Nationally, Veterans For Peace opposes all wars and is for abolishing all nuclear weapons from the face of the earth. The Santa Barbara Veterans for Peace chapter has led many activities to highlight the cost of all wars, especially the cost of the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The most notable project is Santa Barbara Arlington West on West Beach at the foot of Stearns Wharf. This mock cemetery of more than 3,000 white crosses began every Sunday in June 2004 and it was the first in the nation. It has been set up every first Sunday of each month, since January 2009. The display will be set up Monday, Memorial Day. Volunteers and visitors are welcome. Set-up is from 7 to 10 a.m.; visitation 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; take down from 3 to 5 p.m.

Periodical counter-recruitment has been done at local high schools since September 2003 and at SBCC in opposition to military recruiters on campus since September 1992. The Fund for Santa Barbara helped these efforts with a grant of $2,500 in fall of 2003. An expansion of these efforts has been the tabling at SBCC on every Tuesday except the third and a “Tombstone Teen Memorial” on the third Friday of each month in conjunction with the National War Moratorium since October 2008.

The Fund for Santa Barbara has awarded a general fund grant totaling $7,500 to the Santa Barbara Veterans For Peace’s SBCC Teen Memorial: Peace is Inevitable Project for fiscal year June 2010 to July 2011. The award will be presented at 5 p.m. June 17 at Cafe Buenos Aires, 1316 State St.

The main purpose of this project is to expose and educate our future U.S. leaders at SBCC about the human potential lost and the psychological, sociological, personal and financial cost of war. We want our future leaders, their relatives, friends and professors to see that war is not inevitable but that peace is. We want to put a face to the immediate U.S. victims of war, specifically the 18- and 19-year-old male and female U.S. military casualties from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

These funds will allow the continuation and expansion of the SBCC project. The new enhancements will be a $2,000 emergency revolving loan fund for SBCC Iraq and Afghanistan veterans; a free cell phone bank and congressional phone numbers so SBCC students and others can advocate for federal peace and justice legislation; and free current peace and justice information, stickers, peace necklaces, newsletters, magazines, books and DVDs in English and Spanish where available.

The Fund For Santa Barbara’s generous support will allow us to continue to support the veteran, student and peace and justice advocate volunteers to help end all wars and to direct our national resources to peace and justice endeavors.

Click here for more information on Santa Barbara Veterans for Peace. Click here for more information on The Fund for Santa Barbara.

— Gilberto Robledo represents Santa Barbara Veterans for Peace.