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We've been busy this month - more below fold.

MFSO participation in events in Washington

Bellingham
WHAT: March and Rally
DATE: Friday, March 17
TIME: 3pm
PLACE: Bellingham Herald building, Chestnut and State Sts.
WHO: MFSO members will participate, including Anna Lawson whose son serves in the North Dakota National Guard and who has been deployed to Iraq.
CONTACT: mfsowa@swandeer.com

Port Angeles
WHAT: Rally and March
DATE: Saturday, March 18
TIME: noon
PLACE: Liberty Bell Veterans Park, 4th and Lincoln
WHO: MFSO member Jenny Keesey will be speaking, whose son is in the Army.
CONTACT: mfsowa@swandeer.com

Tacoma
WHAT: Cost of War Hits Home rally & march
DATE: Sunday, March 19
TIME: 1:30pm
PLACE: People's Park Tacoma, Martin Luther King Way & S. 9th St.
WHO: Lietta Ruger of Bay Center, WA, will speak.  Lietta's son-in-law and nephew are both in the Army and served extended tours in Iraq; they now face the prospect of multiple tours in Iraq.  Lietta brings her history as a military family spanning her childhood and early adult years, and as a young military wife during Vietnam.
CONTACT: mfsowa@swandeer.com

Louisiana

WHAT: March of Veterans, Military Families, and Survivors of Hurricane Katrina from Mobile AL to New Orleans, LA http://www.vetgulfmarch.org
DATE: 3/14 - 3/19
TIME: Rally in New Orleans, 3/19/06 10 AM
PLACE: Enter Armstrong Park (Congo Square) and begin the Rally Against War and
Injustice.
WHO: Members of Military Families Speak Out, including:
* Stacy Bannerman of Kent, Washington whose husband serves in the Washington Army National Guard, SFC Mortar Platoon, and served a year's tour of duty in Iraq. Upon return to the US, his Brigade were cut loose after a week of outprocessing, and they have gotten no post-deployment mental health counseling.

Seattle
WHAT:Sat March 18, silent vigil  9:20am Senator Cantwell fundraiser: the Palace Ballroom, 2100 5th Ave, Seattle.  
WHO:  Joe Colgan, veteran, military family and father of Benjamin Colgan, killed in Iraq in 2003. Military families, veterans, and citizen voters will gather behind one or two 3 ft. by 9 ft. banners (in front of the entrance to the fund raiser) with the following excerpt from Joe's Seattle PI op-ed piece:

"I write as a veteran who has a special love for our troops and their families, and as the father of Lt. Benjami! n Colgan, who was killed in action in Baghdad on Nov. 1, 2003... How many more Americans and Iraqis must perish or be maimed until the "stay-the-course" approach is discredited?
...It is time for Cantwell to help move the debate beyond pointless rhetoric by taking a clear position and holding public forums to promote a better understanding of the costs of this war and how to end it."

(See the full op-ed   http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0202-30.htm  )
This will be a solemn presence that conveys a clear message to both those attending the fund raiser and to the press.

Previous Military Families Speak Out events in March 2006 events noting this tragic 3rd year anniversary;

Seattle
WHAT:  Meeting with KOMO 4 TV news representatives to discuss discuss with KOMO 4 their past and future news/media coverage of terrorism and war in Iraq these past 3 yrs = adequate or inadequate and why?    
DATE:  Friday, March 17, 2006
WHO:  Backbone Campaign, Amy Lacenski of Military Families Speak Out

Tacoma
WHAT:  Forum Speak Out for Military Community
DATE:  Wednesday, March 1, 2006
PLACE:  Tacoma Unitarian Church
WHO:  Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace. Purpose was to reach out to military families of Fort Lewis.

Lietta Ruger, the state chapter coordinator
for Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), says that
"the aim of the forum is to engage with other military families in Washington in discussion of the war, the mission, and support for the deployed troops.
We hope to reach across division and splits and
find some common ground for both sides of the
discussion. We share in common the support of the
troops deployed and have reason to be proud of them."

Media coverage included invitation and interviews in Fort Lewis Ranger and Tacoma News Tribune.  http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/military/story/5557760p-5002219c.html
Also TNT reporter was at the event; article in TNT
 reporting on the event
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/5561030p-5004695c.html