Peace activist Brian Willson to speak Monday in Houghton

Former Fredonia resident to give talk entitled, "We are not worth more, they are not worth less."

S. Brian Willson, a prominent Viet Nam veteran turned peace activist and former Fredonia resident, will appear on Monday, Oct. 31, at 3 p.m. in 213 Houghton Hall on the SUNY Fredonia campus. We will discuss and read from his psychohistorical memoir, "Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson" (PM Press, 2011). The talk is free and open to the public, and co-hosted by Fredonia Students for Peace and the Dunkirk-Fredonia Center for Peace and Justice.

Mr. Willson will also speak with Dr. Sherri Mason's class at 1 p.m. that day in 101 Jewett Hall, on the SUNY Fredonia campus. This discussion with Dr. Mason's class is also free and open to the public.

Willson, who lost both legs below the knee in 1987 when he was run over by a US Navy munitions train at the Concord, California Naval Weapons Station, kicked off his book tour by cycling from Portland, Ore. to San Francisco, Calif. on his three-wheeled, hand-powered recumbent cycle. The author said he wanted to demonstrate a mode of personal transportation that reduces dependence upon fossil fuels.

His long, rich history includes a decade addressing the systemic injustices in the criminal justice system. Later he served as legislative aide to Massachusetts State Senator Jack Backman (Brookline), working on prison, mental health, and veterans' issues, and directed a rural veterans outreach center. Willson was presented with a special award for his work with veterans by Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. In 1984, he was one of 12 Viet Nam veterans credited with helping John Kerry gain a hard-fought U.S. Senate seat in his first campaign. In his book, Willson details his experience in that campaign as well as his later disappointment with Kerry.

In 1986, Willson was one of four veterans who staged a 47-day, water-only fast on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in response to continued funding of Reagan's Contra terrorist wars in Central America. He was officially recognized by the Massachusetts State Senate for his "courageous participation" in the fast. One year later, on Sept. 1, 1987, he was again thrust into the public eye when he was run over and nearly killed by an accelerating U.S. Navy train while engaging in a well-publicized, nonviolent blockade in protest of weapons shipments to El Salvador. "My own government labeled me a terrorist and attempted to murder me," says Willson. "My story is strongly relevant for activists today in this climate of an unending 'war on terror.'"

The Center for Peace and Justice provides persons in the Dunkirk, Fredonia and surrounding area of Western New York, the opportunity to learn about, and act constructively on, a variety of issues, both local and global, related to peace, human rights and social justice.