***** Dear Military Families:
Many of you have written, asking for MFSO to take action in response to the ongoing deployment of our troops in Iraq, the horrible conditions that our troops are facing, the lies that were used to justify the invasion and George Bush's outrageous taunt to those shooting at our family members -- "Bring em On!"
We wanted to let you know that, in conjunction with Veterans for Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and others, we are about to launch a new campaign to "Bring Them Home Now!!!" We will have a campaign website up in the very near future and will be doing active outreach around the country.
While there will be organized activities, both nationally and locally, as part of this campaign there are several things that we all can do starting right now:
o Write letters to your politicians demanding that our troops be brought home
o Organize meetings with U.S. Representatives and Senators while they are in their districts during the summer break.
o Attend public events where Members of Congress and other politicians will be appearing (particularly those who voted for the October Resolution giving the President the right to go to war and who have not actively called for our troops to be brought home now). Be visible and speak out at these forums. Use your special voice as Military Families to demand action. Carry signs and posters with pictures of your loved ones in the military.
o Seek opportunities to speak to the media and get our message out as broadly as possible.
o Write letters to the editor of your local papers, talking about conditions faced by our troops in Iraq and calling for the troops to be brought home now.
o Organize and participate in public demonstrations and standouts in front of federal buildings, congressional offices, etc. demanding the return of our troops.
o Talk to other military families. Encourage them to get in touch with us, join MFSO and tell us their stories.
Please send us reports on your activities and copies of any letters to the editor, letters to Members of Congress, newspaper articles etc. We would like to put this information on our website.
We will be back in touch as soon as the new website is up and active. In the meantime, if you have ideas to add to the list above, please send them in to mfso at mfso.org and we will share them around.
In Peace and Solidarity, Nancy Lessin, Jeffrey McKenzie and Charley Richardson, for Military Families Speak Out ***** -- Yoshie
* Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>