Behind the Green Door

We wake at night and sleep at the sight of the day
The sun can show so much
--Drew Cameron

Either war is obsolete, or men are
--Buckminster Fuller
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Here is a good story:

Last week we had lunch with Drew Cameron, Iraqi War vet and founder of the Combat Paper Project, and visited the Green Door Studios in Burlington, Vermont, where he makes his paper. [Thanks to tw of the Elmer Creek Conspiracy for the heads up on the project in "Iraqi War Vets Transforming Trauma."] Drew is a pleasant guy who led us to a great 100% green restaurant, wearing a T-shirt which read, "There's Wrong. And then There's Army Wrong."

Cameron is an artist, papermaker and poet who began the Combat Paper Project with fellow Iraqi Veterans Against the War members who work in a collaborative venture to process their shared experiences. Drew Matott, owner of the People's Republic of Paper, is Drew's project partner (we also visited Mattot's workspace at the Blu Seed studios in Lake Saranac.)

In this art project, veterans take their combat uniforms and pulp them, taking the fibers through the arduous process of creating handmade paper. The giant vat in which the uniforms are pulped is papered with bumpers stickers like, "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war (Einstein)," "Greed Kills," and "Just say "No" to Army Recruiters." Their latest batch is Marine blue from uniforms they collected while at Martha's Vineyard.

The Combat Paper/Warrior Writer's Project team uses the uniform paper they produce as a vehicle upon which to print their thoughts and images. They have created limited edition books and prints, and are taking their Warrior Writers project to colleges and studios around the country, holding workshops with the intent of involving more veterans in the process.

Over 47 vets have pulped their uniforms at the Green Door so far, representing all branches of the service and all wars back to WWII. Ideally, they would like to take their project to other countries, to emphasize the universality of the soldier's experience. Cameron envisions the papermaking process as a bridge to healing. But this is not your typical art therapy; it has an edge.

Cameron was an Army NCO from 2000-04, later serving in the National Guard until 2006. He said the question that gnawed at him during his time in Iraq was, "Why were we there, and what did we do over there?" He felt a "misidentification with the mission" as conflicting objectives surfaced in the press.

He said, "If freedom is defined by offensive wars, inequity and racism, freemarket aggression and kids fighting and dying," then he is against freedom. He also defined terrorism as "the use of violence against other people or infrastructures for political gain," and "morale" as not how good the soldier feels, but "his willingness to carry out the mission he is tasked with. He mused, "In that line of thinking, I'm a freedom-hating terrorist with low morale."

Since his project is called "Warrior Writers," Ranger asked him to define "warrior". Drew said the warrior fights from his heart, and he said he is now coming from that place. However, this was not so until after his discharge in 2006 and becoming involved with a community of other vets who were also disillusioned with the war.

He observed that the military is deeply rooted in our society --" it's in our subconscious, and we have to root that out and be able to transcend it."

Among the guys we met at Green Door was Jon, who was thumbing through his Purple Heart magazine outside when we saw him ("Life member," he said.) From his bio on the Green Door website:

"After being discharged from the Marine Corps in 2007, I moved to Burlington to escape from the realities of military life and society in general. Due to my deployments to Haiti, Fallujah and Ramadi, I suffered from Post Traumatic Stress from the atrocities of war as an infantryman. Although I have turned down the wrong paths before, art, poetry and performances have now become my way of letting go of my past; a time in my life that was filled with hate and destruction."

The group did a weekend workshop at Sarah Lawrence College the week we met, and are off to the West Coast this month. If anyone knows of an appropriate venue in which Drew and Co. can bring their Combat Paper and Warrior Writer's workshop while out there, please contact him here.

They seem like a good bunch of people, and we wish them well.