Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Awards Dinner
Thanks everyone for turning out.
It was a great evening and lots of fun. Paz, John
The 2011 Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Awards Dinner will be held on Tuesday, October 18. Please sign up early by contacting Dan Wilcox. This year's honorees are Mary Finneran, Tarak Kauff and Larry Wittner . . . More Inside!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 from 5:30 to 9:00 PM,Casa Mia Restaurant in Glenmont, NY (385 Rt. 9W, Glenmont), The Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Awards Dinner. "The Winter Soldier is any man or woman who stands firm in the face of great adversity in its many shapes and forms and works towards a peaceful and civil society; respecting the inalienable rights provided for in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. The recipients of the Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Award have worked tirelessly and nonviolently to end war and to develop a peaceful and civil society. There is no greater tyranny than the tyranny of war, no greater enemy of democracy and no larger threat to humanity." This year the Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Award Honorees are: Mary Finneran, Tarak Kauff and Larry Wittner.
Veterans for Peace has kept the cost down so dinner is still $30 per person. Advance reservation required as Casa Mia requires advance notification of the number attending. Reservations may be made by contacting Dan Wilcox by Oct 7, 2011. Please let Dan know early if you possibly can and this will help our planning with the restaurant greatly. Contact Dan at: 518-482-0262 or dwlcx@earthlink.net Please make your check out to Veterans For Peace (on the memo line please write Awards Dinner) and mail to: Dan Wilcox, 280 S. Main Ave., Albany, NY 12208
About Our Honorees
Larry Wittner commenced his career as a peace activist in the fall of 1961, when he and other college students picketed the White House in an attempt to block resumption of U.S. nuclear weapons testing. During the next fifty years, he participated in large numbers of peace movement ventures, including leading the annual march for nuclear disarmament through the streets of Hiroshima. In 2005, he began serving on the national board of Peace Action, the largest peace organization in the United States. He also serves on the executive committee of Peace Action’s state and local affiliates. More recently, he joined the national board of another peace-oriented organization, the National Priorities Project, and helped to launch a Veterans for Peace project, the restoration of the sailing ship, the Golden Rule, which once challenged nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean. Larry has also been active in the racial equality and labor movements – in fact, he’s the executive secretary of the Albany County Central Federation of Labor -- and performs (instrumentally and vocally) with the Solidarity Singers at peace and social justice gatherings.
After attending Columbia College, the University of Wisconsin, and Columbia University (where he received his Ph.D.), Larry taught history at Hampton Institute, at Vassar College, at Japanese universities (under the Fulbright program), and at the State University of New York/Albany, where he is now professor of history emeritus. He is the author or editor of eleven books, as well as the author of about 200 published articles and book reviews, mostly on peace movements and foreign policy. Scholarly organizations have awarded him prizes for a number of these publications, including his three volume work, The Struggle Against the Bomb. An abbreviated version of this trilogy, Confronting the Bomb, is now available. As might be expected, Larry is a well-known historian and a former president of the Council on Peace Research in History (now the Peace History Society), an affiliate of the American Historical Association. His memoirs, entitled Working for Peace and Justice, will be published in 2012.
TARAK KAUFF
We need real and significant revolutionary change so that future generations can inherit a planet that is not continuously devastated by war, poverty and environmental destruction. This, as I see it, is the global mission of VFP. If we want to end wars, we have to radically change the system (not just the people) that produces war and poverty. We have seen through the lies. The U.S. is not a beacon of hope and freedom; for most it is quite the opposite. We need to build a revolutionary culture of resistance that is both national and global in nature and outlook. If we want to build our organization and change the world our mission must be broad and global. I am not interested in “tweaking” the system here in the U.S. so it works a little better. It’s a cruel and inhumane system, a system that has always existed primarily to make the elite more powerful while disempowering and robbing the common people. Everything else is a myth. Since the beginning, the system has promoted wars for profit and empire that the common people have to fight, kill and die for. The way this corporate government system pursues wealth, strategic power and influence is destroying the earth. This has to change.
