Military Resistance: thomasfbarton@earthlink.net 9.12.10 Print it out: color best. Pass it on.

Military Resistance 8I8

“Those Of Us That Do Unaccompanied Tours Overseas Then PCS To A

Deploying Unit Get Left In The Dwell-Time Dark”

After adding up my total enlistment time, I will have served four years and five months. I added together the amount of time I have spent with my family, including block leaves and the short time they were able to spend in Kentucky, and it is a grand total of 10 months and 17 days.

Letters To The EditorArmy Times9.6.10

I am gearing up for another deployment and that itself is not so bad except I have only been back stateside for about nine months.

While stationed in Germany in 2008 without my family, I was deployed to Iraq for 14 months.

A few months after I returned, I finally received orders for Fort Campbell, Ky., in November 2009. I was so excited to finally put my family life back together.

It took a couple of months to finalize my family permanent change of station, but I finally got them moved in the beginning of February.

I went in to work, and after first formation, the commander put out a deployment warning for late summer or early fall.

So after only nine months of being able to be with my family, and actually only having a total of five months with them over the last three years, I am leaving them again.

After adding up my total enlistment time, I will have served four years and five months.

I added together the amount of time I have spent with my family, including block leaves and the short time they were able to spend in Kentucky, and it is a grand total of 10 months and 17 days.

That’s not even one-quarter of my enlistment. Those of us that do unaccompanied tours overseas then PCS to a deploying unit get left in the dwell-time dark.

Sgt. James Ray Stanley Afghanistan

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Funeral Honors Missouri Soldier Killed By Rocket Attack

09.01.2010 by Ashley Smith, Barrington Broadcasting & by Sgt. Cody Harding, Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System [Excerpts]

BASRA, Iraq – Sgt. Brandon Maggart was sleeping when the sirens went off, Aug. 22. Seconds after the warning, a rocket struck the roof of his housing unit on Basra.

Fellow Soldiers of the 5th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment rushed to his side providing medical aid. He was removed from the room and rushed to the troop medical clinic emergency room.

KIRKSVILLE, MO. -- Sergeant Brandon Maggart was remembered with full military honors Wednesday. The soldier died in Basrah, Iraq on August 22nd.

The young soldier leaves behind his wife Teresa and his three-year-old son Blake. Fellow soldiers, local officials, and community members were present to show their support for the Maggart family.

Pastor Larry Page officiated. Page lost his son four years ago after he was killed in action in Iraq.

“In my own experiences I realize that words can not comfort at a time like this, our words are empty and their meaningless. Brandon left behind a legacy, a legacy that can not be denied,” said Pastor Larry Page.

FOOLS THOUGHT IT WAS OVER:NOT ANOTHER DAY

NOT ANOTHER DOLLARNOT ANOTHER LIFE

The remains of Army Sgt. Phillip C. Jenkins Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Jenkins, 26, of Decatur, Ind., died Sept. 7 in Balad, Iraq of wounds sustained from small arms fire. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Soldier From 2 LANCS Dies Of Wounds Sustained In Nahr-e Saraj

11 Sep 10 Ministry of Defence

It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must announce that a soldier from the 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham on 10 September 2010 as a result of injuries sustained in Afghanistan.

The soldier, serving as part of Combined Force Nahr-e Saraj (South), died from the injuries sustained from a gunshot wound in the Nahr-e Saraj District of Helmand Province on the morning of 23 August 2010.

Monroe Grad Killed By Insurgents In Afghanistan

Spc. James C. Robinson

August 31, 2010 By Tiffany Y. Latta, Staff Writer; Middletown Journal

MONROE — A Monroe High School graduate serving in Afghanistan was killed this weekend when his unit was attacked by insurgents.

U.S. Army Spc. James C. Robinson, 27, of Lebanon died Saturday, Aug. 28, in the Bermal district in Paktika province, Afghanistan, when the unit was hit with indirect fire, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Monday.

Robinson graduated in 2001 from Monroe High School, where he was a member of the school’s science club and soccer team. The district plans to honor his memory Friday night before the Monroe Hornets football game vs. Ross High School, said Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli.

Assistant Principal Robert Millisor said Monroe teachers and administrators were stunned Monday when they learned of Robinson’s death.

“It’s always tragic when you have a young man give his life in this way and it’s even tougher when you know him,” said Millisor, who described Robinson as a kind-hearted, fun-loving and outgoing student who was quick to help others.

