I submitted the following\u00a0 in response to an article in Friends Journal (February, 2010) asking how can we support the troops without also supporting the war. <\/p>\n
I have often struggled with how I can support the troops without supporting the war. Soldiers deployed on the ground, whatever side, are the victims of war. I have found that when \u201cSupport the Troops\u201d rallies have been described as non-partisan, that ends up not being the case. Here are some very simple options to consider.<\/p>\n
Veterans\u2019 Day tends to be awkward for Quakers Why? Instead of avoiding those older gentlemen in military hats that we see selling red poppies, I buy a poppy for a dollar and say something to the effect that \u201cI\u2019m a Quaker and oppose all wars, but I have a real concern for those who are victims of war, veterans and civilians alike. War is a great tragedy.\u201d Additionally, by wearing my red paper poppy, this can generate some comment or surprise that a Quaker pacifist would wear this emblem. I reply \u201cWhy so?\u201d<\/p>\n
Wear a button daily that says \u201cSupport the Troops. Bring Them Home Now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wear an American flag pin AND a second flag pin. The U.S. flag has become a symbol both of supporting the troops and supporting the war, without distinction. During the Persian Gulf War I sometimes wore a U.S. flag and a second flag (flag pins are available from the U.N.). When people asked about the second flag, I explained that it was the Iraq flag and that I wore it because I supported ALL the troops in the war and hoped for the speedy safe return of ALL of them.<\/p>\n
Make a donation to a disabled veteran\u2019s cause, making very clear in your letter both your support of veterans and your refusal to support war. In my case, I made a donation to the Disabled American Veterans organization, which describes itself as non-partisan. I included a letter with my donation, explaining both my support for veterans and my opposition to war, and noted that this particular contribution was the redirection of war tax money that I had publically refused to pay the U.S. government (as a pacifist tax resister). I explained that I believed my donation was a better use for my money at this time, and that I was also working to prevent such tragedies in the future.<\/p>\n
You can well imagine that doing any of these simple things can lead to some interesting discussion and other developments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I submitted the following\u00a0 in response to an article in Friends Journal (February, 2010) asking how can we support the troops without also supporting the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-peace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}