Mary Finneran
Mary Finneran was born in Corning, NY and raised in Painted Post, located on the edge of Appalachia, to a family of six children, including her twin sister. She learned about poverty up-close and personal, some at home, some with kids up the road and with those riding on her school bus. Her childhood reading focused on Dickens who nurtured her sense of justice. She wanted to be a hippy and often greeted people with "Peace", always including the hand sign. The Vietnam War ended while she was in high school and Mary though everything would be right with the world until she realized her generation was confused and dazed. She worried about nuclear power, wondering what to do about it. While in college studying art, Mary was able to save enough money to go to Europe taking along her sister. They lived on the streets of France and Italy where she was exposed to more poverty but saw solidarity among the people. Returning to the US, she became a welder and a member of the Sheet Metalworkers Union. She lamented the destruction of the air controllers union by Reagan even as her own union was decimated by a company merger, and she was laid off while jobs were moved to Mexico. It was time to return to art school where she became a certified teacher. Her year at graduate school was punctuated by Desert Storm. On the night the war started, Mary created "Peace Gets Angry" and joined a small war protest at Syracuse University. 9/11 was the wake-up call as she began her quest to understand her country and what it was doing. At a BNP meeting she viewed, "Loose Change" and realized we were building an empire. Mary has followed her passion for peace through participation in discussion groups - some radical ones - BNP events, rallies, petitioning for many causes such as single payer health insurance, Kucinich initiatives and anti-fracking. She has attended two major drone protests in Syracuse. She serves on BNP's Coordinating Committee as well as that of Frack Busters, NY. Other memberships include UNAC, SPNY, Frack Free Catskills and SPAN. Mary is willing to speak out for truth in any venue, including grocery store lines! She strives tro carry the message of activism, creative problem-solving and critical thinking to the next generation. She holds steadfastly to the vision of a nation of concerned and and active citizens without which she fears we are on the road to Dronedom. Mary and her husband, Mark, live in Cairo, NY. They share an interest in antiques.
2010 Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Awards Dinner
Thanks everyone. We had a splendid dinner at the Polish Community Center on October 14, 2010. The food was great and Steel Street Rose was in peak form giving us some good old rock and roll. There were more dancers this year and a great time was had by all. Our honorees, Elliott Adams, Linda Linda LeTendre and Joe Lombardo offered thoughts of encouragement and insight and expressed appreciation also. For our part we are very glad indeed that our area is so rich in dedicated peace activists and VFP and the entire community was delighted to honor this exceptional group of peace makers who are also our friends and neighbors. It was a terrific evening of celebration.
We had so much fun last year we are doing it all again, the second annual Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Awards Dinner on Thursday, October 14, 2010 at the Polish Community Center, 225 Washington Avenue Ext., Albany. Steel Street Rose will be back and we have the grand opportunity to honor three excellent and very accomplished peace workers. Our honorees this year are Elliott Adams from Veterans For Peace, Joe Lombardo from Bethlehem Neighbors For Peace and Linda LeTendre, a member of the Sarartoga Peace Alliance. It was difficult to limit our selection to three as there are so many deserving folks in our community who work tirelessly for peace and justice. So please save Thursday, October 14, 2010 for a community celebration. More to come soon.
The awards dinner and presentations will be held at the Polish Community Center, 225 Washington Ave. Ext., Albany. Social hour will begin at 6 PM and dinner at 7 PM. Reservations are required by October 11, 2010 and can to be made by contacting Dan Wilcox at 518-482-0262 or through our Contact Us Page. The cost is $30 per person. Please make your check out to Veterans For Peace. On the memo line please write awards dinner. Kindly mail your check to:
Dan Wilcox
280 S. Main Avenue
Albany, NY 12208
For complete information about the award,
honorees and evening, kindly continue scrolling down.
