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Chicago Memorial Day 2007

By Ken Nielsen

On an uncharacteristically beautiful day this May in Chicago the recently formed local chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (with a little help from visiting members) took over the traditional VVAW Memorial Day ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and left an indelible impression on an eager and fired up crowd. MC'ing and organizing speakers for the event, IVAW Midwest and Chicago chapter coordinator Aaron Hughes led the crowd through engaging and emotional presentations of numerous Iraq war veterans.

Vince Emanuelle on Memorial Day, Chicago

Fresh off a bus from New York City where these IVAW members had just participated in bringing the war home in the form of street theater with Operation First Casualty II, the tired and hoarse young veterans picked up the torch from VVAW and proceeded to light up the day. The first speaker, Martin Smith, who served in the Marine Corps from 1997 to 2002, connected the commonalities of the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Speaking about the innocence lost, imperial overreach and how the government failed and is failing the people, Martin brought it all back to the healing power of resistance, of working against the forces that don't represent the people. Now a student at University of Illinois at Champaign, Martin is a co-coordinator in the Midwest for IVAW. With the help and guidance of VVAW member Joe Miller Martin is in the process of putting together a second IVAW chapter downstate in Illinois.

A very recent IVAW member, Vince Emanuele who served in the Marine Corps in Iraq during 2004 and 2005 gave an extremely emotional account of his experience in Iraq. Four and a half years in the Marines did nothing to prepare him for dealing with the consequences of killing. Vince described his feelings after killing an Iraqi man and then having a close friend killed, "I found out real quick what killing and the tragedies of war were like, all within a 72 hour period of time."Summing up his feelings of his participation in the Iraq War, Vince said, "There are a million ways to describe war: unneeded, useless, tragic, horrific. I would also say missing and sad. Missing is a piece of me that I will never, ever get back. Sad is the state of affairs in the world in which we live today. That piece of me and that empty sadness that fills my heart is and forever will be in Iraq and in my memory for eternity."

From Pittsburgh, IVAW member Paul Abernathy served in the Army Reserves. Paul's time in Iraq was 2003-2004. With an exceptional oratory presence Paul engaged the crowd by correcting the popular hawkish justification behind ending the war in Iraq. "Have these dead died in vain? It's a question that every generation experiencing war must no doubt ask themselves. Sadly today it is a conversation that has become deluded by those who would have us use their losses to justify illegal and immoral government policies that are forced on our brothers and sisters thousands of miles away from us."

2007 saw the passing of many influential and loved people who dedicated themselves to peace and education. Kurt Vonnegut was one of those people. He did it in his own sarcastic and sometimes bitter way, but he reached a lot of people and was admired greatly. We were fortunate to have editor Joel Bleifuss from In These Times (a magazine that Vonnegut often wrote for over the past 10 years) read from some of Vonnegut's articles from the magazine. A prisoner of war during World War II and in Dresden during the Allied bombing of that city, Vonnegut was charged as a prisoner to clean up burnt German corpses. He knew first hand the destruction and terror of war. From one of Vonnegut's articles Joel read, "In all our wars have soldiers never been so mistreated by the Commander in Chief... so heartlessly."

The ceremony's last speaker, VVAW's Barry Romo, tied together the line from VVAW to IVAW. He recalled that veterans returning from Vietnam had to look hard for other veterans and he was able to find them in some of the veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of 1936. Nearly 35 years after their service during the Spanish Civil War these veterans showed returning younger vets who fought in Vietnam like Barry that one could engage in political activity and not lose hope for something better; that it is possible to struggle against injustice and not become cynical. These are some of the things that Barry hopes that IVAW takes from their older brothers and sisters. Romo then turned on the crowd with a pointed impassioned appeal, "Things don't change because that's what should happen. Things don't change because we pray. They change because we do something."

As tradition dictates for Memorial Day in Chicago, we ended the ceremony with a moment of silence to remember those who have sacrificed their lives willingly and unwillingly. We all then dropped flowers into the Chicago river and left the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial charged and thoughtful from an amazing group of speakers.

IVAW members honor the fallen on Memorial Day, Chicago

Aaron Hughes emcees on Memorial Day, Chicago