November 6, 2013
Spokane Public Schools District 81 Board Meeting
We gave this response to the Spokane School Board’s decision to arm guards in our schools:
Painfully acquainted with the use and misuse of weapons, Spokane Veterans for Peace strongly opposes the introduction of more weapons into our schools. Weapons endanger our children, not protect them, and have a track record of turning simple arguments and accidents into heartbreaking tragedy. More convincingly than any curricula, the employment of firearms in Spokane schools teach students to value violence as a means to an end and have no place in civilized society, let alone our student bodies.
Even with one-third of our country’s public schools using armed security, there are no studies to show that arming school officials makes those schools safer. In fact, two of the deadliest school shootings in our history took place on campuses with armed guards (Columbine H.S. and Virginia Tech). It should also be noted that a troubled student at our own Lewis and Clark High School was able to manipulate police officers into shooting him because they had no unarmed response to his self-destructive cry for help.
We urge that our highly valued education system not surrender to fear, despair and the gun lobby without considering the capacity of students and staff to rise above the clamor for more guns and more violence.
Spokane VFP delegation to Senator Patty Murray’s office to Protest War Against Syria, 9/1/13 (No photos yet)
Five VFP members shared views with attentive aide Murray aide Kierra Phifer for one hour.
Here are some pics of time spent in the Berkeley VFP convention in 2016
Our man Mikel doing double duty (see next photo), Riverfront Park, September 1, 2013
Rogue’s gallery protesting against Syria strike, Riverfront Park, Sunday, September 1, 2013
Our man Mikel doing double duty (see other photo), Riverfront Park, September 1, 2013
2011 Magnuson Club
2011 Magnuson Club
2011 Magnuson Club
2011 Magnuson Club
2013 Unity in Community
2013 Unity in Community
2013 Unity in Community
2013 Unity in Community
2011 Unity in the Community
2011 Unity in the Community
2011 Unity in the Community
2011 Unity in the Community
2011 Unity in the Community
2011 Unity in the Community
2011 Unity in the Community
2011 Unity in the Community
2011 Unity in the Community
2013 Perry St. Fair
2013 Perry St. Fair table
2013 Gay Pride Parade
2013 Gay Pride Parade
2013 Gay Pride Parade
2012 Bloomsday
2012 Bannering at Bloomsday, our city’s huge annual race each May.
Spokane Veterans for Peace 
Hi,
I live in Boise, and I’m appalled that there is not a VFP chapter here. Unfortunately, my veteran friends do not feel the same I do about war.
I would like to start a chapter here, so if you hear of other veterans that may be interested in joining, please give them my contact info.
Thanks!
From military training to deployment,. One must ask themselves did really need to support the drafted by joining the armed forces? How do I turn around my past as a soldier now, to live in peace..? The peace of comradery is very important for social stability within veteran retirees. The truth is what type of peace do I want to create for me my family friends my country.. it all starts with the American flag and how you were in the past for example at home as a child,. Your past memories have a link to you which will aquire some time. Begin with any age you can recall before you were drafted or enlisted and try to visualize the day and what your mind can playback including pictures you might still have or movies newspapers class yearbooks anything that makes peace work for yourself without focusing on manipulation. Take your time and avoid a y negative unless you need to counsel with a psychiatrist. Every soldier lived a certain way of life before a certain Way before occured. It’s a journey of time for soldiers I’m just saying maybe what a wrote is helpful….