Tributes
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Bonnie has family in the Navy and Marine Corps.
Charley & Nancy, you have a difficult path to walk. Know that we are with you in spirit. Take special care!
MFSO is the only support I get here in the Middle East. I haven’t said anything, but let me say now: thank you, all of you, for the work you do to end these steadily multiplying wars.
Charley has done so much in his life; we honor his work with this tribute.
Thank you, Charley and Nancy!
Thanks so much for all your work, Charley and Nancy!
Note: Milton Rogovin is the father of Paula Rogovin, who is active with MFSO’s Bergen County, New Jersey Chapter, and whose son has deployed twice to Iraq with the Marines.
Thank you, Milton, for your example of living a principled life and for all that you’ve done and are doing to tip the scales in the direction of peace and justice.
We love you Charley!
When I think of educators who teach for change, I think of Charley and Nancy. Thank you for moving the hearts and minds of so many workers and military families.
Thank you, Charley, for this worthwhile project. These are “good works.”
A former classmate of Nancy’s at Univ of Mass says keep up the good work.
My meeting with Charley predates MFSO. He delivered valuable training to our labor union regarding automation in our workplace. Then I met Charley again through my work with VFP. He is truly an inspiration in every sense of the word. His legacy will be deep and long.
Thinking of you both, Charley and Nancy, and hoping your fight goes as well as it can. You have done such wonderful work bringing this issue, and many others, to the rest of us. Thank you and all my best wishes.
There is nothing more patriotic and important in our country than the first amendment. Your powerful, consistent and righteous voice for truth and justice is a poignant reminder of the value of our constitutional democracy. Your audacious and courageous effort to sue our government, stare into the face of adversity, confront the awesome power of the presidency and President Bush’s illegal decision on Iraq has won you eternal peace in the eyes of God and eternal respect and admiration from those of us in the United States of America who cherish our Constitution. Bless you, Charley and Nancy.
It is a joy to honor Charley. With great respect and love to both of you.
Dear Charley and Nancy, thanks for your long and hard work for a great cause!
It is not enough to say we must not wage war.
It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
A Google search of Military Families Speak Out runs at least 69 pages with story after story of the difference you have made, Charley. It is a difference that makes peace for so many in profound ways playing out now and that will play out long after we are all gone, on the national stage, in private living rooms, and dare I say, in loving eulogies for so many MFSO members whose lives became dedicated to peace, and who sacrificed for peace, just as you have, inspired by you. Put simply, Charley, you have made history, albeit history that the powers that be do not presently wish to acknowledge. Yet it’s there in your actions, and it’s there in books like Warrior King by John Bonifaz, the lawyer who represented soldiers, parents of active duty soldiers, several member of Congress, and of course the Constitution, in our attempt to prevent the Iraq War by insisting that Congress declare a war if we were going to have one.
Rest well now, Charley, in the honor and love that comes your way from me, Lucinda and so many others. Rest well in the arms of your beloved Nancy. You are well, Charley, no matter what cancer has to say about it. You are well beloved. We are honored to be in your company, my friend.
In February and March 2003, I had the honor to represent Nancy and Charley, along with other MFSO families, three US soldiers, and Members of Congress, in a federal lawsuit challenging George W. Bush’s authority to launch a military invasion of Iraq absent a congressional declaration of war or equivalent action. Nancy and Charley are true heroes. They stood up and led the fight in the courts – and on the streets – to stop this illegal and unconstitutional war. As the Iraq war continues and as the United States escalates the war in Afghanistan, Nancy and Charley remain at the forefront in calling for an end to these wars and an immediate return of our troops home.
In the process, Nancy and Charley have built a powerful voice in MFSO for the nation’s peace movement. While the courts stayed on the sidelines in our case and ultimately refused to intervene to protect and uphold the US Constitution, Nancy, Charley, and MFSO raised their voices with the moral clarity found in the our Constitution’s War Powers Clause, assigning the decision to go to war exclusively with the United States Congress representing the people – as distinguished from European monarchs who, on their own accord, had sent their subjects into battle.
On the day we filed our case (February 13, 2003), we held a press conference in the Old South Meeting House in Boston, the site of the meeting of more than 5,000 colonists in December 1773, which sparked the Boston Tea Party. “As the father of a United States Marine,” Charley said that day, “there is only one thing worse than the prospect of receiving a call telling me that my son has been killed in battle. It is the prospect of being told that he has been killed fighting an illegal and unconstitutional war.” Holding a photo of their son for the cameras, Nancy said: “We notice that those who say ‘we gotta go to war’ aren’t going anywhere – nor are their loved ones. It is other people’s children who are now in harm’s way – our children.”
I am immensely proud that I could stand next to Nancy and Charley that day. And I am privileged to now know them as friends. I have watched the critical support they have given to other military families across the country. I have watched them raise their eloquent voices time and time again. And I have watched them lead MFSO with amazing courage, dignity, and grace.
Thank you, Nancy and Charley. You are remarkable human beings. And I love you both dearly.
Kevin and Joyce’s son Jeffrey served in Iraq during the invasion and later took his life as a result of PTSD.
To Charley and Nancy who in 2004 gave us the courage and strength to speak out against the war and to advocate for veterans health care reform. You walked with us and made us smile in spite of our loss. We hold you both in our hearts now and forever. Kevin and Joyce Lucey, the proud parents of Cpl. Jeffrey Michael Lucey.
Fernando is the founder and director of the Guerrero Azteca Peace Project.
Charley, mi hermano, apenas me estoy enterando de esta desgracia, aun no puedo comprender como pasan estas cosas a personas tan llenas de amor como lo eres tu, pero se de la fortaleza inmensa de espiritu que tienes y que logras trasmitir a cada una de las personas que te rodean.
Tengo tantas memorias, tantos bellos recuerdos de nuestra convivencia, nunca olvidare auqellos dias tan lindos que pase en tu casa alla en Boston, cuando me llevaste a las diversas escuelas a hablar con los jovenes, , el calor tan bello que encontre en tu hogar que me senti en mi propia familia y asi lo considere siempre.
Hoy, tal ves no estoy fisicamente presente en los diversos actos de MFSO, pero siempre estare de corazon, y veo las fotos tuyas de Nancy de los demas miembros y he llorado mas de una ves al verlos luchando y luchando contra las injusticias de la guerra y a favor de las familias.
Hermano, espero que dios nuestro senor este siempre a tu lado y al igual que Nancy , tus demas miembros de la familia te trasmitan ese amor tan bello que tu sembraste. Te recuerdo siempre y espero poder verte muy pronto.