Robinson was one of 14 American troops to have been killed in the last three days in Afghanistan, according to reports.

Robinson is the first Monroe grad Millisor said he knows of who has been killed in either Iraq or Afghanistan, and said his death impacts the entire community.

“When you have something like this happen and a young man gives the ultimate sacrifice, it’s tough on everybody ... The whole district is mourning his passing.”

A Robinson family friend and member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Lebanon asked area residents to pray for the Robinson family and for troops serving overseas. “The story tonight is what the cost of freedom is. There’s a mother and a father who are coming home without their son,” said Tom, who would only give his first name. “This is the cost of freedom. Some young man is coming home in a flag-draped casket. That is the price and it’s a steep price.”

Millisor and Lolli said their hearts go out to Robinson’s family and friends. “It saddens us as a district to lose one of our former students and it’s sad for the Monroe community as a whole,” Lolli said.

Robinson was an infantryman assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). He joined the Army in February 2005 and arrived at Fort Campbell that November.

His awards and decorations include: Bronze Star; Purple Heart; Army Commendation Medal; Army Good Conduct Medal; Army Service Ribbon; National Defense Service Medal; Afghanistan Campaign Medal; Iraq Campaign Medal; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Overseas Service Ribbon; NATO Medal; Combat Infantry Badge; and Weapons Qualification, M4, expert.

Robinson is survived by his wife, Kathryn, daughter Victoria, and stepdaughter Emily B. Cable, who live in Fort Campbell; and his parents Kimberly and James Robinson of Middletown.

Millisor said Robinson’s younger brother and sister also graduated from Monroe.

Huntington GI Knew Dangers Awaited

Clements

September 2, 2010 Jeff Wiehe, The Journal Gazette

With the number of U.S. troops touching down in Afghanistan continually escalating throughout the summer, Chad Clements was as nervous about war as anyone else would be, his family said.

Still, he was prepared to do what he was signed up to do.

“He was ready to go,” said Tim Clements, a cousin who knew Chad his entire life and spoke to the 26-year-old Huntington resident days before he deployed Aug. 5. “It was something new and different.”

Details of Pfc. Chad Clements’ death and the deaths of four soldiers who were with him were officially released by the Department of Defense on Wednesday.

An improvised bomb tore apart a Humvee traveling through the Arghandab River Valley on Monday. It killed Clements along with Capt. Dale A. Goetz, 43, of White, S.D.; Staff Sgt. Jesse Infante, 30, of Cypress, Texas; Staff Sgt. Kevin J. Kessler, 32, of Canton, Ohio; and Staff Sgt. Matthew J. West, 36 of Conover, Wis.

The Arghandab River Valley is a Taliban stronghold that contains numerous land mines. President Obama has sent a surge of 30,000 troops into the country to help with the war, which had meaning not lost on Clements, his family said.

“He was very apprehensive about what lay ahead,” said Michael Clements, another cousin of Chad Clements.

“It was something new, and obviously there were reports we were stepping up our interactions in Afghanistan. You don’t step up forces if everything is going smoothly.”

The soldiers killed in the bomb attack Monday were from Fort Carson, an Army outpost in Colorado Springs, Colo., that has suffered heavy losses in Afghanistan.

Eight soldiers from Fort Carson were killed in October in an attack on a remote outpost in the northern part of the country.

Clements joined the Army in February 2009, just a month before he turned 25, according to his sister Danielle Clements.

Before he enlisted, Clements worked construction jobs, his cousins said. One day, he called Tim Clements to tell him he had signed on the dotted line, that he was actually a member of the Army. He wanted to make a difference, both Tim and Mike Clements said.

“I said, ‘Congratulations,’ ” Tim recalled. “(Some might have asked him) ‘Why? Why right now with everything going on in the world?’ But he felt pretty passionate about what he decided to do.”

As of late Tuesday, the U.S. death toll for Afghanistan in August stood at 56 – three-quarters of them in the second half of the month as the Taliban fought back against U.S. pressure in southern and eastern strongholds.

American losses accounted for more than 70 percent of the 76 fatalities suffered by the entire NATO-led force.

Until the late-month spike, it appeared the August death toll would be well below the monthly records of 66 in July and 60 in June.

