Thursday, May 9, 2013

Memorial Day for Peace

Memorial Day for Peace
May 27, 2013, 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Christopher Columbus Park
105 Atlantic Ave.
Boston, Massachusetts

Please join us!



Please join Veterans For Peace, Smedley D. Butler Brigade, Chapter 9, and Samantha Smith, Chapter 45, Military Families Speak Out, Mass Peace Action and United for Justice with Peace as we commemorate Memorial Day on Monday May 27, 2013.  See the Facebook Event page at this link.

There will be no parade, no marching band, no military equipment, no guns and drums, no Air Force fly-overs.

There will be veterans and supporters who have lost friends and loved ones. There will be veterans who know the horrors of war and the pain and anguish of loss. There will be friends and families of soldiers, remembering their loved ones. There will be Iraqi Refugees who have suffered terrible losses and will join us as we remember and show respect for their loss.

There will be flowers dropped into the harbor for each fallen U.S. soldier from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Flowers will also be also be dropped into the harbor remembering the loss of Iraqi family and friends.


Program for the Event, Memorial Day for Peace 2013

  • Brian Quirk, Merrimack Valley People for Peace - bagpipes
  • Rev. Lara Hoke, UU Congregation in Andover, Secretary of the Smedley Butler Brigade of VFP - Opening
  • Pat Scanlon, Coordinator of Smedley Butler Brigade of VFP - Welcome
  • Bonnie Gorman/Nancy Lessin, Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families - In Memory of Charley Richardson
  • Christopher Sheen, Iraq vet - "What Memorial Day Means to Me"
  • David Rothauser - Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • Kazue Campbell - Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor
  • Sev Bruyn, WWII vet and Prof. Emeritus, Boston College - "Dangers of Another Nuclear Catastrophe"
  • Pat Scanlon, Vietnam vet - sings "Pop, There Goes Boston"
  • Cole Harrison, Mass Peace Action - "America after Hegemony"
  • Webb Nichols, Vietnam vet - "Common Thoughts on Our Common Humanity"
  • Allaa Alkhuthairy, Iraqi refugee - "Effects of War in Syria on Iraq"
  • Raya Shandi, Iraqi refugee and Lowell High School Student - Poem "I Am"
  • Brian Quirk - bagpipes
  • Flower Ceremony
  • Rev. Ralph Galen, Community Church of Lawrence - closing
  • Jessie Perrier, Exec. Comm. of Smedley Butler Brigade of VFP - taps