Thanks to Crosby, Stills and Nash and the Guacamole Fund, our chapter was able to table, with the Gainesville Chapter, at the concert at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. Reports from Tom and Stephan below the picture.

Teach Your Children Well - Tom Santoni

Tonight, when I arrived at the Crosby, Stills and Nash concert venue, the St. Augustine Amphitheater, to set up and staff a literature table with three other area Veterans For Peace members, I was greeted by a horde of officially-vested, self-important looking, extremely efficient people herding my car to the head honcho who demanded $5 for parking. I told him I was asked to work at the concert and didn't bring any money. After refusing to let me go any farther until I came up with the cash, he finally relented when I told him I'd ask one of the other VFP members for money and bring it to him. He said, "You better, because I know what you look like and if you don't come back and pay I'll track you down and it won't be five dollars, it'll be a hundred dollars." He said this in a seriously bullying manner, without a hint of humor or compassion.

Actually, I had money with me but didn't feel I should have to pay as I was there to perform a service requested by the concert promoters. At any rate, I parked, walked back and paid the jerk. I wonder who gets all the parking money and what they do with it, given that the venue is taxpayer-owned county property.

I quickly found my three comrades and waited with them for permission to enter the locked gate.

When we were shown the location of our table, which was already set up for us, we immediately unfurled our banners, set them up and laid out our literature. Moments after that we were approached by some other official-looking organizational person and told that a couple of the concessionaires were concerned that once the crowd arrived our table would be in the way of people waiting in line to buy their booze. We didn't think it would be a problem but offered to cooperate by moving our table back if needed.

Shortly thereafter, yet another organizer came and confirmed that we needed to move our table back, so we did. We certainly didn't want our service-oriented table to be in the way of their drug-dealing commercial interests. As it turned out, we would have been in no one's way if the table had been left in it's original position.

Shortly after that we were told that the VFP literature that was supposed to be traveling with the band and made available to us upon arrival was nowhere to be had. We were informed that they weren't carrying the literature through the southern part of their tour. I didn't get a chance to ask why not. It's a good thing we had brought plenty of our own.

The venue resembled a high-security police state with multiple checkpoints and security personnel from many different agencies and groups. During a slow period at our table one of the vets I was with went to where he could see the band and listen to a song. He was quietly standing at the back of the venue when a morbidly obese security person came up to him, pushed both his shoulders back and said, "You have to back up against the wall." The vet, a marine who served in Vietnam, immediately told this bully to keep his hands off of him. The security guy backed away and walked off.

During the intermission, hundreds of people came back to the concession area to buy more of the very expensive beer, wine and margaritas that were flowing like the Ganges during monsoon season. I noticed that some were already drunk, but I witnessed no violence or idiocy other than that exhibited by the security "guards." At this point in the evening, the vast majority of people were not in the mood to come and talk to us about peace, war, US imperialism, military recruitment in schools, holding elected officials accountable, or any other elephant in the room. Hey - they had shelled out between 55 and 85 bucks for a ticket and were paying for big bucks for exorbitantly-priced spirits. Who needs the buzz-kill when they're paying so dearly to escape.

By the end of the night many people were sloshed. The police and other security people just waved them on as they maneuvered their vehicles out into the larger world.

It was nice to see Crosby, Stills and Nash for a few minutes, albeit from 500 feet away, and after their rocky first few songs the sound gelled and they started clicking musically. It seemed like most people very much enjoyed the concert.

There were probably a couple thousand in attendance, of whom maybe 30 approached our table during the course of the five hours we were there. We did have some good conversations and many of our visitors took our literature. I feel that our presence was valuable, but given the large number of attendees, the paucity of contacts was disheartening. A couple people thanked us for what we were doing.

As the crowd thinned out and the lights dimmed, we packed up our materials and walked through more security personnel eyeing us closely on our way out! I felt myself tense with an eerily disturbing feeling of being randomly surveilled and closely scrutinized.

I'm glad I was there and that we had a chance to talk with at least a few people and hear some good music, but overall I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not sure whether it was the Amphitheatre personnel or the crew that travelled with the band, but I feel we could have been treated with more respect, been provided with the materials we were promised, and not made to feel we were in the way.

