Jonathan Hutto is active duty U.S. Navy Seaman assigned to the Norfolk based aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt.
Supported by organizations of antiwar veterans and military families and Hutto and several other service members created a website called Appeal for Redress [1]. Through this website, active duty and reserve troops may e-mail their elected representatives in Congress for U,S, withdrawal from Iraq. Hutto is allowed by military rules to run his antiwar campaign on personal time, out of uniform and off base.
Seaman Hutto will be speaking in Erie on Sunday, January 20, 2008, at 3 p.m. at the Erie Art Museum Annex, 20 East 5th St. (Entrance on 5th street, just east of Glassgrowers Gallery). The event is free and open to the public
Hutto spoke eloquently at the Veterans for Peace rally in Meadville last November.
The wording of the Appeal for Redress is short and simple. It is patriotic and respectful in tone:
As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq .
Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.
This event is part of the Martin Luther King jr. Celebration in Erie, and is organized by the Erie Peace Initiative [2]. The Hutto presentation is part of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday events in Erie, and is sponsored by Erie Peace Initiative (www.eriepeaceinitiative.org) along with many other local peace & justice groups, including: Benedictines for Peace [3], Call to Action-Erie [4], Erie Peace and Justice Center, Green Party of NW PA, Jewish Voices for Peace, Lake Erie Alliance for Democracy (LEAD) [4], Mary the Apostle Catholic Worker, Pax Christi USA [4], Sisters of St. Joseph of NW PA [5], Social Responsibility Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie, Veterans for Peace [6], and Women in Black [7].
For information, contact Anne McCarthy, OSB -- 460-5522, annemccosb@yahoo.com or Bob Johnson -- 864-8818, papashouseerei@aol.com
For more information, email eriepeaceinitiative@yahoo.com or visit http://nwpapeace.org/ [8]
More about Jonathan Hutto:
Jonathan Hutto graduated from Howard University with a degree in
political science and a résumé of social activism.
He worked for the ACLU and Amnesty International after college. He led
grass-roots protests against police departments and college administrators.
One day in 2003, broke and seeking direction, Hutto enlisted in the
Navy. he Navy couldn't have known it then, but they know it now: They had igned up a sailor strongly opposed to the Iraq war.Seaman Hutto pleated his uniform, memorized naval history and won sailor of the quarter among his junior enlisted shipmates. hen he appeared on CNN, the BBC and in the pages of The Washington ost and The Navy Times. But he wasn't reciting the Sailor's Creed.
Hutto was organizing again. This time, against the U.S. involvement in
Iraq. We're not trying to embarrass the military," Hutto said during an
interview. "At the same time, we live in a democracy."
When he enlisted, the Navy trained him as a photographer. He writes for
the Theodore Roosevelt newspaper and anchored its shipwide television
broadcast. Off-duty, he shifts between the campus of Old Dominion University and the cafés and bookstores in Ghent. Armed with a laptop and cell phone, Hutto leads a group of volunteers in an online campaign against the war.
RELATED STORIES:
Norfolk-based sailor uses Web to channel opposition to War [9]
Links for antiwar veterans, active duty, and military families [9]
Martin Luther King's speech "Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam" still powerful and timely [10]