The Peace Panel Project joined members of Code Pink, the Peace Center of Nevada County, Sacramento Area Peace Action, the GI Coffee House Tour, Veterans For Peace, Earth Justice Ministries, (Ret.) Col. Ann Wright and others to occupy the intersection just west of the Wheatland gate of Beale AFB this last Tuesday. People on all four corners holding signs, singing songs, smiling and talking. There was one veteran with a blow horn who kept walking up and down the road imploring the GIs as they left the base, "STAND DOWN", "Don't come back!" "Refuse your orders!" over and over. There was a singer with amplified sound and friends belting out one peace activist song after another. Someone had made many crosses about 36" x 18" of white lath that had a laminated photo of a drawing of a child drone victim with their name and age. There was a Drone Information Booth. We offered the soldiers leaving the Base some food for thought from about 3 pm to 5:30 pm when the traffic thinned out.
We then adjourned that meeting to reassemble at the North Gate campgrounds for a great pot luck dinner and a few words from the VFP National VP, Ann Wright, Mika of the GI Coffee House Tour from Texas, and an activist from Germany. We were encouraged to keep up our monthly presence at the Base, meet members of the military, listen to their stories, offer the GI Rights Hot Line service, be pro GI, and anti war. We ended the evening singing in a circle, with a rousing rendition of "This Land is Your Land" and "We Shall Not be Moved". It was an inspirational experience, not soon forgotten.
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