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The McGlynnLet them know it’s time to stop these wars
Evasive Action
by Charlie Smith
…the clipped possessive moment, the barber on his porch
cutting his son’s hair, who looks for a second straight into the sun
and then back at his son’s head now a golden, nodulous remnant,
a flower if he likes or Lenin’s bumpy skull, he puts his scissors down
and goes inside and apologizes to his wife, who doesn’t understand,
but who accepts his words like a private harvest she’s storing up,
and then the son, who’s going into the army, comes in, half cut,
and sees them and thinks he understands years of bickering,
but doesn’t, and goes on to the battlefield where he writes his sister
saying we are not far from the truth of things, watching beyond his hand
two scorpions pick at each other, and thinks of days by the river, of his
father recovering from cancer, singing a song his grandmother memorized in…..Vienna
and his father, who hated his own mother, cursing her, revoking the song,
and the next moment he’s blown apart and then sent home in a metal coffin
and the parents and the sister get up early on the day of his funeral
and eat breakfast silently on the porch, and this is going on barber after barber.
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| Dear The McGlynn The Obama Administration seems determined to continue the war in Afghanistan until 2014 and beyond, while ramping up a dangerous drone war inside Pakistan. Large numbers of Congressional representatives know this is folly, but have not raised their voices in a clear and consistent way. They need to hear from their constituents that these wars are not a back-burner issue and must be addressed now.
Call your member of Congress:
Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121 or toll-free 866-220-0044
Find your rep’s name and contact info: http://hq-salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/302/getLocal.jsp
Let them know it’s time to stop these wars. Ask your member of Congress to do the following:
1/ Join the Out of Afghanistan Caucus and
2/ Co-sponsor HR 6045, Barbara Lee’s bill limiting the use of government funds to the ” safe and orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan” of all military personnel and Defense Department contractors.
Antiwar members of Congress, not signed on to “Out of Afghanistan Caucus:” http://unitedforpeace.org/downloads/Target%20Dems%20Out%20of%20Afghanistan%20Caucus.doc
Caucus Contact: michael.darner@mail.house.gov
Antiwar members of Congress, not yet co-sponsors of HR 6045 http://unitedforpeace.org/downloads/Target%20Dems%20for%20HR%206045.doc Contact in Barbara Lee’s office: scott.exner@mail.house.gov
Follow this link to find contact information for elected representatives and their staff:
Please send any updates and reports to:
sponsors: United for Peace and Justice, Peace Action, American Friends Service Committee, Just Foreign Policy, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Progressive Democrats for America, Tom Hayden Peace and Justice Resource Center, CODEPINK, US Labor Against the War, Military Families Speak Out
Write letters to the editor and hold vigils and protests to show that the Afghanistan war is a failure and must be ended. Use AFSC’s report card to make the point.
If you have not already done so, please sign and circulate the Out of Afghanistan petition: www.gopetition.com/petition/40697.html
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