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X-WR-CALNAME:Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice
X-WR-CALDESC:Advancing a sustainable world free from violence and injustice
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260917T100000
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CREATED:20260914
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SUMMARY:Press Conference at the VFP Billboard site at Truax – Madison
DESCRIPTION:\nBillboard at Truax Tells Service Members to Refuse Illegal Orders!\n\n\n\nVeterans for Peace #25 Press Conference, Thursday September 17\n\n\n\nMADISON— On Thursday, September 17, at 10:00 a.m., Madison Veterans for Peace Chapter 25 will hold a press conference on Stoughton Road at Orin Road [near Planned Parenthood] to highlight the billboard it has put up outside Truax Air National Guard base. The billboard has Uncle Sam saying, “U.S. Troops: I want you to refuse illegal orders”.\n\n\n\nThe Reverend David Couper, Marine, Veteran for Peace member and former Madison police chief, spoke in Mauston to a community meeting on the message of these billboards: “Some might look at the billboard and find it provocative, but it is an act of deep and necessary patriotism. A healthy democracy does not survive on blind obedience…we must never surrender our human decency to the convenience of ‘just getting along.’” Reverend Couper will be speaking at the press conference.\n\n\n\nLast November, Sen. Mark Kelly and five other members of Congress with military backgrounds expressed “serious concerns” about the actions of the Trump Administration in the extrajudicial killing of suspected drug traffickers in the waters off Latin America. They reminded troops “you can refuse illegal orders” and to “stand up for our laws – our Constitution.”\n\n\n\nUpon joining the U.S. military, service members swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution and are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). It states that all orders from superiors are assumed to be legal, but that this assumption “does not apply to a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime.”\n\n\n\nIn the spring 2025, Veterans for Peace began a national billboard campaign to remind U.S. military service members of the obligation to refuse illegal orders. Over two dozen billboards have gone up around the U.S. and Puerto Rico near military bases.\n\n\n\nPreviously, Madison Veterans for Peace Chapter 25 has installed billboards at Volk Field on US90/94 as well as on WIS21 near Ft. McCoy.\n\n\n\nVeterans For Peace is an organization of military veterans and allies who aim to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices. We inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars, and working to end all wars. Madison Chapter 25 meets monthly and welcomes all interested people.\n\n\n\nContact: David Couper vfpchapter25@gmail.com\n\n\n\nPublished Monday, Sept. 14, 2026 PHONE: 608-444-7207\n\n\n\n\n
URL:https://wnpj.org/events/press-conference-at-the-vfp-billboard-site-at-truax-madison/
LOCATION:Madison
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://wnpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/RefuseIllegalOrders.jpg
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