Operation Recovery: Right To Heal

This Past Wednesday Operation Recovery: Right to Heal Tour rolled through Atlanta. The tour is part of a new Iraq Veteran's Against War Project.

The goal of this tour is to raise awareness about Operation Recovery and service members fight for the right to heal from trauma. 

Large portions of our military members and veterans are suffering from Military Sexual Trauma (MST), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and/or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) yet their right to heal is violated on a mass scale.

While traumatized service members have been forced to deploy against the best interest of their health and well being throughout the Global War on Terror now with the return of troops from Iraq the military is trying to skirt it’s responsibilities to care for service members. Military leaders and service providers are giving inadequate care, pushing improper diagnoses,  and forcing thousands of service members to leave the military with no care or benefits by pursuing punitive discharges for troops who really need medical and mental health care.

Fort Hood. Texas, the Army’s largest base has been hit especially hard with trauma. Regular and repeated deployments over the past 10 years have left soldiers their particularly vulnerable to traumatic injuries leading Fort Hood to have the highest suicide rate (22) by far over any other military instillation.

Veteran Organizers who have worked with active duty troops at Fort Hood as well as former Fort Hood soldiers will embark on the Right to Heal Tour, sharing the stories of the work happening at Fort Hood and our upcoming Summer Outreach Drive. Operation Recovery organizers will be out at Fort Hood all summer long meeting active duty troops, collecting testimonies, and building power to take on Fort Hood’s General Campbell and stop the violation of service members right to heal.

Public support is essential; through supporters bombarding General Campbell with thousands of emails and post cards we were able to win a “virtual town hall meeting” in January. Now we need to take this further to insure General Campbell not only hears what his soldiers need but also does something about it. Stand with us for soldiers’ right to heal.

American Friends Service Committee is proud to support the important work of IVAW, and we hope to bring the tour back to Atlanta in the next few months.

March 19th Approaches!

March 19th marks the 8th anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq. Though President Obama has worked hard to re-brand the war as over more and more folks are rejecting this the idea. The simple fact is that we have 50,000 combat trained fully armed troops in Iraq. There are also close to 70,000 corporate mercenaries roaming the streets.

We all know that if there were 120,000 armed foreigners in Georgia it would be considered an occupation, and Georgia residents would likely resist it. Resisters would probably be called freedom fighters, as they would be fighting to free Georgia from the tyranny of foreign occupation.

Well of course we here in Georgia are not literally being occupied by armed foreign combat troops but there the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has had a devastating effect on our communities.
We've spend 1.1 Trillion dollars on these wars and the estimated long term cost of them in close to 4 trillion.

This enormous cost has forced the federal and state budgets to radically defund the public sector and other programs of social uplift. Never has there been a time in American history that we have spent more on systems of violence and oppression then this moment we live in now.

This Saturday American Friends Service Committee call on Georgians to join us in the streets. In Atlanta we'll be rallying at Midtown Marta Station, 41 10th street, at 12pm. There will be a lively march through Piedmont park. There will be Giant puppets, music, street theater and more. Now more then ever we need to make the connections between the military budget and our domestic economic crisis.

Let us build bridges between these issues and make the 19th about coming together; it's really one fight, one struggle. Together, with all our voices joined, and inspired by the actions of Tunisia, Egypt, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico, we'll make a choir loud enough shake this city!

This week folks have been handing out flyers for the event and creating visually stunning art pieces that will be a part of the action. We hope you will do your part, spread the word, and show up.

Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Banners, Stencils, Wheatpastes for Oct 7th!

Over the past few weeks we've been working with folks to create a number of stunning images designed to bring to attention the increasing defunding of Georgia Public Education. All over Georgia, from Milledgeville to Athens, Atlanta to Savannah, Columbus to Kennesaw, communities are coming together in an effort to protect public education.

From the cuts in K-12 that have dramatically increased classroom sizes, cut important programs, and laid off much needed support staff, to the cuts in public universities which have resulted in dramatic tuition and fee increases for an already struggling student body. Georgians are resisting what some call a crisis of priorities.