Moreland’s Coleman Among Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

Pfc. Chad Derek Coleman

August 31, 2010 By Elizabeth Richardson, The Times-Herald

Private First Class Chad Derek Coleman, a soldier from Moreland, was killed Friday when a command-wired improvised explosive device was detonated near his vehicle during convoy operations in the Paktiya province of Afghanistan.

Coleman, 20, was a cavalry scout assigned to B Troop, 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Ky.

Also killed in the attack was Pvt. Adam J. Novak, 30, of Prairie du Sac, Wisc.

Coleman entered the Army in October 2008 and arrived at Fort Campbell in March 2009.

Coleman is survived by his father, Brian P. Coleman, and his mother, Shanon C. Coleman, both of Moreland.

Family friend Sonja Dobek said Tuesday Coleman was “a great kid” who was also very determined in his military career.

“He was an only child and was loved very much,” said Dobek. “He had the best sense of humor. You never saw him where he didn’t have a smile on his face. This is just hard to believe.”

His parents, who were originally from Wisconsin, received the news of their son’s death on Friday. Coleman’s body was returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday. Funeral services will be announced later.

Coleman attended Newnan High School from August 2005 to the spring of 2009.

On Tuesday, Newnan Principal Dr. Douglas Moore recalled his experiences with Coleman while he was a student.

Moore remembers Coleman as a “fun kid” who also happened to be “challenging from time to time.”

Coleman loved to wear his baseball cap and had to be reminded on a number of occasions to remove it while at school. Moore said he’d always remove it with a “yes, sir.”

“He made his presence known,” said Moore. “He didn’t just fit into the fabric.”

Moore said he wasn’t surprised by Coleman’s career track.

“It doesn’t surprise me he went into the military and volunteered for scout duty — that’s just part of his personality,” said Moore. “He wasn’t part of the status quo. He stood up for what he wanted.”

Moore recalls that he socialized with a group of close friends that were “genuine, down-to-earth, good kids.”

“Chad warmed up to us,” said his former principal. “He didn’t like moving to Georgia from Wisconsin, but it did eventually become home to him, I think.”

Moore said he had conversations with Coleman about what was important to him. He fondly recalled that Coleman “always had strong opinions and defended them.”

“He had a strong personality, but he was just a good kid. I was sorry to hear the news.”

Leslie Merriman, the executive director for the Newnan-Coweta Habitat for Humanity, said Coleman’s class at the Central Educational Center volunteered during a couple of

Habitat’s home builds. She spoke with him once regarding his decision to enlist in the military.

“I may not come back alive, but I’m not afraid of dying,” he told her.

Tom Barnett was Coleman’s construction teacher at CEC for at least two semesters.

“The one thing that stands out about him was his desire to serve his country,” said Barnett. “He talked about his plans on an ongoing basis with me both personally and with the class, and looked forward to finishing school and enlisting.

“Chad was quite a character,” Barnett continued. “He was fun-loving and enjoyed being with his classmates.”

According to a Fort Campbell news release, Coleman’s awards and decorations included: Army Good Conduct Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Afghanistan Campaign Medal; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Army Service Ribbon; NATO Medal and Weapons Qualification: M4 rifle (expert).

Wis. Soldier With Minn. Ties Killed In Afghanistan

This undated photo released by the U.S. Army shows Pvt. Adam Novak, 20, of Prairie du Sac, Wis. Novak was killed Friday, Aug. 30, 2010 in the Dzardan district of Afghanistan, the Defense Department said. (AP Phto/U.S. Army)

August 31 2010 AP

A Wisconsin soldier who grew up in Minnesota was killed while serving in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Monday.

Pvt. Adam Novak, 20, of Prairie du Sac, was killed Friday in the Dzardan district of Afghanistan, the Defense Department said. He had been serving in the 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division, based at Ft. Campbell, Ky.

The military said Novak was one of two soldiers killed when insurgents attacked their vehicle with a roadside bomb in Paktiya, Afghanistan. The other was Pfc. Chad D. Coleman, 20, of Moreland, Ga.

"All we know is he was in a heavily armored vehicle and he hit a road bomb," said Novak’s stepfather, Rick Block. "They think it was electronically detonated, and they said that’s all they know until it’s investigated."

Novak was a 2008 graduate of Sauk Prairie High School, according to family friend Sandy Richards of Fergus Falls, Minn. Novak and his family had lived in Fergus Falls for about 11 years before he and his family moved back to Wisconsin in 2008, Richards said.

