This is my first podcast. There are countless topics I could have used to kick off my show, but the People’s Organization for Progress daily protest was the obvious choice. POP is my connection to grassroots street activism and the ground truth of the impact of our socio economic system and government policy on working and poor people.
POP has been conducting a daily vigil for jobs, peace justice and equality. POP plans to at least match the 381 days of the December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956 Montgomery bus boycott in tribute to their perseverance. Starting the process this past summer, POP has reached day 271. Having stood through heat, rain, wind and snow the next 100 days will be easy. I talked with POP Chairman Larry Hamm and Veterans For Peace Alan Reilly and Gene Glazer Chapter 21 President Ken Dalton who participated in a day of protest in solidarity.
Michael T. McPhearson, a native of Fayetteville North Carolina was a field artillery officer in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division during Desert Shield /Desert Storm, also known as Gulf War I. Michael joined the Army Reserve 1981 as an enlisted soldier at the age of 17 and attended basic training the summer between his junior and senior high school years. He is a ROTC graduate of Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. His military career includes 6 years of reserve service and 5 years active duty service. He separated from active duty in 1992 as a Captain.
Now living in Newark, New Jersey, Michael is currently the National Coordinator for United for Peace and Justice. He is a former Executive Director of Veterans For Peace.
His volunteer social and economic justice activist work includes membership in Veterans For Peace, the Newark based People's Organization for Progress, Military Families Speak Out, the American Civil Liberties Union and the former coordinating committee member for the Bring Them Home Now campaign against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Secretary of the Saint Louis Branch of the NAACP. Michael is the publisher of the McPhearsonReport.com.
Michael's son joined the Army in January 2004 and served one tour in Iraq. He separated from the military in 2007.
In December of 2003 Michael returned to Iraq as part of a peace delegation to examine the state of the occupation firsthand. He has also traveled widely within the United States and to Istanbul Turkey and Bologna Italy as a speaker on the U.S. peace movement and world peace.
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This is my first podcast. There are countless topics I could have used to kick off my show, but the People’s Organization for Progress daily protest was the obvious choice. POP is my connection to grassroots street activism and the ground truth of the impact of our socio economic system and government policy on working and poor people.
