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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081010T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081010T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T165311Z
CREATED:20081010T141500Z
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SUMMARY:"Disaster and Resistance: Comics and Landscapes for the 21st Century"
DESCRIPTION:A live multimedia presentation of the work in Seth Tobacman’s new book Disaster and Resistance: Comics and Landscapes for the 21st Century (2008)\, just published by AK Press. The presentation/performance features Seth\, drummer Eric Blitz and guitarist Steve Wishnia. In his bold comic style\, the longtime artist\, activist\, and educator skewers the individuals and institutions wreaking havoc across the globe today\, musing not on the chaos of instability and fear but on the struggle against it.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War. \n\n\n\nPress Release:\n\n\n\nAccording to former New York Times art director Jerelle Kraus\, “I repeatedly tried to get more of Tobocman’s work onto our pages\, but it was deemed too radical. Tobocman won’t compromise his principles for money or fashion.” \n\n\n\nIn his new book\, he outlines pressing social and political struggles at the dawn of the twenty-first century\, from post 9-11 New York City to Israel and Palestine\, to Iraq and New Orleans. Fans of his classic works\, “You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive” and “War in the Neighborhood\,” will see that his punch has not softened\, and his work continues to skewer the individuals and institutions wreaking havoc across the globe today. In his bold comic style\, Seth chronicles events as they happen\, musing not on the chaos of instability and fear but on the struggle against it. Seth will sign books after the show\, which is about an hour long. \n\n\n\nHere’s what others have to say: \n\n\n\n“For years now Seth Tobocman has been taking on the powers that be for all of us. He’s not slowing down either.” -Harvey Pekar\, groundbreaking graphic novelist and author of the American Splendor series \n\n\n\n“A graphic revelation\, an artistic and political document of enormous value in our troubled world.” -Paul Buhle\, esteemed historian of American radicalism \n\n\n\n“Once again Seth Tobocman stares straight into the eye of the storm and casts light on the darkness. His complete command of visual storytelling is perfectly matched by his unwavering ability to dissect and explain the most complex and urgent topics of the day. He brings us a behind-the-scenes view from the frontlines\, with heart and clarity\, and turns static headlines into flesh and blood realities. When people look back on our history\, Seth Tobocman’s inspiring comics will provide more insight into this era than a thousand newscasts.” -Peter Kuper\, author of “Speechless” \n\n\n\nSeth Tobocman is one of the founding editors of World War 3 Illustrated\, author/illustrator of three collections\, an educator\,and has shown his work in streets and galleries across the globe—including Exit Art\, The Museum of Modern Art\, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/disaster-and-resistance-comics-and-landscapes-for-the-21st-century/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Performance,Rock Music
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081016T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081016T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T164557Z
CREATED:20081016T142500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T164557Z
UID:10000847-1224183600-1224190800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"A Jihad for Love" with Filmmaker Parvez Sharma
DESCRIPTION:Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma has gone where the silence is loudest with a daring feature documentary\, A Jihad for Love (2007). Exploring the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality\, the film was created with great risk and secrecy in 9 languages and 12 countries where government permission was not an option. As a Muslim\, Parvez works from within the faith\, depicting Islam with the same respect that the film’s characters show for it.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nStill from A Jihad for Love by Parvez Sharma \n\n\n\nPress Release:\n\n\n\nIn a time when Islam is under tremendous attack-from within and without-“A Jihad for Love” is a daring documentary filmed in twelve countries and nine languages. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma has gone where the silence is loudest\, filming with great risk in nations where government permission to make this film was not an option. \n\n\n\n“A Jihad for Love” is Mr. Sharma’s debut and the world’s first feature documentary to explore the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality. Parvez enters the many worlds of Islam by illuminating multiple stories as diverse as Islam itself. The film travels a wide geographic arc presenting us lives from India\, Pakistan\, Iran\, Turkey\, Egypt\, South Africa andFrance. Always filming in secret and as a Muslim\, Parvez makes the film from within the faith\, depicting Islam with the same respect that the film’s characters show for it. “A Jihad for Love” is co-produced by Sandi DuBowski (director/producer of the award-winning “Trembling Before G-d”) in association with ZDF-Arte\, Channel 4\, LOGO\, SBS-Australia\, The Sundance Documentary Fund and The Katahdin Foundation. \n\n\n\nIn Western media\, the concept of “jihad” is often narrowly equated with holy war. But Jihad also has a deeper meaning\, its literal Arabic being “struggle” or “to strive in the path of God.” In this film we meet several characters engaged in their personal Jihad’s for love. The people in this film have a lot to teach us about love. Their pursuit of love has brought them into conflicts with their countries\, families\, and even themselves. Such is the quandary of being both homosexual and Muslim\, a combination so taboo that very little about it has been documented. \n\n\n\nAs a result the majority of gay and lesbian Muslims must travel a twisting\, lonely and often dangerous road. The majority of Muslims believe that homosexuality is forbidden by the Quran and many scholars quote Hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) to directly condemn homosexuality. Islam\, already the second largest religion in the world\, is also the fastest growing. Fifty nations have a Muslim majority. In a few of those nations laws interpreted from alleged Quranic prohibitions of male homosexuality (lesbianism is allegedly absent from the Quran) are enforced by religious\, tribal or military authorities to monitor\, entrap\, imprison\, torture and even execute homosexuals. Even for those who migrate to Europe or North America and adopt Western personae of “gay” or “queer\,” the relative freedoms of new homelands are mitigated by persistent racial profiling and intensified state surveillance after the attacks of 9/11 and train bombings in Madrid and London. \n\n\n\nAs a result\, many gay and lesbian Muslims end up renouncing their religion completely. But the real-life characters of “A Jihad for Love” aren’t willing to abandon a faith they cherish and that sustains them. Instead\, they struggle to reconcile their ardent belief with the innate reality of their being. The international chorus of gay and lesbian Muslims brought together by “A Jihad for Love” doesn’t seek to vilify or reject Islam\, but rather negotiate a new relationship to it. In doing so\, the film’s extraordinary characters attempt to point the way for all Muslims to move beyond the hostile\, war-torn present\, toward a more hopeful future. As one can imagine\, it was a difficult decision for the subjects to participate in the film due to the violence they could face. It took the filmmaker six years to finish this film and he\, like those who have stepped forward to tell their stories\, feel that they are Islam’s most unlikely storytellers. All of them feel that this film is too important for over a billion Muslims-and all the non-Muslims in the world-for them to say no. They are willing to take the risk in their quest to lay equal claim to their profoundly held faith. \n\n\n\n“A Jihad for Love”’s characters each have vastly different personal takes on Islam\, some observing a rigorously orthodox regimen\, others leading highly secular lifestyles while remaining spiritually devout. As the camera attentively captures their stories\, the film’s gay and lesbian characters emerge in all their human complexity\, giving the viewer an honest rendering of their lives while complicating our assumptions about a monolithic Muslim community. \n\n\n\nCrucially\, this film speaks with a Muslim voice\, unlike other documentaries about sexual politics in Islam made by Western directors. In the hope of opening a dialogue that has been mostly non-existent\, in Islam’s recent history and defining jihad as a “struggle” rather than a “war\,” the film presents the struggle for love. \n\n\n\nParvez Sharma Biography:\n\n\n\nParvez Sharma (producer/director of “A Jihad for Love”) is a Muslim gay filmmaker born and raised in India. For three years\, Sharma worked as a broadcast journalist for Asia’s premiere and most highly-rated 24-hour news network\, the Star News Channel/NDTV\, covering major assignments across the Indian subcontinent and specializing in investigative/human rights stories and political profiles. He worked as producer and/or editor for BBC World Television’s Moneywise and IndiaTomorrow\, Central Television (UK)\, The Discovery Channel (US)\, and the World Bank Film and Video Unit (US). He was the assistant director for the award-winning feature\, “Dance of the Wind\,” produced by Pandora Film in Germany and NFDC India with director Rajan Khosa which won awards at the London\, Rotterdam and Nantes Film Festivals. In 2005\, he was a producer at Democracy Now!