Novak is survived by his wife, Celeste Stuessy Novak, of Prairie du Sac; his mother, Sue Block, of Prairie du Sac; two sisters; and two brothers

Novak came home one day and told his family he had joined the Army, Block said. While Novak didn’t discuss his decision with his family beforehand, Block added that he didn’t discourage his stepson from enlisting.

"We worried about him every day, but I think the military is good for some people, and I’m a believer in the cause. We gave him our blessing and kept our fingers crossed," Block said.

Richards said Novak’s mother is devastated and noted his brother Logan Novak, 23, also is serving in Afghanistan.

Block said Logan had arrived in Afghanistan just a week ago, and was sent home after they got the news. Block said he didn’t want to talk about the prospect of the older brother returning to Afghanistan after the funeral.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Richards said Adam, who worked on military trucks, had a lot of connections in Fergus Falls, in part because he was involved in Boy Scouts and played soccer in the northwestern Minnesota town.

"He was a very kind, loving boy," Richards said. "He always thought of others, always."

Richards was Novak’s Sunday school teacher in Fergus Falls.

"He was a dream kid to teach, very intelligent, he caught on," she said.

Adam’s father died in 2002. After his mother remarried the family moved back to Wisconsin, where Adam finished his senior year of high school, Richards said.

After taking a year off, Adam enlisted in the Army. He was "really pumped about it and proud to do it," Richards said. Logan joined shortly afterward.

Adam Novak met his future wife while completing his basic training. They got married in March, surprising his family, Richards said. They had planned to hold a formal wedding ceremony in November when Novak was scheduled to return to Wisconsin.

"He was very respectful," said Richards, who said she drove all night to visit Adam’s mother in Wisconsin after the family was notified of his death. "He’s the kind of person you want for a best friend."

“Afghanistan Is More Dangerous Than It Has Ever Been During This War, With Security Deteriorating In

Recent Months”“Large Parts Of The Country That Were Once Completely Safe Now

Have A Substantial Taliban Presence”

“With One Attack After Another, The Taliban And Their Insurgent Allies Have Degraded Security In Almost Every Part

Of The Country”

Last month, ISAF recorded 4,919 “kinetic events,” including small-arms fire, bombs and shelling, a 7 percent increase over the previous month, and a 49 percent increase over August 2009, according to Maj. Sunset R. Belinsky, an ISAF spokeswoman. August 2009 was itself an unusually active month for the insurgency as it sought to disrupt the presidential elections then.

September 11, 2010 By ROD NORDLAND, The New York Times [Excerpts]

KABUL, Afghanistan — Even as more American troops flow into the country, Afghanistan is more dangerous than it has ever been during this war, with security deteriorating in recent months, according to international organizations and humanitarian groups.

Large parts of the country that were once completely safe, like most of the northern provinces, now have a substantial Taliban presence — even in areas where there are few Pashtuns, who previously were the Taliban’s only supporters.

As NATO forces poured in and shifted to the south to battle the Taliban in their stronghold, the Taliban responded with a surge of their own, greatly increasing their activities in the north and parts of the east.

The number of insurgent attacks has increased significantly; in August 2009, insurgents carried out 630 attacks. This August, they initiated at least 1,353, according to the Afghan N.G.O. Safety Office, an independent organization financed by Western governments and agencies to monitor safety for aid workers.

The International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, does not routinely release detailed data on attacks around the country, and the Afghan government stopped doing so in mid-2009.

United Nations officials have also stopped releasing details of attacks, though they monitor them closely.

Requests for access to that information were denied.

American military officials say the increased level of violence is related to the rise in the number of its forces here.

That does not entirely explain the increased activity of the Taliban in areas where they were seldom seen before, and where the coalition presence is light, however.

While how many fighters the insurgents have is a matter of estimate and conjecture, the impact they have had is easy enough to judge.

Last month, ISAF recorded 4,919 “kinetic events,” including small-arms fire, bombs and shelling, a 7 percent increase over the previous month, and a 49 percent increase over August 2009, according to Maj. Sunset R. Belinsky, an ISAF spokeswoman. August 2009 was itself an unusually active month for the insurgency as it sought to disrupt the presidential elections then.

With one attack after another, the Taliban and their insurgent allies have degraded security in almost every part of the country (the one exception is Panjshir Province in the north, which has never succumbed to Taliban control).

The Afghan N.G.O. Safety Office says that by almost every metric it has, Afghanistan is more dangerous now than at any time since 2001.