The Veterans For Peace, Chapter 10,
Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Award
On December 23, 1776 in the first of his Crisis Papers, Tom Paine wrote:
“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.”
The winter of 1776 was bleak; the going tough and no clear path to victory was seen. With their enlistments completed, many of the men who had joined in the summer were leaving the cause of freedom, peace and justice and returning home. They were the ‘summer soldiers’ and the ‘sunshine patriots.’ However the true patriots and visionaries, resolved in their determination, empowered by the light of truth; carried on in the pursuit of life, liberty and justice.
With the evolution of the Republic, “a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.” and foreseeing the possibility of its subsequent loss, the term Winter Soldier was born. The Winter Soldier is any man or woman who stands firm in the face of great adversity in its many shapes and forms and works towards a peaceful and civil society; respecting the inalienable rights provided for in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. The recipients of the Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Award have worked tirelessly and nonviolently to end war and to develop a peaceful and civil society. There is no greater tyranny than the tyranny of war, no greater enemy of democracy and no larger threat to humanity.
For their exemplary, nonviolent and tireless efforts on behalf of Peace our recipients this year (October 14, 2010) are Elliot Adams, Joe Lombardo and Linda LeTendre.
About our Honorees
Elliot has transformed himself from soldier to nonviolent warrior. He has also done nonviolence and social movement trainings for Fellowship Of Reconciliation, School Of Americas Watch, Peacemakers of Schoharie County, Student Environmental Action Coalition, War Resistors League, and other groups. He is currently Nonviolent Training Coordinator of Veterans For Peace.
He is dedicating his life to stopping the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and abolishing all war. This work has taken him from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Mexico border to Canada. For this works he has testified before the US Congress Judiciary Committee, attended Parliament in Canada, and been arrested numerous times.
Linda LeTendre
She became active in nonviolent civil disobedience in March of 2004 after the death of a cherished friend, Rev. Beth Dewey, from leukemia. So far she has eleven arrests for Christian witness against war and torture. One arrest resulted in a conviction in 2008 for “unlawful free speech on Supreme Court grounds” for which she served a year of unsupervised probation.
Ms. LeTendre is active in the Saratoga Peace Alliance, witnessing for peace at their weekly Saturday vigil in downtown Saratoga Springs and helping to arrange numerous teaching programs about peace and justice for the community. For the last two years she has helped to organize “Peace-ing It Together”, the peace fair in Saratoga Springs, NY. And is the author of “Waging Peace”, a blog at “The Daily Gazette” news paper. She is a member of Witness Against Torture and for the last two years has spent a week in Washington DC witnessing with them at the Capitol and the White House in an effort to stop the use of torture by the US government. She has also witnessed, marched and taken part in actions with Veterans for Peace.
Ms. LeTendre is the founder of Community Living & Advocacy Supports, Inc. (CLAS) - a non-profit agency serving people with developmental disabilities. CLAS was one of the first independent, autonomous case management agencies in New York. She also helped to set up other such agencies in the state. She is currently the President of the Board of Directors.
Along with four other people, Ms. LeTendre has recently founded “Upstate Kairos” a group that can be described as a safe haven for peacemaking Christians in the war making state and in war blessing churches (all faiths are welcome).
Ms. LeTendre volunteers for the Temple Sinai's Bread and Torah project, baking weekly at the Slice of Heaven bakery in Saratoga Springs, delivers food for the local food pantry, sings in the choir at the Presbyterian-New England Congregational church and has done missionary work in Uganda. She has also been a Rotarian for almost 20 years and hangs at the Catholic Worker houses in NYC and DC whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Married to the love of her life (who is also very proud of her), she lives in Saratoga Springs with two cats and a dog.
Joe Lombardo
Joe Lombardo: Joe started his activism career early: At the age of 13 he spoke in school against racism. In 1962 he marched with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and worked as a staff person for the National Peace Coalition. A decade ago he helped to found Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace -– one of the most active local peace groups in the area. He is also one of the original members of the Northeast Peace and Justice Action Coalition and is a member of the Administrative Body of the National Assembly to End the U.S. Wars and Occupations.