\, the nationally broadcast radio and television program which airs on 225 stations across North America with award-winning host Amy Goodman. He produced\, edited and did additional camera for the DVD of Peter Friedman’s Sundance Grand Jury Award winning film “Silverlake Life.” \n\n\n\nParvez Sharma received his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Presidency College\, University of Calcutta (India) and three Masters degrees: Mass Communication (Film and Television) from India’s premier MCRC\, Jamia Millia Islamia University; Broadcast Journalism from the University of Wales College of Cardiff\, UK; and Film and Video from American University’s School of Communication. He has taught Indian film and other media courses at American University’s Department of Anthropology and its School of Communication in Washington\, DC. \n\n\n\nIn the nineties\, Sharma was a print journalist for several prominent Indian newspapers including The Telegraph\, The Statesman\, The Economic Times\, The Business Standard\, and India Currents Magazine. While at the Statesman he reported on what was the first ever detailing of the lesbian experience within India for a national newspaper-“Emerging from the Shadows” (July 3\, 1994)–which became a rallying point for lesbians around the country and was crucial in the formation of many lesbian organizations. As an activist he was instrumental in setting up the first organized LGBTQ effort in the eastern state of West Bengal\, setting benchmarks for many other LGBT organizing efforts around the subcontinent. Parvez has spoken internationally on distinguished film/media panels and panels on issues crucial to LGBT communities in a South Asian and Muslim context. He was a featured speaker at Yale University Law School\, at th Persistent Vision in San Francisco\, The Open Society Institute in New York\, The Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies in New York and at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Conference–Global Pride\, Global Action: Empowering the Spirit of Human Rights. \n\n\n\nSharma’s first feature documentary\, “A Jihad for Love\,” is co-produced with the UK’s Channel 4\, France’s ARTE\, Germany’s ZDF\, Australia’s SBS\, and U.S. MTV-LOGO. His work and the film have been profiled by The New York Times\, Variety\, The Atlantic Monthly\, Hollywood Reporter\, indieWIRE\, France’s Tetu Magazine\, San Francisco Gate\, on NPR-Chicago and numerous other publications. \n\n\n\nThe film has been supported by a wide number of foundations including The van Ameringen Foundation\, The Hartley Film Foundation\, The Mathilde Krim Foundation\, The Andrew Tobias Foundation-Stonewall Community Foundation\, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation\, The Fledgling Fund\, The Bruce Bastion Foundation\, The Foundation for Fairer Capitalism\, The Ted Snowdon Foundation\, and The Mark D. Hostetter and Alexander N. Habib Foundation. He was honored with a nomination for a 2007 Rockefeller Film/Video/Multimedia Fellowship. \n\n\n\nWith his wide range of experience in film\, television and activism spanning three continents (Asia\, Europe\, and North America)\, and his proficiency in five languages (English\, Hindi\, Urdu\, Bengali\, and Punjabi)\, Sharma hopes to bring a rich cultural perspective and an honest and skillful depiction of Islam-and his very own communities- to this film and the courageous journeys it documents and the global dialogue it catalyzes.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/a-jihad-for-love-with-filmmaker-parvez-sharma/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081024T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081024T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T165926Z
CREATED:20081024T143700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T165926Z
UID:10000850-1224874800-1224882000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"A Summer in the Cage" with Filmmaker Ben Selkow
