Veterans for Peace Radio Hour – Details, episodes & analysis

Harvey is back and shares his participation at the 2025 Nuclear Deterrence Summit just outside Washington DC, where the talk of actual deterrence was mostly absent. However, the talk of a nuclear love-fest was clear. Harvey shares some of the stories of other anti-war participants at the Bus Boys and Poets gathering and reflects on why this summit even took place. After all, it was shortly thereafter that President Trump talked about de-nuclearization and cutting the military budget in half, which was such a positive in the wake of Trump's first month in office. We finish with Sly and Stand.

With Trump's and Musk's war on DEI, Harvey and Jim revisit the discussion we had on Prince Edward County in Virginia when white supremacists decide to close all public schools for five years rather than segregate in the 1950's. There are more comparisons with what Trump and Musk are trying to do now with their war on DEI than you would expect. The problem is they are trying to expand what happened in Prince Edward County to more than just education and also take it nationwide. To finish we hear Sam Cooke's plea for change.

Bruce Carruthers member of Veterans for Peace and expert on VA Health Care joins us to talk about the damage that is outlined in Project 2025 on veterans' health care and veterans' benefits. We need to be worried if you get your health care from the VA or if you are a family member of someone who does especially for those ailments that can not be directly attributed. Thus the Pact Act and coverage of ailments linked to burn pits and Agent Orange could be in jeopardy. Their goal is to make veteran's health care a profit-making business through privatization.

Author and Activist Dr. John V. Walsh joins us to weigh in on the February 19 Rage Against the War Machine Rally.  John, who spoke at the sister rally in San Francisco, discusses the need for unity within the peace movement even when we differ on other issues.  John points out that the rallies on the 19th were historic, involving diverse speakers from left and right all coming together to end war. 

 The time is too precious and too limited to exclude any voice for peace and if that requires single-issue rallies and protests then that is what we must do.  We include speeches Anya Parampil and a dramatic speech from Tulsi Gabbard.

Ricardo Levins Morales artist, activist, and counselor gave a wonderful presentation called the Praxis of Hope sponsored by The Leadership Center for Social Justice of the United Theological Seminary. In the presentation, he discusses the nature and emotion of hope as compared to the despair that seems to be running rampant through society, especially among the young.   He shares his thoughts and his plan to generate hope and combat despair.

After Harvey's update on the Golden Rule coming to Charleston, SC. this weekend, we turn the show over to our VFP comrade Carol Trainer from Louisville, Ky. to interview Poet, activist, counselor Roberto Schiraldi about this works, his poets, and his books on white supremacy and how to address it. You will hear several poems that address our need to recognize our own vulnerability as a way to release the grasp of our white supremacist culture. And as we finish another Black History Month, we hear from Sam Cooke.

Today we will hear about the US Military experience and the US Veteran experience from the African American perspective. Michael McPhearson former Executive Director of Veterans for Peace, Miles Thomas rapper (Megaciph), and Ronda Shelton member of the Hector Black Chapter of Veterans for Peace join the show to share their experience in the military and after. They weigh in on race, betrayal, corruption, wearing the uniform, and the police in this hard-hitting interview. We finish with a song with one of Miles' songs.

On the first day of Black History Month, the College Board removed a number of authors, activists, topics, and organizations from their requirements for AP African American studies.  These voices critical to understanding the African American experience include author and activist James Baldwin.  Today we spend the hour listening to James Baldwin in his own words as he talks to high school students about education and then to Dick Cavett as he talks about Black frustration and the understatement of the Black experience in the US.

Today we have scholars, activists, clergy, politicians, and peacekeepers sharing their thoughts about the Dr. King that is rarely recognized, the Dr. King that was anti-militarism, anti-nuclear weapons, and anti-war. Senator Nina Turner, Rev. Liz Theoharris, Pastor Michael McBride, India Walton, and Khury Petersen-Smith participated in this portion of a webinar hosted by Defuse Nuclear War.  The webinar was facilitated by Hanieh Jodat. 

When Janet Bates realized that her protests, her marches, her letters to the editor were still not stopping war, she got so frustrated that her husband recommended writing songs and so she did and we are so grateful.  Today we will talk to Janet about her activism and the stories behind the songs that we will hear.