, peace. John, a sea rancher.
I look forward to seeing this. We need these stories told. My husband, Shad Meshad, is the founder of the Vet Center Program (300 + nationwide) under President Carter, and created the first nationwide crisis line 38 years ago.. the National Veterans Foundation still going strong. He was one of the few mental health medics on the front lines of Vietnam.. and committed to helping the coming home process ever since. So glad that you are exposing the real story. His book in a new edition, Captain for Dark Mornings, is coming out and pulls back the curtain on the insanity of war. It is unlike any other.. doing this same thing - telling the story of what the media does not tell. I cannot wait to see this one!
I was a combat MP with the 199th light Inf. Division, 1968. I met your husband Shad in San Luis Obispo with the traveling Vietnam Veterans art show in the mid/late 80’s. It was very moving. I was attending Cal Poly, SLO, where I became a freshman, 1985, after I finally got my shit together after nearly 20 yrs. later. Although I got very little support from the VA (GI bill for educational benefits were only good for 10yrs after discharge) the veterans art and Shad gave me encouragement to continue regardless of the lack of support from the VA. I managed to finish. If Shad is still with us please give him my thanks and regards for his tireless commitment to the Vietnam Veterans causes. This interview was powerful and I too am looking forward to viewing this film!
I read this to Shad and he was so pleased to hear your story. Hope you are still doing well. He sure remembers the traveling art show because his foundation sponsored it and it actually ended up for a year at the Kennedy Center. You can certainly find him ourself at the foundation which is now called National Veterans Foundation as it serves vets from all wars and their families. They are a crisis line, they go out in the streets looking for veterans to help, he still does advocacy. You can tell him yourself..shad@nvf.org
I never heard of this movie before. Thank you for making me aware. I have several veterans in my family who have committed suicide. Thank you for telling their story that they were unable to.
This film sounds like a must see. We are against all war in our household and continue to be shocked by the knee jerk way in which otherwise good people jump on the war bandwagon. Once on that rickety machine, all nuance is erased, all empathy for the other side disappears......and otherwise intelligent people call for scalps not negotiations.
I've come to suspect that war is a kind of cleansing....once the shooting starts....if you aren't in the immediate line of fire.....you can convince yourself for a month or two that your chosen side is innocent and merely acting against a demon aggressor. However, I have noticed how Ukraine has mostly disappeared from western consciousness......news from the front gone mostly silent.
Once the real atrocities start pilling up........once victory isn't a quick fix.....the cheerleaders go home, get on with other interests..........and the carnage 'over there' becomes less than distant statistics.
We continue to fall for the war drums, because the war hasn't yet reached our shores. And we lose interest after the brief catharsis of national jingoism. Elsewhere, sons and lovers, dads and uncles go down, bombs keep falling, and a breadbasket is littered with landmines.
Damn all of us for our lack of heart and imagination. War is a horrific waste and good for absolutely nothing.
The only movie about war that ever moved me authentically also treated the topic of war's aftermath, in this case, nuclear war: "On the Beach". Regardless of its Hollywood cast and production, it did accurately reflect the ultimate outcome of what perpetual war can lead to in the nuclear age. We are there, once again, on the cusp of kissing ourselves goodbye as a species, impelled largely by my criminal country and its acolytes. I look forward to this film and hope that it wakes some of my fellow Americans from their stupor about endless war as a societal value.
Because a veteran asked me to sing "Universal Soldier" by Buffy St. Marie at an anti war rally I did. So glad the veterans are speaking out about the abuse of war.
I look forward to seeing this film, thanks for sharing! From my own experience, Hollywood is a far worse place run by far more terrible people than the typical American can even imagine. They do not care about US history, veterans, or service , only the almighty dollar and reinforcement of the State Department and CIA propaganda machines. I worked tirelessly to tell a true Anti-War WWII story about my grandfather's service based on their true first-hand accounts in both a book and film and I have experienced nothing but heartache and headaches to do so. The harsh realities and true actions of our Military Industrial Complex are actively subverted and suppressed however possible. I launched a Substack showing how it seems quite clear that they used real veterans stories in the film 2014 Fury but sold it as fictional tale and never cared to mention these real men's names many of whom were killed in action. Somehow this link was removed from all search engines and can only be seen via the link... http://loubaczewski.substack.com/p/was-the-2014-film-fury-storyline Lou Baczewski author of Louch, Producer and Director of Path of the Past.