I guess it's come to this. We have let them create a police state, allowing unqualified, intolerant and insensitive minions to exercise bodily power over others because they feel so little of it in their own lives. Although Crosby, Stills and Nash come from an era of supposed peace and love, they now operate in an atmosphere of uptight, impersonal rigidity, militarized hyper-security and profit-oriented capitalism on steroids. The disconnect between the message in their songs and the external reality is deeply depressing and might be diagnosed by a psychiatrist as cognitively dissonant. Woodstock it was not.

VFP and Crosby, Stills and Nash, St. Augustine, FL, August 23, 2009
by Stephen Hunter

It was a beautiful day in St. Augustine for a concert under a canopied amphitheatre.

Bill Warrick and myself, Stephen Hunter, represented the Gainesville, FL chapter of Veterans For Peace. We were joined by two members from the Central Florida chapter, Tom Santoni and Terry Buckenmeyer, both St. Augustine residents.

In the CS&N contract it states that local VFP members be provided with a table and chairs to hand out free literature about VFP and our activities. As stated in our charter, we must remain unbiased in our presentations.

Along with VFP, the Autism Speaks group, promoting autism awareness and Donate Life, an organization promoting organ donations were represented. The band is devoted to supporting these organizations.

Bill and I arrived in the parking lot at the exact same time as the St. Augustine members. (There was a little grumbling about being charged to park...) We pooled our resources and carried all our materials to the gate. We were met by a helpful attendant who was expecting us. It was just minutes before we gained entry and were led to our table. We hung the banners and placed a sign, set up the table with our literature and waited, watching what was happening in the pre-concert atmosphere as masses of fans (mostly aging ex-hippies like ourselves) were gathering at the gates.

In our bundle of materials brought were gifts for the band, T-shirts reading "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam", a book Lions of Medina and a CD on "Winter Soldier II." We contacted the "guy in charge" again and told him we had things for the band. Graham Nash's son, Will, came to see us and received the gifts for his dad and the rest of the band. We had hoped that the band might come out to see us, but to our (mild) disappointment, they did not. It is understandable that they can't just walk around in a huge crowd of fans.

Our table was just a few yards from the arena and we could hear all of the concert. We took turns going in to watch. With a triple encore, it was a good time for us all to the very end.

We encountered a lot of interest about our organization. Many who stopped by had family or friends, either in the military or thinking about joining. We handed out "Enlistment Guides" explaining the truth about recruiting and what to expect from the military, the VA and other organizations concerned with the welfare of our men and women in uniform.

Some people told us stories of people they knew and how they have been treated. One school teacher from a St. Augustine high school requested a stack of "Enlistment Guides" to hand to her students. A lot of people asked questions and took literature from the St. Augustine representatives. Their chapter may be getting new applications for membership. Overall, I think VFP was well received.

We want to thank Crosby, Stills and Nash for supporting our efforts to promote peace.

Stephan's reply to Tom's comment:

Paul Harvey is not around to say it, so I will. "And now - the rest of the story."

Tom was right about the CSN venue being overall intimidating and unfriendly.

The security guy who was twice my size and half my age, did indeed walk right up and push me back with one hand on each of my shoulders. I called him on it immediately, telling him, "Get your hands off me!"

He barked, "Get back against the wall."

I asked, "What about this guy?" pointing to a man in uniform standing next to me.

The bully guy said, "He's a firefighter."

I said, "And I'm a Marine veteran."

He said, "Well, get back against the wall."

I said, "Not 'til he does," nodding toward the fireman.

The almighty guard started to put his hand on me again, and I stopped him short warning that I would have him arrested if he laid a hand on me again. He walked off.

The firefighter looked at me and said he didn't want to see me get kicked out. I told him the other guy was going to jail first. The firefighter said that he and his buddies had been watching the guards pushing, shoving and bullying people around all night. He and I hit it off just fine. We even laughed at the guards' juvenile, authoritative behavior. He was a good witness to have if I needed one.

I didn't make a scene, nor did I want to. I knew that we (VFP) were there to be peaceful and act professionally. I did. We did. And it all turned out fine. And I won. :)

Stephen