This past July Joe played a central role in organizing the national anti-war conference in Alban, which drew 800 people. He is also a founding member of the Muslim Solidarity Committee and Project Salam. He also sings and plays guitar with the Solidarity Singers. For the last two years they have performed at the “Peace-ing It Together,” the peace fair in Saratoga Springs, and have been a favorite.
Joe has a huge shock of white hair and is often described as “the guy with the hair” when people want to point him out at a crowded rally.
2009 The Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Award Dinner
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The awards dinner and presentations will be held at Evan’s Public House on Route 20 (Western Avenue) immediately across from the Guilderland Center Office Complex, about a quarter of a mile past 146E. Social hour will begin at 6 PM and dinner at 7 PM. Reservations are required by October 13, 2009 and can to be made by contacting Dan Wilcox at 518-482-0262 or through our Contact Us Page. The cost is $30 per person. Please make your check out to Veterans For Peace. On the memo line please write awards dinner. Kindly mail your check to:
Dan Wilcox
280 S. Main Avenue
Albany, NY 12208
For complete information about the award,
honorees and evening, kindly continue scrolling down.
The Veterans For Peace, Chapter 10,
Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Award
On December 23, 1776 in the first of his Crisis Papers, Tom Paine wrote:
“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.”
The winter of 1776 was bleak; the going tough and no clear path to victory was seen. With their enlistments completed, many of the men who had joined in the summer were leaving the cause of freedom, peace and justice and returning home. They were the ‘summer soldiers’ and the ‘sunshine patriots.’ However the true patriots and visionaries, resolved in their determination, empowered by the light of truth; carried on in the pursuit of life, liberty and justice.
With the evolution of the Republic, “a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.” and foreseeing the possibility of its subsequent loss, the term Winter Soldier was born. The Winter Soldier is any man or woman who stands firm in the face of great adversity in its many shapes and forms and works towards a peaceful and civil society; respecting the inalienable rights provided for in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. The recipients of the Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Award have worked tirelessly and nonviolently to end war and to develop a peaceful and civil society. There is no greater tyranny than the tyranny of war, no greater enemy of democracy and no larger threat to humanity.
For their exemplary, nonviolent and tireless efforts on behalf of Peace our recipients this year (October 15, 2009) are Ed Block, Trudy Quaif and Steve Wickham.
About our Honorees
Ed Bloch
Memorial Day Parade
May 25, 2009
Albany, NY
"At 85 years old, Ed Bloch continues to "fight the good fight." Ed has worked tirelessly to promote peace. For his efforts in World War II, Ed received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. He continues to act on behalf of workers locally. Ed is a former candiate for Congress running against then Congressman Gerald Solomon. As Director of The Interfaith Alliance, the organization demands changes in public policy based on religious understanding. Ed served in the USMC 1943- 46 as rifle platoon leader L and then K-3-7, 1st Marine Dvision on Okinawa and China. Ed Bloch is now a member of Veteran's for Peace and is coordinator fo NYS Council of Veteran's Organzations. Married to Naomi Finkelstein the couple are the parents of four children."
Trudy Quaif
Delmar Vigil, 4 Corners
September 14, 2009
Trudy Quaif has been a dedicated peace activist and member of Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace since 2001 working tirelessly to end the wars in Irag and Afghanistan and create world peace. She has also worked with Women Against War, Peace Action, the Solidarity Committee and North East Peace and Justice Action Coalition along with many other Neighbors for Peace organizations. In July, she attended the National Assembly Peace Conference in Pittsburgh.