Heartbreakingly beautiful. ThankYOU for a thoughtful portrayal of war. If we could only live a life where war is seen as so obscene that it’s not an option. Peace pray for Peace.
Love this formate. Reminds me of RT which was my favourite tv show. This looks like a very powerful anti-war film. As a former mental health worker who specialized in PTSD, I know too well how devastating this condition can be.
Perhaps because Hollywood serves The US Govt and the arms manufacturers. I also found the statement "The military is the only way out of poverty for many" interesting and a perspective I hadn't really considered before, although Michael Moore has touched on that in his movies.
Clearly, it suits the the ambitions of the hegemony to keep people in poverty.
Spitting "incidents" were exaggerated propaganda! Targeting anti war protest as un-patriotic. The National Guard "spit" on them with live bullets in Kent State.
As a pacific commercial fisherman when offshore I listened to news on shortwave radio from around the world. When I would return I would ask what other people thought, they never heard of very important issues. The sins of ommission are promulgated thruout the United States and we live in the dark like mushrooms. No information is as bad as misinformation, nothing to consider and make rational sense out of. Ignorance is the problem. No wars, peace. John, a sea rancher.
I look forward to seeing this. We need these stories told. My husband, Shad Meshad, is the founder of the Vet Center Program (300 + nationwide) under President Carter, and created the first nationwide crisis line 38 years ago.. the National Veterans Foundation still going strong. He was one of the few mental health medics on the front lines of Vietnam.. and committed to helping the coming home process ever since. So glad that you are exposing the real story. His book in a new edition, Captain for Dark Mornings, is coming out and pulls back the curtain on the insanity of war. It is unlike any other.. doing this same thing - telling the story of what the media does not tell. I cannot wait to see this one!
I was a combat MP with the 199th light Inf. Division, 1968. I met your husband Shad in San Luis Obispo with the traveling Vietnam Veterans art show in the mid/late 80’s. It was very moving. I was attending Cal Poly, SLO, where I became a freshman, 1985, after I finally got my shit together after nearly 20 yrs. later. Although I got very little support from the VA (GI bill for educational benefits were only good for 10yrs after discharge) the veterans art and Shad gave me encouragement to continue regardless of the lack of support from the VA. I managed to finish. If Shad is still with us please give him my thanks and regards for his tireless commitment to the Vietnam Veterans causes. This interview was powerful and I too am looking forward to viewing this film!
I read this to Shad and he was so pleased to hear your story. Hope you are still doing well. He sure remembers the traveling art show because his foundation sponsored it and it actually ended up for a year at the Kennedy Center. You can certainly find him ourself at the foundation which is now called National Veterans Foundation as it serves vets from all wars and their families. They are a crisis line, they go out in the streets looking for veterans to help, he still does advocacy. You can tell him yourself..shad@nvf.org
I never heard of this movie before. Thank you for making me aware. I have several veterans in my family who have committed suicide. Thank you for telling their story that they were unable to.
This film sounds like a must see. We are against all war in our household and continue to be shocked by the knee jerk way in which otherwise good people jump on the war bandwagon. Once on that rickety machine, all nuance is erased, all empathy for the other side disappears......and otherwise intelligent people call for scalps not negotiations.
I've come to suspect that war is a kind of cleansing....once the shooting starts....if you aren't in the immediate line of fire.....you can convince yourself for a month or two that your chosen side is innocent and merely acting against a demon aggressor. However, I have noticed how Ukraine has mostly disappeared from western consciousness......news from the front gone mostly silent.