“We do not support the perspective that this constitutes ‘things getting worse before they get better,’ ” said Nic Lee, director of the Afghan N.G.O. Safety Office, “but rather see it as being consistent with the five-year trend of things just getting worse.”

POLITICIANS CAN’T BE COUNTED ON TO HALT THE BLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE WARS

Good News For The Afghan Resistance!!

U.S. Occupation Commands’ Stupid Tactics Recruit Even More Fighters To

Kill U.S. Troops

A U.S. Marine puts his hands on the body of an Afghan boy without the knowledge or consent of his family in Deevelak village in Helmand, Afghanistan September 11, 2010. REUTERS/Erik de Castro

Afghani boys have no right to resist body touching by occupation soldiers from the USA.

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 94,000 Afghan troops over here to the USA.

[They can kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses with force and violence, bomb and butcher their families, overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better and “detain” anybody who doesn’t like it in a military prison endlessly without any charges being filed against them, or any trial.

[Those Afghans are sure a bunch of backward primitives.

[They actually resent this help, have the absurd notion that it’s bad their country is occupied by a foreign military dictatorship killing them wholesale, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight and kill the soldiers sent to grab their country.

[What a bunch of silly people.

[How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by Barrack Obama. Why, how could anybody not love that? You’d want that in your home town, right?]

WELCOME TO THE LONELY SIDE OF HELL:ALL HOME NOW!

US soldiers prepare for a patrol in Kandahar province, August 14, 2010. (AFP/File/Volatile Yuri Cortez)

U.S. marines from 1st Light Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion patrol Taghaz village in Helmand September 7, 2010. REUTERS/Erik de Castro

U.S. Marines from 1st Light Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion, Alpha Company patrol an area in Taghaz village in Helmand, Afghanistan September 9, 2010. REUTERS/Erik de Castro

A U.S. army soldier from Task Force 1-66 provides security during a patrol on the hill, over looking his unit’s temporary base in Arghandab River valley, Kandahar province, September 10, 2010. REUTERS/Oleg Popov

SOMALIA WAR REPORTS

Insurgents Attack Mogadishu Airport

9 Sept. (AKI)

Insurgent group Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack Thursday at Mogadishu airport. At least 13 people were killed and scores were wounded when two explosives-filled vehicles blew up at the gates of Aden International airport, according to reports.

The spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping mission AMISOM could not be immediately contacted to establish if peacekeepers were amongst the dead.

Al-Shabab is in the third week of an offensive aimed at toppling the weak Western-backed government after years of bloody stalemate.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

Frederick Douglass, 1852

Hope for change doesn’t cut it when you’re still losing buddies.-- J.D. Englehart, Iraq Veterans Against The War

“What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.”-- Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike Hastie

U.S. Army MedicVietnam 1970-71December 13, 2004

“The Nixon administration claimed and received great credit for withdrawing the Army from Vietnam, but it was the rebellion of low-ranking GIs that forced the government to abandon a hopeless suicidal policy”-- David Cortright; Soldiers In Revolt

September 13, 1858:Truly Heroic Action:

Armed Abolitionists Rescue Captured Ex-Slave:

“The Group Wanted To Proceed Nonviolently, But When The Kentuckians

Refused To Surrender Price, The Response Was ‘We Will Have Him

Anyhow’”

These were twenty of the thirty-seven citizens from Oberlin and Wellington who were charged with breaking the law by helping John Price escape from slave catchers in the fall of 1858. The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue and subsequent trial caught the eye of the

nation as escalating tensions over slavery raised the prospect of civil war. (Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives)

“I must take upon myself the responsibility of self-protection; when I come to be claimed by some perjured wretch as his slave, I shall never be taken into slavery.

Carl Bunin Peace History September 8-14

A group of the citizens of Oberlin, Ohio, stopped Kentucky slavecatchers from kidnapping John Price, a black man.

Shakespeare Boynton, son of a wealthy landowner had lured Price with the promise of work. Oberlinians, black and white, from town and from the local College, pursued the kidnappers to nearby Wellington at word of his abduction.

The group, led by Charles Langston, James M. Fitch, bookseller and superintendent of the Oberlin Sunday School, and John Watson, a grocer, wanted to proceed nonviolently, but when the Kentuckians refused to surrender Price, the response was “we will have him anyhow.”

