PORTLAND, OR – While at our Seattle meetup the MHD crew got a tip from Rachel Hawkridge about Coffee Strong, an Anti-War coffee shop ran by former military personnel and located just blocks from Fort Lewis. We arrived Sunday morning as one of the owners, Seth Manzel was opening the shop, which was filled with anti-war posters and a Don’t Tread on Me Flag on the wall behind the counter.

Seth is a veteran of Iraq and active with Iraq Veterans Against the War. He started this coffee shop in order to give enlisted soldiers an easy way to learn about their options and to advocate peace. They hold regular meetings, video nights, speakers and an occasional protest. They even offer free coffee to currently enlisted men and women.

While conversing with the Seth about how Coffee Strong was started he informed us of a protest (pics here) they were planning on the near by “Freedom Bridge” that afternoon.  This particular demonstration was taking place due to the treatment of Sergent Travis Bishop and Specialist Victor Agosto who are imprisoned at Fort Lewis for “crimes” related to being conscientious objectors to the the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A flyer that given to us at the rally states:

Sgt. Bishop is the second soldier from Fort Hood in as many weeks to be tried by the military for his stand against an occupation he believes is ‘illegal.’ He insists that it would be unethical for him to deploy to support an occupation he opposes on both moral and legal grounds, and has filed for conscientious objector (CO) status.

Bishop also claims that the CO status options were never made aware to him until he had received his orders to deploy to Afghanistan (visit WarIsImmoral.com to learn more about conscientious objector status) so Bishop went AWOL for a week to prepare his application of CO and claims:

Then I went back [to Fort Hood] with Branum and turned myself in. I never planned on staying AWOL. They gave me a barracks room and assigned me to a platoon and told me to show up to work the next day. That was it. They started the CO process, but they also started the Uniform Code of Military Justice process, and that’s where it gets shifty.

The flier didn’t give as much info on Spec. Agosto but does state that he also has conscientious objections that keep him from performing his job and filed proper paper work. I was also told that the majority of Agosto’s troubles started when family members of his were left homeless. He asked for a leave to go and provide for his family, when that was denied he went AWOL. He returned and has been detained ever since.

To me, the CO process seems to be way too lengthy. If these folks don’t agree with military doings, why not just cut them loose? Fill out a form put your stamp on it and let these men go. Instead they are hated, shunned, made to be ‘criminals’ and locked in a cage because they have the courage to stand up for what they believe in. I recall a statement made by Daniel Lakemacher during his interview with MHD, “If it’s an all volunteer military then why can’t I just leave?”