Camilo Mejia in Tacoma for Coffee Strong Fundraiser

  
  Friday November 7th at First United Methodist Church
  621 Tacoma Ave S in Tacoma
  7pm to 9pm, doors open at 6:30

$8 in advance, $10 at the door.  No one turned away for lack of funds.

Click here for an event flyer: full page  quarter page

An organization of recent vets and civilian supporters, G.I. Voice, is planning on opening an internet café called Coffee Strong near the gates of Fort Lewis.  The café will provide area soldiers with a much-needed hangout away from the military base as well as providing G.I. Rights Counseling, alternative information, and connections to other resources.  To help support this project, Camilo Mejia will be speaking here in Tacoma and promoting his memoir, Road From ar Ramadi.

Army Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejía became the new face of the antiwar movement in early 2004 when he applied for a discharge from as a conscientious objector. After serving in the Army for nearly nine years, he was the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. His principled stand helped to rally the growing opposition and embolden his fellow soldiers.

Despite widespread public support and an all-star legal team, Mejía was eventually convicted of desertion by a military court and sentenced to a year in prison, prompting Amnesty International to declare him a prisoner of conscience.

Now released after serving almost nine months, the celebrated soldier-turned-pacifist tells his own story, from his upbringing in Central America and his experience as a working-class immigrant in the United States to his service in Iraq—where he witnessed prisoner abuse and was deployed in the Sunni triangle—and time in prison. Far from being an accidental activist, Mejía was raised by prominent Sandinista revolutionaries and draws inspiration from Jesuit teachings.