The Peerless Quartet: I Didn’t Raise My Son To Be A Soldier (1915)

The Peerless Quartet (known as the Columbia Quartet prior to 1908). From left to right; John H. Meyer, Henry Burr, Frank Croxton, Albert Campbell. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dandelion Salad

Oct 28, 2012 by StoptheWarCoalition

Released in 1915, I Didn’t Raise My Son to be a Soldier, sung here by the Peerless Quartet, was the first commercially successful anti-war record and featured prominently in the American anti-war movement opposing US entry in the first world war. The warmongering ex-president Theodore Roosevelt objected to the song’s message of peace and its early feminism: “Foolish people who applaud a song entitled ‘I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier’ are just the people who would also in their hearts applaud a song entitled ‘I Didn’t Raise my Girl To Be A Mother.”

Chris Hedges: War Exposes The Lies Of Patriotism

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
October 10, 2012

Oct 8, 2012 by catwatters4

55 Water Street NYC at the Veterans Memorial. The Vets for Peace had a gathering to send a message to end these unjust wars. Just as Chris Hedges began his very inspiring and moving speech, fireworks started and continued throughout his talk adding poignantly to his message.

Ch 11: Exit Free (A collective in the USA that helps women leave the military by discharge or desertion) by William T. Hathaway

by William T. Hathaway
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
October 6, 2012

Image by Joelstuff V4 via Flickr

Exit Free
From the book
RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War
By William T. Hathaway
Published by Trine Day

The following report was contributed by Naomi Golner, one of the founders of Exit Free, a collective in the USA that helps women leave the military by discharge or desertion.

I’ve become a criminal for peace. How I got there is a complicated story, beginning when the community college where I teach reduced most of its humanities faculty to adjunct status.

The Maimed, by Chris Hedges

Video: Chris Hedges: War Exposes The Lies Of Patriotism

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
October 8, 2012

Image by World Can’t Wait via Flickr

Chris Hedges gave this talk Sunday night in New York City at a protest denouncing the 11th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. The event, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, was led by Veterans for Peace.

Many of us who are here carry within us death. The smell of decayed and bloated corpses. The cries of the wounded. The shrieks of children. The sound of gunfire. The deafening blasts. The fear. The stench of cordite. The humiliation that comes when you surrender to terror and beg for life. The loss of comrades and friends. And then the aftermath. The long alienation. The numbness. The nightmares. The lack of sleep. The inability to connect to all living things, even to those we love the most. The regret. The repugnant lies mouthed around us about honor and heroism and glory. The absurdity. The waste. The futility.

Ch. 10: Comrades in Arms — Rape in the U.S. Military by William T. Hathaway

by William T. Hathaway
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
August 12, 2012

Comrades in Arms
From the book
RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War
By William T. Hathaway
Published by Trine Day

I received this letter from an ex-soldier.

Hi Mr. Hathaway,

I got your letter (forwarded) asking for information for your book. To answer your first question, Yes, I’m enjoying living in Holland. I’m becoming the little Dutch girl — the little Black Dutch girl, but that doesn’t bother people here. They’re very tolerant and internationally minded.

Tom Waits: Hell Broke Luce

Image by joka2000 via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Aug 6, 2012 by antirecords

Directed By Matt Mahurin

“Hell Broke Luce” from the album Bad As Me, Anti Records 2011

http://www.tomwaits.com

Don’t Enlist, But Don’t Just Take My Word For It, by Lo

Image by Mario Klingemann via Flickr

by Lo
Editor, Dandelion Salad
July 12, 2012

This is the most important blog post on Dandelion Salad. Please pass this on to anyone you know who may be considering enlisting as a soldier (mercenary). Stop them from selling their souls.

War Is Betrayal by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
July 13, 2012

Image by World Can’t Wait via Flickr

This piece originally appeared in the Boston Review.

The Blooming of a Movement – Documentary Film (2010)

Image by ElvertBarnes via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

May 13, 2012 by SocialJusticeNOW

The People’s Bishop by Chris Hedges + 50 arrested as Occupy protests at the “church of the 1%”

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
May 7, 2012

Ch. 9: Comparing Evils by William T. Hathaway

by William T. Hathaway
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
February 22, 2012

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Comparing Evils

From the book
RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War
By William T. Hathaway
Published by Trine Day

Jamal Khan is an Afghan journalist who fled his country because of Taliban persecution and now lives in Germany. We met in the apartment of a mutual friend from the Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft, the German Peace Society. Jamal is mid-forties, thin, with curly brown hair, tan skin, and clear green eyes that take everything in. We spoke in German, then later reworked the interview from my English translation.

The True Patriot by Ed Ciaccio

by Ed Ciaccio
Dandelion Salad
Featured Writer
February 6, 2012

Image by LianaAn, on Flickr

We’re really all in this together,
Every color, gender and age,
To help each other survive
The fierce storms which will soon rage.

Storms of money and climate and fear
Will threaten to drive us apart,
So we must always remember
Deep in both mind and heart

Ch. 8: From Cheerleader to Enemy of the State by William T. Hathaway

by William T. Hathaway
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
January 23, 2012

Image by pverdicchio via Flickr

From Cheerleader to Enemy of the State

From the book
RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War
By William T. Hathaway
Published by Trine Day

The long, flouncy curls from Judy Davis’ cheerleader days are gone. Her straight blonde hair is now cut short. Large blue eyes stand out in a face pale without makeup. Her soft Southern drawl has an undertone of determination. “It’s taken me awhile, but now I’m glad to be considered an ‘unsuitable influence.’ That was how the school board justified my firing. That and ‘deviating from the curriculum.’ It’s like they were implying I was a deviant. And according to their norms, I am.”

Heroes By Gary Corseri

By Gary Corseri
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
January 8, 2012

Do not call them “heroes”
if they have done your killing for you.
Say that they have done your bidding;
say they were your “soldiers.”

Kevin Baker: Soldiers have real power when they organize

Dandelion Salad

Image by theunabonger via Flickr

by Pulse TV & Maverick Media
http://vimeo.com/34783351

Kevin Baker joined the Army fully believing that he would be supporting the U.S. as a real force for good, toppling a brutal dictator, and bringing democracy to the country. This is his story of how he came to awareness and how he and other soldiers joined together to stand up to the Brass and demand care for themselves.