Dave Cline...

...was a friend and comrade. He died night before last at home.

Dave was former President of Veterans For Peace, founding leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and a founder of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign.

FULL COMMENT

Roll Call. David Cline... David Cline... David Cline...

In memory of Dave, I am linking the four-part series Spearpoint that described the Veterans and Survivors March for Peace and Justice, from Mobile, AL to New Orleans, conducted in March 2006. Dave was the person who put that idea in our heads.

Spearpoint PART 1
Spearpoint PART 2
Spearpoint PART 3
Spearpoint PART 4

Comments

[MiddletownHal]

RIP Brother. You brought illumination, honesty & the courage to resist and organize to our movement. You shall be missed and remembered as a helluva guy, off the hook organizer and dedicated activist.

[mommadona]

And another side of a remarkable man:

"Throughout the years, Mr. Davis was a voice against war. He became a spokesman for the group on national and local television news as well as a speaker at local high schools and colleges.

Mr. Davis was also a union leader while working as a mechanic at United Parcel Service in Addison. For years he was a union steward and then chief steward. Three years ago he was elected president of the 10,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Automobile Mechanics Local 701.

"He [was] a stellar figure with this local for years," said Sam Cicinelli, business representative of the local.

"He moved it forward. He talked to people and educated them to let them know there are bigger and better things out there and this is what you need to do to get it.

"Everything he did he did to help the little guy get his voice heard by standing side by side with that person until justice was served. It may not have been 100 percent what [the other person] was looking for, but he never turned his back on any member of this organization," Cicinelli said.

Mr. Davis' success lay in looking at issues from both sides, former colleagues said.

"He always strived for balance and a happy medium for everyone," said Michael Galorath, supervisor in the automotive department at the Addison UPS hub.

Labor was a passion, said Terry Kimmel, the current union steward. "You never walked away thinking he didn't stick for you," Kimmel said."
http://www.vvaw.org/press/?id=747

ONE OF THE TRUE LEADERS OF OUR GENERATION.

[Purple Girl]

We've obviously lost an Unsung Hero. I'm disturbed by the notion that enlisted military personal are not allowed to speak their thoughts while still in uniform. I get the military-'follow orders' doctrine. But I find it pales in theface of the fact that their citizens have chosen to serve and defen our country and ideals with their lives- come hell or high water. They do this from their hearts not from 'orders'. I think they warrant the opportunity to weigh in on the use of his/her sacrific. I have no interest what any of these 'leader' purport to be happening on the ground- I want to know from the folks getting their asses shot at. Frankly, we need our military forces back here at home to regain our own Democracy. Help !! we are being held prisioners by a Corporate Pirate and his league of Profiteers. the military needs to be taken back to those who really hold the purse strings US - start recalls elections bottom to top and Impeachment/corruption charges top to bottom. the American people could use your protection to guarantee Democratic Rights are observed this time.

[Dap]

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.

To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.

The record shows he took the blows...

Thanks Dave, yours is a great way, you shall be truly missed.