DESCRIPTION:A Summer in the Cage (2007) is a stunning portrait of a battle with manic-depressive (bipolar) disorder that puts a human face on an illness that affects millions of American families. As this dramatic story unfolds\, it also becomes a unique tale about friendship and the ethical responsibilities of a documentary filmmaker. The intent was to make a film about successfully living with\, and managing\, a mental illness- but when the Hollywood ending proves too elusive\, the filmmaker and the subject are forced to ask themselves\, “When do you turn off the camera?”  \n\n\n\nThis event is co-sponsored by The Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley. \n\n\n\nPress Release:\n\n\n\n“A Summer in the Cage” follows Selkow’s friend Sam for seven years ashe suffers delusional manic episodes\, battles paralyzing depressions\,and tries to escape the legacy of his father. By showing the difficultemotional impact of being bipolar on Sam\, his family\, and thefilmmaker\, “A Summer in the Cage” hopes to put a human face on anillness that affects millions of American families. But as thisdramatic story unfolds\, it also becomes a unique tale about friendshipand the ethical responsibilities of a documentary filmmaker. Theintent was to make a film about successfully living with\, andmanaging\, a mental illness. When the “Hollywood ending” proved tooelusive\, the filmmaker and the subject are forced to ask themselves\,“When do you turn off the camera?” \n\n\n\n“I saw this film earlier this year at a film festival\,” says Sanctuaryprogrammer Penny Lane\, “and I had never seen anything like it. Thevideo diaries made by Sam during his manias are some of the most rawand powerful images I have ever encountered.” Lane was compelled tobring the film and its maker to her community after witnessing thedialogue the film provoked in the audience. \n\n\n\n“Quite frankly\, one of the most powerful documentaries I have seen\,”says author Peter Earley (CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’sMental Health Madness)\, “I do not know of any other filmmaker who hascaptured the frantic highs of mania\, the devastation of depression androller coaster of ordinary life that a person with a diagnosis ofbipolar disorder experiences.” \n\n\n\nDr. Kay Redfield Jamison\, well known professor\, author and psychiatrist\, highly recommended the film\, calling it “powerful\, affecting and honest.” \n\n\n\nBen Selkow is the director/producer/director of photography/writer of “A Summer in the Cage\,” which premiered on the Sundance Channel in October 2007 and is being distributed for home video by Indiepix. The film was nominated for a 2008 Prism Bipolar Disorder Depiction Award.In 2003\, Ben was a participant in the annual Sundance Producer’sConference at the Sundance Institute in Utah.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/a-summer-in-the-cage-with-filmmaker-ben-selkow/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081028T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081028T220000
DTSTAMP:20230705T152738Z
CREATED:20081028T145200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T152738Z
UID:10000852-1225220400-1225231200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Camilo Mejia: The Private Rebellion of a Staff Sergeant
DESCRIPTION:After serving in the Army for nearly nine years\, Camilo Mejia was the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight when he applied for discharge from the army as a conscientious objector\, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. The principled stand described in his memoir\, Road From ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia (just published by Haymarket Books)\, helped rally the growing opposition and embolden other soldiers. He was eventually convicted of desertion by a military court and sentenced to a year in prison\, prompting Amnesty International to declare him a prisoner of conscience. Camilo will speak about his experiences.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War and Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace. \n\n\n\nRegaining My Humanity \n\n\n\nBy Camilo MejiaCodePink.org \n\n\n\nThursday 17 February 2005 \n\n\n\nI was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 and returned home for a two-week leave in October. Going home gave me the opportunity to put my thoughts in order and to listen to what my conscience had to say. People would ask me about my war experiences and answering them took me back to all the horrors-the firefights\, the ambushes\, the time I saw a young Iraqi dragged by his shoulders through a pool of his own blood or an innocent man was decapitated by our machine gun fire. The time I saw a soldier broken down inside because he killed a child\, or an old man on his knees\, crying with his arms raised to the sky\, perhaps asking God why we had taken the lifeless body of his son. \n\n\n\nI thought of the suffering of a people whose country was in ruins and who were further humiliated by the raids\, patrols and curfews of an occupying army. \n\n\n\nAnd I realized that none of the reasons we were told about why we were in Iraq turned out to be true. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. We weren’t helping the Iraqi people and the Iraqi people didn’t want us there. We weren’t preventing terrorism or making Americans safer. I couldn’t find a single good reason for having been there\, for having shot at people and been shot at. \n\n\n\nComing home gave me the clarity to see the line between military duty and moral obligation. I realized that I was part of a war that I believed was immoral and criminal\, a war of aggression\, a war of imperial domination. I realized that acting upon my principles became incompatible with my role in the military\, and I decided that I could not return to Iraq. \n\n\n\nBy putting my weapon down\, I chose to reassert myself as a human being. I have not deserted the military or been disloyal to the men and women of the military. I have not been disloyal to a country. I have only been loyal to my principles. \n\n\n\nWhen I turned myself in\, with all my fears and doubts\, it did it not only for myself. I did it for the people of Iraq\, even for those who fired upon me-they were just on the other side of a battleground where war itself was the only enemy. I did it for the Iraqi children\, who are victims of mines and depleted uranium. I did it for the thousands of unknown civilians killed in war. My time in prison is a small price compared to the price Iraqis and Americans have paid with their lives. Mine is a small price compared to the price Humanity has paid for war. \n\n\n\nMany have called me a coward\, others have called me a hero. I believe I can be found somewhere in the middle. To those who have called me a hero\, I say that I don’t believe in heroes\, but I believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. \n\n\n\nTo those who have called me a coward I say that they are wrong\, and that without knowing it\, they are also right. They are wrong when they think that I left the war for fear of being killed. I admit that fear was there\, but there was also the fear of killing innocent people\, the fear of putting myself in a position where to survive means to kill\, there was the fear of losing my soul in the process of saving my body\, the fear of losing myself to my daughter\, to the people who love me\, to the man I used to be\, the man I wanted to be. I was afraid of waking up one morning to realize my humanity had abandoned me. \n\n\n\nI say without any pride that I did my job as a soldier. I commanded an infantry squad in combat and we never failed to accomplish our mission. But those who called me a coward\, without knowing it\, are also right. I was a coward not for leaving the war\, but for having been a part of it in the first place. Refusing and resisting this war was my moral duty\, a moral duty that called me to take a principled action. I failed to fulfill my moral duty as a human being and instead I chose to fulfill my duty as a soldier. All because I was afraid. I was terrified\, I did not want to stand up to the government and the army\, I was afraid of punishment and humiliation. I went to war because at the moment I was a coward\, and for that I apologize to my soldiers for not being the type of leader I should have been. \n\n\n\nI also apologize to the Iraqi people. To them I say I am sorry for the curfews\, for the raids\, for the killings. May they find it in their hearts to forgive me. \n\n\n\nOne of the reasons I did not refuse the war from the beginning was that I was afraid of losing my freedom. Today\, as I sit behind bars I realize that there are many types of freedom\, and that in spite of my confinement I remain free in many important ways. What good is freedom if we are afraid to follow our conscience? What good is freedom if we are not able to live with our own actions? I am confined to a prison but I feel\, today more than ever\, connected to all humanity. Behind these bars I sit a free man because I listened to a higher power\, the voice of my conscience. \n\n\n\nWhile I was confined in total segregation\, I came across a poem written by a man who refused and resisted the government of Nazi Germany. For doing so he was executed. His name is Albrecht Hanshofer\, and he wrote this poem as he awaited execution. \n\n\n\nGuilt \n\n\n\nThe burden of my guilt before the lawweighs light upon my shoulders; to plotand to conspire was my duty to the people;I would have been a criminal had I not. \n\n\n\nI am guilty\, though not the way you think\,I should have done my duty sooner\, I was wrong\,I should have called evil more clearly by its nameI hesitated to condemn it for far too long. \n\n\n\nI now accuse myself within my heart:I have betrayed my conscience far too longI have deceived myself and fellow man. \n\n\n\nI knew the course of evil from the startMy warning was not loud nor clear enough!Today I know what I was guilty of… \n\n\n\nTo those who are still quiet\, to those who continue to betray their conscience\, to those who are not calling