Has This Country Gone Completely
Insane?
By Mike Ferner
On June 30,
I went to Chicago to participate in the final week of a four-week,
320-mile walk organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence from
Springfield, Illinois, to the Great Lakes Naval Station, north
of Chicago. The day I joined “Voices” they
were walking through Chicago’s south side. The walk that
day ended at the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center. A few of us stood
on the sidewalk, holding signs. Mine said, appropriately enough, “Demand
quality health care for veterans.” One at a time, we took
a bathroom break, being sure to leave our signs outside. When it
was my turn, I went inside, saw a coffee stand in the hallway,
and decided to get an iced coffee and rest my dogs. The rest, as
they say…
June 30 2006 - This afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting
in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago’s south
side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, “OK,
you’ve had your 15 minutes, it’s time to go.”
“Huh?”, I asked intelligently, not quite sure what
he was talking about.
“You can’t be in here protesting,” officer Adkins
said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt.
“Well, I’m not protesting, I’m having a cup of
coffee,” I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins
to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists.
Flipping his badge open, he said, “No, not with that shirt.
You’re protesting and you have to go.”
Beginning to get his drift, I said firmly, “Not before I
finish my coffee.”
He insisted that I leave, but still not quite believing my ears,
I tried one more approach to reason. “Hey, listen. I’m
a veteran. This is a V.A. facility. I’m sitting here not
talking to anybody, having a cup of coffee. I’m not protesting
and you can’t kick me out.”
“You’ll either go or we’ll arrest you,” Adkins
threatened.
“Well, you’ll just have to arrest me,” I said,
wondering what strange land I was now living in.
You know the rest. Handcuffed, led away to the facility’s
security office past people with surprised looks on their faces,
read my rights, searched, and written up.
The officer who did the formalities, Eric Ousley, was professional
in his duties. When I asked him if he was a vet, it turned out he
had been a hospital corpsman in the Navy. We exchanged a couple sea
stories. He uncuffed me early.
And he allowed as to
how he would only charge me with disorderly conduct, letting me
go on charges of criminal trespass and weapons possession — a
pocket knife — which he said would have to be destroyed (something
I rather doubt since it was a nifty Swiss Army knife with not only
a bottle opener, but a tweezers AND a toothpick).
After informing
me I could either pay the $275 fine on the citation or appear in
court, Ousley escorted me off the premises, warning me if I returned
with “that shirt” on, I’d be
arrested and booked into jail.
I’m sure I could go back to officers Adkins’ and Ousleys’ “Fife”-dom
with a shirt that said, “Nuke all the hajis,” or “Show
us your tits,” or any number of truly obscene things and
no one would care. Just so it’s not “that shirt” again.
And just for the record? I’m not paying the fine. I’ll
see Adkins and Ousley and Dubya’s Director of the Dept. of
Veterans Affairs, if he wants to show up, in United States District
Court on the appointed date. And if there’s a Chicago area
attorney who’d like to take the case, I’d really like
to sue them — from Dubya on down. I have to believe that
this whole country has not yet gone insane, just the government.
This kind of behavior can’t be tolerated. It must be challenged.
Mike Ferner served as a Navy corpsman during Vietnam and is obviously
a member of Veterans For Peace. He is participating in the Voices
for Creative Nonviolence’s 30-day, 320-mile “Walk for
Justice,” from Springfield to North Chicago, Illinois, to
reclaim funding for the common good and away from war.
Many people who wrote asked what they could do to help. Lots
of people said they would go to their local V.A. facility with
a peace t-shirt. Some wanted to know where they could
get a VFP shirt www.veteransforpeace.org. Others wanted to write
or call the V.A. to complain.
Here is where you can contact V.A. officials:
Office of the Inspector General
810 Vermont Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20420
800-488-8244 vaoighotline@va.gov
and send a copy to:
James S. Jones, Director
Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center
820 S. Damen Ave.
Chicago, IL 60612
312-569-8287 fax: 6188
Many people also asked if I had a legal defense fund and where
they could send a contribution. Late last night my
web-guy and I worked out the last of the bugs on my new site
that we’d been working on for several weeks, and you can
now visit it at www.mikeferner.org where you can read about
this case and others and contribute online if you’d
like. For those using tried and true bank drafts,
you can send a check to my home address: 2975 113th St.
Toledo, Ohio 43611.