Young people may not have millions of dollars to spend on a slick campaigns to win back their future(or societies future) but they do have energy, truth, and a whole lot of creativity. Look for dozens of beautiful banners, stencils, and wheatpastes that have been created to provoke thought and bring awareness to what we are losing in Georgia...our education funding, our future.

We've, of course, encouraged young people to drop banners, paint stencils, chalk, and wheatpaste in spaces that are totally legal. Though we don't condone illegal art, it should be said that we do not condemn illegal banner droppings and such, as the eyeways belong to all who look, not just all who pay.


All of this work is leading up to a nation wide day of action on October 7th, a day to defend education, a day to examine this crisis of priorities, to stand with immigrant students who are under attack everywhere including Georgia. If you are a college student, then you are likely already aware of actions planned on you campus, join them or plan your own. If you are in the Atlanta area and you want to add your voice to the choir, then come to Woodruff Park Thursday October 7th at 4:30pm. Stand with us, march with us, for the future.

It's been exciting watching different struggles unite for this cause. Anti-war groups like the Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition seeing the education budget cuts through the lens of unjust war spending. October 7th is, after all, the nine year anniversary of American longest war, Afghanistan. Joining the call for October 7th mobilization is the Georgia dreamers, who face so much more than budget cuts. Student Career Alternatives Program(SCAP) has joined the call. Members of SCAP see the attack on education as an attack on the future post high school options for low income youth, a move that only strengthens the school to military/prison pipeline. SCAP plans to unveil several banners around the city October 7th and at Woodruff Park.

More and more people of conscious are making the connections. Why does it rain money every time our government asks for money to bomb non white nations, yet when we ask for money to fund our own domestic education system we hardly get a drop? Why are we sinking so much money into policing and imprisoning our own citizens while defunding that which arms young people with the power to truly reach their potential and achieve their dreams?

We hope YOU will add your voice to the choir in defense of education in whatever way you can. It's not to late to make your own banner, wheatpaste, or stencil! It's not to late to fight for the future!



Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Standing For Peace, 8 Years Later

During the build up to the Iraq invasion of 2003 members Georgia Wand put all call out to the Atlanta community to hold a weekly demonstration outside of Zell Millers office. Members of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Every Church a Peace Church, Concerned Black Clergy, Veterans For Peace, American Friends Service Committee, the International Action Center, and many others answered the call.

Demonstrations outside of Miller's office at Colony Square against the Iraq war began in August of 2002 and have continued since. Through the years the number of folks that come out has gone up and down but Georgia Wand has remained committed to keeping that corner of Peachtree and 14th occupied by folks with a message of peace and resistance of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.


They continue to meet at Colony Square(Peachtree & 14th) weekly from 12-1pm.

Photo's By Al Viola



Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

From Atlanta to Berlin, Resist Don't Enlist!!

I knew that the topic of street art and graffiti would come up in Berlin for two reasons. One, it really does have some of the best street art in the world. Two, Shauna and Bjoern Vogel where hosting me. Shauna's a childhood friend, Bjoern is the extremely talented artist that Shauna married. Bjoern and I had gotten to know each other while he was living in Atlanta and had many online conversations with him about current events.

Bjoern and I pretty much started talking collaborative possibilities immediately, as I am a budding street artist myself. We talked about the possibility of doing some sort of global "Cost of War" campaign that would provide an education on the human and economic(one in the same) cost of war in different countries through art. The possibilities really caught my mind on fire as we both know people in dozens of major cites.

We did decide to look at some short term collaborative possibilities and came up with several concepts for murals to paint in Berlin. We talked about exploring several themes, we wanted to explore the similarities of German soldiers and the Afghan fighters that they are trained to kill, the economic injustices in the German Enlistment process, and how much money is taken from German communities and spent on war(billions).

We jointly designed a pretty awesome mural that will go up in the next few months and today Bjoern painted, in a legal space, a pretty great mural that's based on the classic German anti-war book, "Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt". Bjoern decided to include what has become one of the slogans we often use in the Atlanta Truth in Military Recruitment movement, "Resist Don't Enlist" as a homage to our work in Atlanta and a message to the Berlin community.