They rushed the door guards of the Inn and theology student Richard Winsor took Price to safety, hidden for a time in the home of Oberlin College President James Fairchild, later helped across the Canadian border to freedom.

***************************

Oberlinheritage.org

Oberlin And Anti-Slavery

Oberlin was a uniquely tolerant community in the early nineteenth century.

Founded in 1833, Oberlin College pioneered co-education and in 1835 broke new ground by admitting students regardless of their race. Many residents were abolitionists and over two hundred people joined together to form the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society in 1835.

The society was dedicated to “the immediate emancipation of the whole colored race within the United States:

“The emancipation of the slave from the oppression of the master, the emancipation of the free colored man from the oppression of public sentiment, and the elevation of both to an intellectual, moral, and political equality with the whites.”

Over the next generation, Oberlinians supported the antislavery cause by helping fugitive slaves escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

After the federal government passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Oberlin abolitionists grew increasingly concerned about the threat posed by slave catchers hired to recover slaves who had “stolen” themselves from their masters.

Under the 1850 Act, federal marshals received rewards for the arrest and return of alleged fugitive slaves, and anyone caught helping a freedom seeker could be jailed and fined. Antislavery activists throughout the nation denounced the law as immoral and Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin to rally public opinion against the measure.

Most Oberlin residents were proud of the town’s reputation as a major station on the Underground Railroad and were more ready than ever to safeguard the escaped men, women, and children seeking aid in their community.

John Price was a young man who had escaped from his Kentucky slave owner in the mid-1850s.

He had been living and working in Oberlin for about two years when, in the fall of 1858, slavecatchers Anderson Jennings and Richard Mitchell conspired to kidnap Price and bring him back to his Kentucky master. With the help of a few locals (not everyone in Oberlin was an abolitionist), on September 13, 1858 the slave catchers lured Price out of Oberlin with the promise of work.

Armed with weapons and a warrant, Mitchell, federal marshal Jacob Lowe, and his assistant Samuel Davis forced Price into their carriage. They then drove him eight miles south to Wellington, Ohio to catch the 5:13 p.m. southbound train.

News of John Price’s kidnapping spread quickly in downtown Oberlin as townspeople, students, and professors rallied together in response.

“They have carried off one of our men in broad daylight, and are an hour on their way already!” shouted one outraged citizen.

The Kidnapping Of John Price And The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue

Side view of Wadsworth’s Hotel in Wellington, Ohio (Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives)

White and black Oberlinians hurried the eight miles to Wellington in wagons, buggies, carriages, and some even on foot to rescue Price from slavery.

When John H. Scott went to his neighbor, Mrs. Oliver P. Ryder, to borrow a horse she told him, “If necessary, spare not the life of my beast, but rescue the boy.”

John Watson, a black store owner in Oberlin, arrived in Wellington first.

Soon between 200 and 500 men crowded the streets around the Wadsworth Hotel where the slavecatchers held Price.

The crowd began to shout back and forth with the captors, disputing the legality of the capture and demanding to hear from Price himself.

Many in the crowd were determined to free Price, whatever the law or consequences.

Charles Langston, a black school teacher, moved through the crowd trying to calm the armed protesters.

When the southbound train arrived, the situation grew urgent and the crowd began to force their way into the hotel.

In the confusion that followed, Price escaped with the help of men who had been trying to negotiate with the captors. Energized by the success of the rescue, Oberlin residents paraded back from Wellington, “shouting, singing, rejoicing in the glad results.”

Price first hid in the home of James Fitch, but then moved because Fitch was a known agent of the Underground Railroad. Fitch and Professor James Monroe approached Oberlin College professor James Fairchild, who was known as a more conservative, law-abiding citizen. Fairchild disapproved of slavery and agreed to house Price until he was able to continue north.

As the rescuers had hoped, no one came to search Fairchild’s home. With the help of others, John Price probably made his way into Canada. Unfortunately, the story of his life after the rescue is lost to us today.

The Trial Of The Rescuers

Jubilant spirits in Oberlin dimmed when thirty-seven of the Rescuers, both black and white, were charged with breaking federal law. Twenty-five of the men were from Oberlin and twelve were from Wellington.

Ever defiant and trusting in the right of a “higher law,” many of the accused and their wives attended a “Felon’s Feast” on January 11, 1859. Sixty-four guests dined while the Oberlin String Band played. The night was filled with speeches, toasts, spirited criticism of slavery, and a few jokes as well.

