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Mark your calendars now for the 2010 Convention, which will celebrate VFP’s 25th anniversary and look ahead to the unfinished work of promoting peace and progressive politics in a time of global war and economic retrenchment.  The meeting will be held from August 25-29 and, fittingly, in  Maine, the birthplace of Veterans For Peace in 1985.  Portland, Maine, a vibrant, beautiful coastal city located on a peninsula in Casco Bay, will be the host city for the Convention under  the sponsorship of VFP Chapters 1 and 3.  The Convention Headquarters will be the Holiday Inn by the Bay Hotel and Convention Center. 

The 25th Anniversary Convention is a unique opportunity for progressive, activist veterans from around the country to come together to understand the organization’s past, to meet and enjoy its present, and to help plan its future in these fraught times.    

Come to Maine in August.  Let the voices of veterans be heard in their collective strength.   

 

• Poetry event recognizing the editors and contributors to Winning Hearts and  Minds, and Demilitarized Zones, collections of poems by Vietnam veterans, followed by open mike.     
• Opening reflections by Jerry Genesio, a principal founder of Veterans For Peace.
• Opening keynote by Chris Hedges, one of the country’s most prolific and provocative progressive writers.
• A Public Meeting in Portland featuring Rep. Bob Filner and Terry Tempest Williams along with the NAACP, Native American and labor organizations, and representatives of Portland’s immigrant and marriage equality communities. Entertainment by Inanna, a dynamic women’s drumming ensemble.
• Friday evening lobster bake on nearby Peak’s Island.
• Breakout sessions to bring the concerns and ideas of the membership to the organization’s leaders and to set policy goals for 2010-2011.
• Banquet featuring Chris Hedges and Ann Wright, along with Noel Paul Stookey, of the revered group, Peter, Paul and Mary          
• March and rally around the city of Portland ending at Post Office Park