evil more clearly by its name\, to those of us who are still not doing enough to refuse and resist\, I say “come forward.” I say “free your minds.” Let us\, collectively\, free our minds\, soften our hearts\, comfort the wounded\, put down our weapons\, and reassert ourselves as human beings by putting an end to war. \n\n\n\n–Camilo Mejia \n\n\n\nPress Release\n\n\n\nAuthor\, anti-war activist\, prisoner of conscience and chairman of the board of Iraq Veterans Against the War\, Camilo Mejia will speak about his experiences and his book “Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejía” at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on Tuesday\, October 28\, 2008 at 7 PM. Admission is by donation ($10 suggested\, $5 student/low income). The Sanctuary for Independent Media is located at 3361 6th Avenue in north Troy (at 101st Street). Call (518) 272-2390\, email info@MediaSanctuary.org\, or visit www.MediaSanctuary.org for directions and more information. \n\n\n\nCamilo Mejia joined the military at the age of nineteen\, serving as an infantryman in the active-duty army for three years before transferring to the Florida National Guard. After fighting in Iraq\, Mejia became the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight the war in Iraq\, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. He was eventually convicted of desertion by a military court and sentenced to a year in prison\, prompting Amnesty International to declare him a prisoner of conscience. \n\n\n\nMejía is a former student of the University of Miami in Coral Gables\, Florida\, where he intended to major in psychology and Spanish on a military-funded scholarship. Mejía spent six months in Iraq (his first combat tour after enlisting)\, then returned for a 2-week furlough to the US after which he did not return for duty. He was charged with desertion and sentenced to one year in prison for refusing to return to fight in Iraq. In March 2004 he turned himself in to the US military and filed an application for conscientious objector status. \n\n\n\nMejía was court-martialed\, and claimed that he left his post in order to avoid duties that could be considered war crimes: more specifically\, the abuse and torture of prisoners. One of his attorneys\, former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark\, claimed that he was thus protected from desertion charges by international law. \n\n\n\nOn May 21\, 2004 Mejía was convicted of desertion by a military jury and sentenced to a year in jail and a bad conduct discharge. Under Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice\, conviction on the charge of desertion during time of war can result in a sentence of death. \n\n\n\nMejía served his time at the Fort Sill military prison in Lawton\, Oklahoma. During his time in custody he was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience and was awarded by Refuse and Resist with its Courageous Resister Award. \n\n\n\nCamilo was also recognized by the Detroit City Council with a commendation for his stand. Detroit was the first city where Mejía spoke at an anti-war rally. While confined\, local and national activists organized a series of vigils outside the gates of Ft. Sill\, including one attended by Kathy Kelly and other members of Voices in the Wilderness. \n\n\n\nCamilo Mejía was released from prison on February 15\, 2005. Since his release\, he has spoken at many peace protests and to the press about his experiences and his opposition to the war in Iraq. \n\n\n\nMejía has recently written a book entitled “Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejía” (Haymarket Books\, 2008) which recounts his journey of conscience in Iraq: \n\n\n\n“I say without any pride that I did my job as a soldier. I commanded an infantry squad in combat and we never failed to accomplish our mission. But those who called me a coward\, without knowing it\, are also right. I was a coward not for leaving the war\, but for having been a part of it in the first place. Refusing and resisting this war was my moral duty\, a moral duty that called me to take a principled action. I failed to fulfill my moral duty as a human being and instead I chose to fulfill my duty as a soldier. All because I was afraid. I was terrified\, I did not want to stand up to the government and the army\, I was afraid of punishment and humiliation. I went to war because at the moment I was a coward\, and for that I apologize to my soldiers for not being the type of leader I should have been.” \n\n\n\nIn August 2007 Mejía was named the chair of the board of directors of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/camilo-mejia-the-private-rebellion-of-a-staff-sergeant/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Speaker
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