The town had less to cheer about in the following months as the lengthy trials began and the Rescuers were remanded to jail for their refusal to post bond. They had little chance of escaping legal punishment with a Cleveland-based jury entirely formed of Democrats who opposed abolition.

Their lawyers used the trial to speak about the horrors of slavery and to persuade people to support the Republican cause. Two of the defendants sold 5,000 copies of their newspaper “The Rescuer” from inside the jail.

Rescuers Simeon Bushnell and Charles Langston were eventually convicted of violating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Bushnell’s sentiments likely matched those of his fellow prisoners when he wrote, “They may do their worst, & when I am again out, I will rescue the first slave I get a chance to rescue.”

On May 24, 1859 thousands of people crowded into Cleveland’s Public Square to support the Rescuers.

Court costs continued to mount and the legal tangle intensified when the Rescuers’ supporters arranged for the arrest of the slave catchers on kidnapping charges in Lorain County. A deal was finally negotiated and the Rescuers were released on July 6, 1859, eighty-three days after being imprisoned.

John Scott was an Oberlin harness and trunk maker and one of twelve black men who were charged with breaking the law by participating in the Rescue. (Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives)

Most Oberlin residents were proud of their participation in the Rescue and the continued reputation of the community as a safe haven for all men and women, regardless of color. So strong was their belief in a “higher law” that many were surprised when Bushnell and Langston were found guilty. They saw the trial as a sham and moral outrage, and large numbers of their fellow Northerners agreed.

However, others in the North as well as the South felt the arrests and trial had been justified. By harboring fugitive slaves, Oberlin residents had been breaking the law for years.

What would happen if everyone began disobeying the laws of the state or nation because they followed a “higher law”? While Oberlin residents saw themselves as unwaveringly in the right, many outsiders thought they were arrogant idealists who were pushing the nation towards war.

For the black men and women living in Oberlin, free and fugitive, abstract debates over the law mattered less than the immediate necessity of ensuring their own safety and the safety of their families and friends.

Yet they also recognized that fundamental principles were at stake.

After being tried and found guilty, Charles Langston gave a speech to the court that eloquently expressed his belief in universal human rights:

“I must take upon myself the responsibility of self-protection; when I come to be claimed by some perjured wretch as his slave, I shall never be taken into slavery.

“And as in that trying hour I would have others do to me, as I would call upon my friends to help me, as I would call upon you, your Honor, to help me, as I would call upon you (the prosecuting and defense attorneys) to help me, and upon you and upon you, so help me God! I stand here to say that I will do all I can for any man thus seized and held!

“ . . . We have all a common humanity, and you all would do that; your manhood would require it, and no matter what the laws might be, you would honor yourself for doing it, while your friends and your children to all generations would honor you for doing it, and every good and honest man would say you had done right!”

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

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CLASS WAR REPORTS

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Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces.

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Nothing New Here:Another Citizen Executed By Seattle

Scum In Blue:"In What Moral Universe Does A Man

Carrying A Piece Of Wood And A Three-Inch Fishing Knife Find Himself Stopped

By Police And, Without Any Apparent Provocation, Get Shot Dead On The

Spot?"

KATU

September 8, 2010 By Amy Smith, Socialist Worker [Excerpts]

A HOMELESS Native American man named John T. Williams became the latest victim of the brutal Seattle police when an officer shot him four times on August 30, killing him on the spot.

In what the Seattle Times called "an unusual cluster of recent incidents in which police in the region have shot suspects," Seattle-area residents had six violent encounters with police in a six-day period spanning the end of August and beginning of September--and five times, the incidents turned out deadly.

Seattle police officer Ian Birk says that when he saw John Williams holding a knife and piece of wood on the corner of Boren Avenue and Howell Street downtown, he stopped his car, switched on his emergency lights and stepped out to confront the man. After telling Williams to drop the knife three times, Birk fired four rounds at Williams from approximately 10 feet away, killing the homeless man. The entire reportedly incident lasted about a minute.

On the day of the shooting, Seattle Police Department spokeswoman Renee Witt said, "The male stood up and made advances toward the officer. The officer yelled very loud commands for the gentleman to stop and to drop the knife, at which point he did not."

But witnesses tell it differently.

"When I heard that story, I was really upset because it was just total counter to what I witnessed," one onlooker told King 5 News.

According to this witness, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Thomas, Williams was actually walking away from Officer Birk.

