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VVAW West Coast Tour and Building Coalitions

By Steve Crandall

The CA Central Coast Chapter was formed in May of 2007. I was such a novice at forming any type of veteran's group and I needed help. Marty Webster was one of the first to give me direction and support. Marty and I discussed a name for the Chapter. My first thought was to call it the Ventura County Chapter and Marty asked if I was to reach out for members what would be the furthest distance I could expect members to join and participate in our events. I hate driving into LA so my thoughts took me north to San Luis Obispo. His next question was what would you call the area from Camarillo to San Luis Obispo and my response was the CA Central Coast. Marty got us a banner and we were on our way.

Jan A. Ruhman

Since the beginning I have made several VVAW friends via email and phone conversations but I never had the opportunity to personally meet any of them. So when I heard we might be hosting a VVAW West Coast Tour I felt like a kid waiting for Santa Claus to show up. Okay, several Santa Claus' all with grey beards but without the red and white suits. Those Santa's included George Johnson, Marty Webster, Barry Romo, Jan Ruhman and Willie Hager. They were later joined by Mickey Krakowski from Colorado.

We invited leading members of like minded veteran's groups to participate. We had members of the Evan Ashcraft Memorial Foundation, Veterans For Peace, Brokenrope Foundation and Veterans United for Truth. These members were also associate members of other groups such as Gold Star Mothers, VFW and DAV. We were looking for a good cross section of the liberal thinkers and I believe we achieved it.

We had a light dinner and chatted before Marty Webster opened the meeting by sharing aspects of a prior event at the University of Cincinnati where he showed the DVD, Sir! No Sir! Marty said a recruiter was identified as one of the attendees at the showing. The recruiter was allowed to speak and talked about how great the military is but by the end of the evening was despondent and was brought to tears after listening to others describe how smells, sounds and realities of war impacted their lives. The reason Marty told this story was to show how some of the most avid pro-military people can come to an understanding as to how lives can be ruined due to the impact of war. A seed of conscience was planted and the audience bonded together.

Marty went on to talk about the VVAW slogan, "Honor the Warrior Not the War," which was coined in 1985. Marty stated that the slogan represents all warriors including the recruiter. Which brings us to one of the reasons of this gathering, how can we create a larger tent and include those that sometimes disagree with our view points about the war in Iraq. Another purpose of this gathering was to discover what is working and what is not working in regards to the continuing effort to help veterans returning from war.

Barry Romo and Marty Webster

Barry Romo took the floor next. Barry talked about how helpful an organization can be to getting a story told. To give an example he told the story of Rosa Parks and that she was actually the third person to refuse her seat on a bus but what put her in the media spotlight was that she was a member of and supported by several civil rights organizations. Barry talked about VVAW's history and how as an organization it fought to get PTSD recognized as a casualty of war. He also talked about the need to find ways to expand our efforts on topics like Agent Orange, Depleted Uranium, sexual assaults on women in the military and funding the VA.

After Barry finished we went around the room and everyone shared a story. Most of the stories led to more questions and discussions like the war in Afghanistan and whether or not it could be won. How can we work most effectively with other veteran's groups?

Consider building coalitions with other organizations; consider forming writer's groups; sharing ideas and post events on other organizations web sites; educating our youth about peace and the military so they can make informed decisions. We discussed creating talking circles and raising public awareness to the plight of veterans. Everyone in the country is affected by someone in the military and yet we do not fully fund veteran's health care.

We all agreed that we need a stronger voice for veteran's needs and the way to achieve that is to build a veteran's coalition. We would start by reaching out on a local level to groups that might not share our own views about the war in Iraq or educating our youth about war. If we could all leave our "political hats" at the door maybe we could work together for the common good of veterans. The CA Central Coast Chapter has already started to do so by contacting the local VFW to find out if they would be willing to join us on a common cause for veterans. To our surprise they agreed to do so. In discussions with Veterans United for Truth, VFP and Brokenrope Foundation we decided to create a tri-county veteran's coalition. The thought is that members of each group will reach out to other groups. The Evan Ashcraft Foundation is contacting MFSO. The CA Central Coast Chapter will also reach out to the local AL Post and the Brokenrope Foundation will be talking to the local DAV.

The CA Central Coast Chapter will not give up our efforts to educate the public and children about the devastating effects of war. But we agreed we could table those efforts while we work with other groups on common veteran's issues. All other groups on both sides would be expected to do the same. We just need to stay focused that this is all about the veterans and improving the lives of those serving in the military.

Steve Crandall is the president of the California Central Coast Chapter of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.