Once the real atrocities start pilling up........once victory isn't a quick fix.....the cheerleaders go home, get on with other interests..........and the carnage 'over there' becomes less than distant statistics.
We continue to fall for the war drums, because the war hasn't yet reached our shores. And we lose interest after the brief catharsis of national jingoism. Elsewhere, sons and lovers, dads and uncles go down, bombs keep falling, and a breadbasket is littered with landmines.
Damn all of us for our lack of heart and imagination. War is a horrific waste and good for absolutely nothing.
The only movie about war that ever moved me authentically also treated the topic of war's aftermath, in this case, nuclear war: "On the Beach". Regardless of its Hollywood cast and production, it did accurately reflect the ultimate outcome of what perpetual war can lead to in the nuclear age. We are there, once again, on the cusp of kissing ourselves goodbye as a species, impelled largely by my criminal country and its acolytes. I look forward to this film and hope that it wakes some of my fellow Americans from their stupor about endless war as a societal value.
Bless you, Chris Hedges, for bringing these stories to us. I don't think I will ever hear, "Thank you for your service" in the same way ever again.
Because a veteran asked me to sing "Universal Soldier" by Buffy St. Marie at an anti war rally I did. So glad the veterans are speaking out about the abuse of war.
Poem for peace
Is there any poetry to be found in the war in Ukraine?
Will poets write poems about Ukrainian War spreading to
Europe, Asia, and North America?
Will poets write poems about the nuclear bombs destroying
Europe’s cities and Asia’s cities in WWIII?
Where is the poetry in the laundromat? Is poetry in the clean clothes
Or the sounds of the washing machines? Or the sounds of coins going
Into the machines? Or the sounds of español in the lighted space?
Is the sound of capitalism poetry or the sound of the dryer poetry? Is the sound of
bombs falling poetry or is the sound of matrching boots poetry or is a child
crying poetry? Is the sound of the usa deafening?
Is a nuclear bomb poetry in motion or poetry that sits there? Is the world a
finished poem or a poem in progress? Is the poem half filled or half empty?
Is the poem for peace or not?
---Daniel S. Weinberg.2022.
Sergei Skald, the neonazi poetry bard of Ukraine, is dead and the world is saved from.his jolly ditties of rape and the glories of the SS.
I look forward to seeing this film, thanks for sharing! From my own experience, Hollywood is a far worse place run by far more terrible people than the typical American can even imagine. They do not care about US history, veterans, or service , only the almighty dollar and reinforcement of the State Department and CIA propaganda machines. I worked tirelessly to tell a true Anti-War WWII story about my grandfather's service based on their true first-hand accounts in both a book and film and I have experienced nothing but heartache and headaches to do so. The harsh realities and true actions of our Military Industrial Complex are actively subverted and suppressed however possible. I launched a Substack showing how it seems quite clear that they used real veterans stories in the film 2014 Fury but sold it as fictional tale and never cared to mention these real men's names many of whom were killed in action. Somehow this link was removed from all search engines and can only be seen via the link... http://loubaczewski.substack.com/p/was-the-2014-film-fury-storyline Lou Baczewski author of Louch, Producer and Director of Path of the Past.
Heartbreakingly beautiful. ThankYOU for a thoughtful portrayal of war. If we could only live a life where war is seen as so obscene that it’s not an option. Peace pray for Peace.
Love this formate. Reminds me of RT which was my favourite tv show. This looks like a very powerful anti-war film. As a former mental health worker who specialized in PTSD, I know too well how devastating this condition can be.
Now, *why* does Hollywood insist on peddling war myths?
Perhaps because Hollywood serves The US Govt and the arms manufacturers. I also found the statement "The military is the only way out of poverty for many" interesting and a perspective I hadn't really considered before, although Michael Moore has touched on that in his movies.
Clearly, it suits the the ambitions of the hegemony to keep people in poverty.
Spitting "incidents" were exaggerated propaganda! Targeting anti war protest as un-patriotic. The National Guard "spit" on them with live bullets in Kent State.