Brian Wilson's Letter to John Kerry.

[RBHam]

Dear John,

It has been a long time since we have had contact. As you might remember, our very first meeting was at VVAW's Dewey Canyon III, "A Limited Incursion Into the Country of Congress," April 19-23, 1971, in Washington, D.C. I'm sure you remember asking the Senate that week in an impassioned speech, "How do you ask a man to die for a mistake?" You also stressed the importance of being "totally nonviolent."

Our second and many subsequent meetings occurred in Massachusetts after you were elected Lt. Governor, 1982-84, while I was active in veteran's issues in Western MA. As director of a veterans outreach center in Greenfield, and the Western Massachusetts Agent Orange Information Project, I served on the Massachusetts Agent Orange Task Force under Governor Dukakis' veterans commissioner and your office as Lt. Governor. I subsequently also served on Dukakis' homeless veterans task force.

When you decided to run for the Senate in 1984 against Ray Shamie, a wealthy businessman, remember that I loyally supported your campaign as one of the dozen or so Vietnam veterans the press called Kerry's Commandos, you called "Doghunters." We accompanied you throughout the state, and fended off right wing criticism from folks such as General George Patton III, who accused you of "giving aid and comfort to the enemy" for your earlier VVAW activities. I'm sure you remember with fondness that critical time that launched you into national office. Your lawyer brother, Cameron, concluded that it was the veterans' support that pulled your first campaign out of a nose-dive and created the necessary "galvanizing energy."

more...
http://www.brianwillson.com/awolkerry.html

[revo2004]

1. Thank you / The Beach Boys Rock /eom

[Sapphocrat]

8. Hate to tell you, but that's not Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys...

That's "S. Brian Willson" of Arcata, CA.

Note the two L's in "Willson."

[revo2004]

11. Ok / The Beach Boys Still Rock ! /eom

[Sapphocrat]

14. Yes, they do! :) n/t

[Search Party]

9. Brian WiLLson, not Wilson

[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. What a compendium of smears.

Take this passage for example:

In late September 1986, you, along with some other Senators and Representatives, reluctantly supported the four veterans (myself being one of them) participating in the open-ended Veterans Fast For Life (VFFL) on the east steps of the Capitol building, protesting aid to the Contras. During that fast one of your fellow Senators, Warren Rudman (R-NH), stated in October 1986 that our "actions are hardly different than those of the terrorists who are holding our hostages in Beirut." Shortly thereafter, both our VFFL offices and separate housing accommodations were broken into with many files of our activities and addresses of supporters taken. The FBI initiated a "domestic terrorist" investigation of the members of the VFFL which was revealed later when an FBI agent refused to comply and was fired after nearly 22 years service in the agency.
http://www.brianwillson.com/awolkerry.html

Wilson admits that Kerry supported VFFL and then blames him for something Warren Rudman said, as well as what the FBI did. :eyes:

[BL_Zebub]

3. Brian Wilson is a Vietnam vet??

That's news to me, as it was to Dennis and Carl (who are sitting in my office right now)

Could have sworn Brian spent most of the late 60's and early 70's locked in his bedroom eating lots of drugs and junk food and being morbidly depressed :shrug:

[OKNancy]

7. Damn..it's not the Beach Boy-- it's willson

[OKNancy]

4. It is Willson.and that has been around a Looooog time

Smear piece. Read it last year. This guy has a bug up his butt about Kerry ( not the Beach Boy , of course)

5. This letter is criticizing Kerry & it's Willson, not the Beach Boy

perhaps you should make that clearer?
I know you were counting on people clicking the link. I hope you were anyway.

"In the life of being a Senator, John, I'm afraid that your career again proves that power corrupts (and blinds), and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Of course you have many friends in the same camp."

"I'm sorry and terribly fearful for this state we are in. Your vote is terribly misguided, John. Now that veterans have reorganized throughout the nation as once again an important part of the growing movement, know that we shall work hard for your defeat, whether as a Presidential candidate or for another Senate term.

Sincerely,

S. Brian Willson, Arcata, CA
Veterans For Peace "

[bigtree]

6. Same old argument wrapped in distortions

Of the effect and rational of his IWR vote. My take on the IWR Vote:

IWR- Was opposing Bush enough? Was that Congress's only responsibility?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=292422

[JohnOneillsMemory]

10. CORRECTION needed. S. WILLSON, viet vet and long time peace activist.

But this is an even more compelling history of the change in Kerry over the last twenty years. Read on for more corroboration.

Here's another personal testimony from a leader in the American Friends Service Committee describing the moment he confronted Kerry with his loss of idealism in 1983 and Kerry AGREED with him. Read it and weep for our future under President Kerry:

"We need to be careful not to allow ourselves to think that Kerry is someone he is not. Yes, on some issues he has said the right things and voted the right way. BUT…



Despite an overwhelming flood of phone calls, letters, e-mails, and personal visits, Kerry acted against the will of the majority of the people in Massachusetts when he voted to give Bush authority to launch his disastrous invasion of Iraq. This was not an uncharacteristic action on his part.



The VVAW statement is interesting, but in terms of what Kerry did and told me in 1983 (not to mention two decades of compromised behavior since) it has little to do with him as a presidential candidate. Back then, as Lieutenant Governor, Kerry played an important role in Senator Kennedy’s effort to convince the Reagan Administration to choose Boston as the Homeport for the planned Battleship Iowa naval flotilla. The central weapons system of that flotilla was to be the nuclear-armed Tomahawk cruise missile. That the deployment of these weapons was a violation of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze which Kerry and Kennedy ostensibly supported, that these weapons made war with the Soviet Union more likely, that the Navy has a long history of nuclear weapons accidents, and that the homeport was to be located at the end of a busy runway at Boston’s Logan Airport (and thus carried the danger of a catastrophic nuclear weapons accident,) were of no consequence for Kerry as he made his political calculations.



Along with Tony Palomba of Mobilization for Survival, I led the successful opposition to the Homeporting campaign. At one point I had a one on four meeting with Kerry, two of his aides, and one of (then) Governor Dukaukis’ aides. During that meeting, every time I asked Kerry a question about the dangers and roles of the nuclear armed Tomahawks and the flotilla itself, he answered by saying “As an old Navy hand…” you have nothing to fear, or “As an old Navy hand…” it’s not a problem.



Seeing that he was hardly about to give an inch, I explained that I remembered what he had said and had done as he organized and worked with Vietnam Vets Against the War, and I asked him how what he was telling me squared with what he had said then. A long and excruciating silence followed, during which it seemed that we could hear dust fall on the floor boards of his State House office.

Finally, he broke the painful silence and said “The name of the game is different now.”



That my friends is the Senator Kerry that many of us here in Massachusetts have come to know over the past two decades.



In addition to needing hard and clear statements of policy from Kerry now as a candidate, we also need to be educating and organizing so that if we are fortunate enough not to be saddled with the imperial Texas Mafia beginning in 2005, that we are ready to confront and move a Democratic Administration which would come to power in the tradition of those that have launched imperial wars, refused to implement the NPT, and practiced “coercive diplomacy” with nuclear threats and blackmail, and urged funding for so-called “missile defenses” and the militarization of space.



Sorry to be an iconoclast, but illusions will kill us…and many others.



All best wishes,"

(I'm leaving out his name since he didn't post this, I, johnoneillsmemory did after my father forwarded it to me.)

[jpgray]

12. 4,000th time this letter has been posted

Feel free to search the archives for myriad interpretations of this letter, from all sides.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

13. See my post #10. Kerry admits in 1983 to losing his idealism. Face value.