Thomas reports that the bullets must have gone into Williams’ side and back because he never turned around. Another witness, Gregory Reese, remembers seeing Williams turn, but said that he didn’t move toward the officer or pose a threat.

FRIENDS, FAMILY and acquaintances of Williams have all come forward in the past week to say that Williams may not have even heard the officer’s demands.

"I wonder if the officer knew he was hard of hearing; he told me he could not hear out of one ear," said a local business owner acquainted with Williams. "If it was my guess, I would just say he was standing there and the officer was trying to get his attention and John didn’t hear him."

In addition, Williams had a drinking problem, which often made him slow to respond or understand what was going on.

The weapon that allegedly posed such a threat to Officer Birk was a knife with a three-inch blade that Williams used to carve wood.

Williams was a Ditidaht member of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations, a native group that forms a small community on the west coast of Vancouver Island. He was a regular at the Chief Seattle Club, a nonprofit group that provides meals and services to Native American and First Nations people.

Williams was also a seventh-generation carver--that’s why he was carrying the knife and the wood.

He often carved miniature totem poles that he sold to buy food, and sometimes alcohol--but also to buy food and gifts for his friends. According to friends of Williams, the day he died, he was on his way to sell his art at Pike Place Market.

Immediately following the shooting, an unnamed homeless man approached Williams’ body, clearly upset, angry and frightened.

Other police officers on the scene ordered the man to show his hands, and when he didn’t move fast enough, they wrestled him to the ground and arrested him.

The people of Seattle have responded to this terrible act committed by the police.

On September 2, more than 200 community members turned out for a candlelight vigil to celebrate the life and mourn the loss of John Williams.

In a news conference the next day, Native American and Canadian First Nations leaders called for a full investigation into the shooting, and also demanded that the department change the way it relates to Native American communities.

"This tragedy should never have happened," Jenine Grey, director of the Chief Seattle Club, said. "We are worried about our most vulnerable community members who suffer regular harassment and abuse on the streets of Seattle."

Grey added that, in a city named for an Indian chief, it was incredible that a Native American man carving wood could be perceived as a threat.

"In what moral universe does a man carrying a piece of wood and a three-inch fishing knife find himself stopped by police and, without any apparent provocation, get shot dead on the spot?" asked Tim Harris, director of Seattle’s homeless newspaper Real Change. "A universe in which the lives of the very poor have little to no value."

Harris concluded, "In Seattle today, to be poor, to have no social status, is to live in fear; to have one’s own utter expendability pressed up against one’s nose."

UNFORTUNATELY, THIS has been true for a long time, and the use of excessive force has become the norm for the Seattle Police Department (SPD).

In June, video was released of a Seattle police officer punching a 17-year-old African American woman in the face during a stop for jaywalking.

In April, Seattle police officer Shandy Cobane was filmed stomping on a Mexican American man and telling him that he was going to "beat the fucking Mexican piss out of you, homey. You feel me?" while other officers watched.

Shortly afterward, the officers realized that the man being detained wasn’t connected to the assault that the police had allegedly stopped them for.

These incidents are just the most recent and notable incidents committed by a police force that is violent and racist to its core.

A look at who is arrested in Seattle exposes the SPD’s targeting of racial minorities. According to a report by the Marijuana Policy Review Panel, African American men represented 57 percent of all marijuana suspects in a city that is only 8 percent Black.

And an investigation by the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported that African Americans in Seattle are arrested for "obstructing an officer" eight times as often as whites.

"At this time, our community seems to be in an abusive relationship with law enforcement," Seattle/King County NAACP President James Bible told the Seattle Medium. "We’re living in a hostile environment for people of color, and a hostile environment for people in poverty."

“Unnecessary violence committed by Seattle police is increasing--and affecting more people. The American Civil Liberties Union reports a clear trend in reports from the City of Seattle’s Office of Professional Accountability:

“It is distressing to see how many of the excessive force complaints begin with minor street confrontations: over jaywalking, possible impound of a car, or even, in one case, refusal to show an officer a "receptacle" for disposing of dog waste.

“Citizens often do not show officers respect or attention when confronted over such minor offenses. When they verbally challenge or disregard orders given, it often leads officers to respond more harshly than warranted. I made comments about these underlying situations in 10 different cases.

“In four of them, the physical situation developed with witnesses, rather than or in addition to, suspects.”

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