This blog, like my book, doesn’t tend to dwell on the brave folk who completely avoided military jurisdiction — the thousands in CPS camps during World War Two, the literal millions who spent the Vietnam era in alternative-service jobs. All of whom are important and honored, but to include their stories would swamp an already-capaciousContinue reading “John Lewis was a conscientious objector to war. Did you know that?”
Category Archives: journalism
Soldier-dissent in real time
!– wp:code –> I started this week staring at the #WallofVets. The video above bears re-watching: for its diversity of ages, for the military branches represented, for the solidarity among the protesters, the “walls” of mothers, dads and veterans converged to face federal agents sent to suppress their node of the George Floyd uprising. TheContinue reading “Soldier-dissent in real time”
Are lefty milpods the next whistleblowers, or “fortresses on a hill?”
(Photo, via Library of Congress; Some is of the “newsies,” the children peddling newspapers around city streets, when people still paid some money for words on paper.) Maybe both. As I write this I’m listening to Eyes Left, which explicitly IDs as a “Socialist Military Podcast.” Last night, I was catching up with Lions Led byContinue reading “Are lefty milpods the next whistleblowers, or “fortresses on a hill?””
Monday morning Winner whispers: a looooong road to #Justice4Reality?
I’ve spent the week waiting for a ruling on the Miranda issue raised in that February hearing, but Reality Winner’s counsel has not been. On Good Friday, the same day all counsel met for a status conference call, the defense gave notice that they intend to subpoena basically everyone with jurisdiction over U.S. cybersecurity orContinue reading “Monday morning Winner whispers: a looooong road to #Justice4Reality?”
One last #Justice4Reality post: Word is out
If I thought I was breaking a story by going to Georgia last week, I was mistaken. More and more are learning about this young veteran, and supporting Stand with Reality. You should check out that page and bookmark it, especially during this lag time between last week and Winner’s trial. There’s also an active FacebookContinue reading “One last #Justice4Reality post: Word is out”
Well, that felt like an episode of Law and Order. But #Justice4Reality?
In the courtroom, we all listened to bits of the audio of that day in June, and I could feel the tightness in her voice. She wasn’t about to show these strange men what she was thinking and feeling, really.
Notes from the road: my inner Smedley Butler
This morning, I get to pretend I’m 1/3 my age, when I didn’t think much of getting up early to ride halfway across the world for a good cause. (Above: 18-year-old me in Washington, D.C., at the 1981 Women’s Pentagon Action. I’d traveled there from Binghamton, New York.) In this case, I’m catching a rideContinue reading “Notes from the road: my inner Smedley Butler”
reality winner and the politics of grief
Veteran and Whistleblower. That’s Winner in the spring of 2017, when she came across evidence (since publicly confirmed) that the Russian government had successfully hacked into some U.S. voter registration lists. She was spending her days, as an intelligence contractor, facilitating drone strikes in the Middle East, which under Trump have escalated the number of civilian casualties.
The day I finally met Chelsea Manning
Updated to add this link, in which Chelsea Manning spoke more clearly about her case than she felt able to do at Penn. (Forgive the deadname in Atlantic’s title; it was before she came out to the world as the assured young woman you see above. The photo above was taken on November 29, 2017,Continue reading “The day I finally met Chelsea Manning”
Groundhog Day for women in the military?
When anyone asks me how I got started with all this, I invariably mention CCCO and the G.I. Rights Hotline in the 1990s. But it’s not often that I wake up and feel such a strong echo of those years, as I did yesterday upon news of sexual assault of recruits at Fort Benning. BackContinue reading “Groundhog Day for women in the military?”
I Ain't Marching Anymore 