September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows has had a relationship with Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) since its formation in the fall of 2002. An organization of people opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have relatives or loved ones currently in the military, or who have served in the military since September 11, 2001, MFSO has contacts with military families throughout the United States and in countries around the world. Its membership currently includes nearly 4,000 military families. MFSO asks that we support our troops, bring them home now and take care of them when they get here.
On May 25th, 2003, members of Peaceful Tomorrows joined representatives of MFSO, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace for a wreath laying ceremony honoring all victims of violence and war, both civilian and military, at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in downtown Manhattan.
On March 14-15, 2004 Peaceful Tomorrows’ Valerie Lucznikowska and Bob Mcilvaine participated in a march and vigil led by MFSO to call attention to dead and wounded in Iraq, with a focus on the U.S. military casualties that remain hidden from the public eye. Dover to DC: Remembering Unseen Military Casualties included a brief service at Camden Friends Meetinghouse in Dover, Delaware, followed by a memorial procession to the gates of Dover Air Force Base. Following a ceremony at the base, a caravan continued to a rally in Baltimore, Maryland, and then on to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC, current residence of many U.S. servicemen and women wounded in Iraq. It ended with a memorial procession to White House.
Marking the second anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, March 19, 2005, Peaceful Tomorrows joined MFSO and others in co-sponsoring a major regional demonstration in Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to Fort Bragg, ground zero for the 82nd Airborne Division and many of the Army’s elite units. Beyond Fort Bragg, North Carolina hosts four other of the nation’s largest military bases. And in August, 2005 Peaceful Tomorrows members Talat Hamdani, Derrill Bodley, Laurette Simmons and Anthony Aversano joined members of MFSO and a host of other peace and justice organizations at Cindy Sheehan’s vigil at “Camp Casey” in Crawford, Texas.
Website: mfso@mfso.org