Trudy has organized buses to Washington and NYC to protest the wars and marched many miles in the streets. She has organized many forums, discussion groups, films and speakers, in the Capital region and is often seen tabling at events or setting up the BNP store, which includes everything a peace activist could want, from bumper stickers to t-shirts and buttons. In her spare time Trudy maintains the BNP website and sends out a weekly Peace email, notifying members of coming peace and justice related events.Trudy has also vigiled for peace at the Four Corners in Delmar, just about every week for the past 6+ years. Her current favorite slogan for a peace sign: "8 Years of War. How Many More?" She will continue this work as long as she can ...or there is an end to war and injustice.
Trudy, simply put, is one of the most dedicated and tirless peace activists in our community holding both our repect and affection for her dedicated work and friendly and easy going approach to this important work.
Steve Wickham
April 21, 2008
Guilderland Neighbors
For Peace
Fools For War
"Counter Demonstration"
Steve Wickham has provided support to the Veterans For Peace, Chapter 10, for a variety of projects and also provides support for the VFP Chapter 10 website.
Steve started his activism in February of 2006 after learning of, and subsequently watching, the movie Loose Change while listening to the Mike Malloy Radio Show.
The emotions evoked from what he learned from that film coupled with the environmental information his younger sister had been feeding him, triggered him to go to a seminar on Global Warming at SUNY Albany. At that fateful seminar he met his 2 new adopted sisters in activism, Trudy Quaif and Wendy Dwyer.
Trudy and Wendy introduced Steve and his wife Barbara to a whole new community in the Capital District that they didn’t know existed, the Capital District Peace Community, of which the Veterans For Peace are a huge part.
Steve’s participation in the Peace Community was first noticed when he assisted in bringing the makers of the Loose Change Film to the Capital District for a standing room only screening of the film with the Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace. Coverage the event made the front page of both the Times Union and Metroland Newspapers.
Steve later assisted in helping to organize the Remembering the Fallen 4th and 5th Anniversary Events of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. The event for the 4th anniversary was the largest anti-war event in the Capital District since Viet Nam.
Steve has assisted as well in the promotion of the last 2 Kateri Peace Conferences, the organization and promotion of the 2008 Peace and Sustainability Conference, and is currently assisting in the organizing and promotion of the October 17th, 2009 Capital District March Against the Escalation and Continued Occupation of Afghanistan.
During the past year, Steve has focused efforts at bringing together members of the Peace Community with members of the local Democratic Party and vice-versa so that there are better lines of communication between the two.
Steve is currently a Board Member of the Guilderland Neighbors for Peace, Committee Person for the Guilderland Democratic Party, and sits on the Town of Guilderland Environmental Conservation Advisory Council.
Steve graduated from Sidney HS with Honors, Ithaca College with a B.S. in Chemistry Summa Cum Laude, and has Masters in Chemistry from University of California at Berkeley.
He lives in Guilderland with his wonderful wife Barbara and their peaceful 6 year old cat Oliver. Barbara and Steve own a company called Wickwood Marketing, in which Steve works full-time from home.
Steel Street Rose
Steel Street Rose is one of the newest bands to grow out of the Capital District Music scene, though various members have been part of it for decades. Lead singer Cindy Hoffman's eclectic singing style brings raw emotion and powerful feeling to songs as diverse as contemporary country hits as performed by The Dixie Chicks and Sugarland; to classic rock and roll standards by bands such as the Beatles, Byrds and CCR... ; then again bringing the poignant ballads of Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman and Bonnie Raitt to a new life.
David Pallas is one of the hardest working bassists of the area, known in such bands as Acoustic Hartland, The Fearsome Critturs and Swing Shift. Guitarist Roger Allen, formerly of "Three Quarter North" and "Roger and Me" plays electric and acoustic six and twelve string guitars in many different stylings. Newest member Chris Wagner on the drum kit brings a smooth professional polish, exuberance and a rock solid backbeat to the band.
To listen to Steel Street Rose is to experience what the name exemplifies: A rivetingly vivid trip through the memories, dreams and promises that Rock, Country and the Blues brought to the music of the 70's, 80's, 90's, and now the first decade of this new millenium.