From Chris Hedges at OpEdNews:
Retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard was arrested in Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza in New York City on Tuesday night as he participated in the May 1 Occupy demonstrations. He and 15 other military veterans were taken into custody after they linked arms to hold the plaza against a police attempt to clear it. There were protesters behind them who, perhaps because of confusion, perhaps because of miscommunication or perhaps they were unwilling to risk arrest, melted into the urban landscape. But those in the thin line from Veterans for Peace, of which the bishop is a member, stood their ground. They were handcuffed, herded into a paddy wagon and taken to jail.That veterans were arrested simply for their presence in a place dedicated to the memory of those who served in the military is an outrage about which few seem to take note or care. Shame on you, Mayor Bloomberg, for your directions for general heavy-handed treatment of the Occupiers, but double shame on you for dishonoring the veterans by removing them by force from their plaza. Yes, the buck stops with you.
Hedges on George Packard:
Packard's moral and intellectual courage stands in stark contrast with the timidity of nearly all clergy and congregants in all of our major religious institutions. Religious leaders, in churches, synagogues and mosques, at best voice pious and empty platitudes about justice or carry out nominal acts of charity aimed at those bearing the weight of resistance in the streets. And Packard's arrests serve as a reminder of the price that we -- especially those who claim to be informed by the message of the Christian Gospel -- must be willing to pay to defy the destruction visited on us all by the corporate state. He is one of the few clergy members who dare to bear a genuine Christian witness in an age that cries out in anguish for moral guidance.Sigh.... Too true.
And read George's horrifying descriptions of his service in Vietnam.
Vietnam is now the forgotten war, lost in the mists of recent history from which we took no good lessons.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Photo from George's album on Facebook.