In Germany young men have three choices after they turn 18, military service, social service, or college. Many lower income young men choose military service because they are told that it will help them develop a career in the military or learn job skills training, these promises often don't become realized.



Germany is in an economic crisis. Over 15% or Berlin is unemployed yet billions continue to fall out of the sky for war funding. Recently the German President, Horst Kohler, was forced to resign after making several bold statements against Germany's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. This makes it clear that while there are many who pay for German's involvement in America's war(including the over 300 dead soldiers and countless injured), there are a select few that do profit from it.

With President Obama's recent request for Germany to commit an additional 1000 troops to the Afghanistan, it seems like a good time to be creating art in Berlin that spark conversation about the issue. I look forward to further collaborations with Bjoern and many of the other amazing artist from my new favorite city, Berlin!


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Operation Anti-War Visibilty Claimed the Atlanta Skies on the Anniversity of the Iraq Invasion

It's hard to believe that we have been living with war in Iraq for seven years now. With the economic crisis and health care reform taking center stage in our national discourse many people have forgotten that the war In Iraq continues. Paradoxically heath care reform would be an easier sell if we weren't spending unthinkable dollars on a war that an overwhelming percentage of American believe is based on lies, and certainly the argument could(and has) been made that our economic crash is a direct result of these multiple wars(Iraq alone cost 720 million a day!!).

It's time we start to see the Iraq war for what it is, a robbery from out communities. Not only has this war robbed us of people who were loved and needed, it has robbed us of much needed resources.

The draining of social safety nets, the pending increase in College tuition's all over the country, and the Military Industrial Complexes 11 billion dollar recruitment budget,has created a poverty draft into the military. Middle and low income youth often reach out to the military, not to serve their country, but to get a job, a steady pay check. So it's not just an overwhelming majority of our budget that goes to plan for and fight wars, it's also our loved ones.

The Georgia Peace and justice Coalition(GPJC) wanted to do something different this year t mark the 7th year anniversary of the Iraq invasion, something that would perhaps shock Atlanta, remind our city that we still live with this war, we still pay for this war, and Iraqis still die in this war. The idea that was given birth in the GPJC meeting went on to be called, "Operation Anti-War Visibility". Groups and individuals were asked to create banners and signs and that reminded folks that we're still in Iraq. Folks were asked to find ways to make sure mass numbers of people in the city saw these banners, even if it meant risking jail.

AFSC Atlanta answered that call. We hosted a banner making party and resembled several streets teams(members of these teams will remain anonymous). Five huuuge banners were created and three smaller ones. There were also stacks of posters that were made available for wheat pasting projects.

On Friday, March 19th, at 7am,we know that four banners dropped of the 75/85 connector. One very large banner that read, "Iraq War: Seven Year Too Long" was seen on the 5th street bridge, visible to morning commuters going southbound. Another huge banner that gave the casualty numbers for Iraqi civilians and US soldiers was seem dropped right next to the Olympic torch neat the North Ave exit on the connector.

During afternoon rush hour we know at least four more banners were dropped. One was 30x15 ft! One was dropped off the Freedom pkwy Bridge and another huge one was daringly dropped of the overpass on International blvd that read, "Troops out of Iraq Now."

There was also a team of folks that wheatpasted anti-war messages around the city, and there were two lunch hour street demonstrations held, on at 14th and peachtree, and the other on the Marietta Square in front of the courthouse.

We at American Friends Service Committee truly hope that this is the last year we mark this sad day. We can only imagine a world where the resources raised in our communities are invested in social uplift instead of annihilation.

I'll end this post with a quote from Martin Luther King's, "Beyond Vietnam" speech, a speech that has shaped my life in many ways.
"A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

-Martin Luther King, April 4th, 1967


Link to short Creative Loafing story on the banner drops:
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2010/03/19/photo-of-the-day-anniversary/


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee