Liam at a Glance: Marine Corps Sergeant ♦ Leader of America’s Largest Antiwar Iraq Veterans Group ♦ Human Rights Award Winner ♦Father ♦ Solar Energy Professional ♦ Entrepreneur ♦ Climate Innovator ♦ MIT Climate “Solver”

 My Story:

1989: Moved to Stowe, Vt at 4 years old after my mother and father decided to re-imagine our family’s life following my father’s recovery from severe addictions and the trauma they caused.

1989-96: I fell in love with Vermont. I spent my childhood catching frogs, causing mischief,  tromping into the forest to imagine entire worlds, swinging from trees and jumping off rocks into swimming holes.

1996: My family moved to Stowe Vermont’s polar opposite, a mill town struggling to find an identity - and an economy - now that it didn’t have any mills - Bellows Falls, Vermont

1996-2002: I went from experiencing what it was like to be among the least wealthy families in Vermont’s most affluent town, to being kindof middle of the road in Vermont’s poorest town. I was an abysmal student (except for math) and a bona fide trouble maker in high school. I learned a lot about hard work, focus, and discipline as the captain of the wrestling team. I learned about perseverance, resourcefulness and unconditional love from my mother who worked in, and eventually owned, her own restaurant, and my father who worked as a traveling salesman until he earned a Masters in Social Work.

2002-2005: I joined the US Marine Corps because I knew I needed to grow up before I went to college. The U.S. invaded Iraq while I was in basic training.

While in Iraq I had only a handful of scary experiences. What saddened me most was the look of hatred, fear, and humiliation in the eyes of most of the Iraqis I saw. I could tell they did not want foreign soldiers on their streets. I imagined I’d be an insurgent too if I was in their shoes.

Once, an 18 year old kid in my unit… all machismo and Napoleon complex, shot his machine gun into a car of innocent civilians because they tried to pass our trucks on the road. He did it out of fear and in compliance with his understanding of our rules of engagement. I was so angry and ashamed to be part of this disaster.

Another time, around Christmas, a young, tall Captain in the Marine Corps Reserves dazzled us all by playing classical guitar in a morale boosting Christmas talent show. The next day, he got his arm blown off. 

2006: I returned from Iraq angry and ashamed I had been part of such senseless violence and coercion - I saw that I had risked my life and those of others as a tool of a political class I grew to hold in contempt. I saw that the war was only possible thanks to a continuous propaganda campaign to advance an agenda that only served the political, media, and financial elite.  I read Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, and watched Oliver Stone’s JFK…

I was politically awakening and committed to do something to stop the ongoing bloodshed and end the disgraceful reign of corporate oligarchs, media mouthpieces, and political criminals and excuse makers. At the very least, I told myself, even if I accomplished nothing, even if I was put in a cage, at least I wouldn’t be complicit in an Orwellian nightmare. At least I would have not been a “good German.”

I had no idea what to do. But I was sure that whatever I did, it would likely land me in military prison. It wouldn’t surprise me if the charge levied at me would be treason (punishable by death), not because I was doing anything treasonous, but because I figured I’d be made an example of.

Fortunately, I met a Navy sailor who had lived an entire life before joining the military as a brilliant radical organizer at Howard University. His name was Jonathan Hutto. Jonathan and I began organizing a campaign of military service members to write their congressional representatives. This campaign got picked up by 60 Minutes, the NY Times and almost every major media outlet in the world. 

2007: I left the military and was deeply involved in the leadership of the organization Iraq Veterans Against the War. The Marine Corps attempted to retaliate against my protest activities by threatening to retroactively change my honorable discharge to an ‘other than honorable’ discharge, which would have prevented me from using the GI Bill to attend college. The charges were eventually dropped.

2007-2012: While studying at Northeastern University, I used almost all of my spare time to be involved in Iraq Veterans Against the War. I saw a fellow veteran next to me get knocked to the ground by police and his skull cracked by a police horse’s foot while protesting outside the McCain/Obama debate. 

I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northeastern University. My studies focused on environmental policy and science; economics; and history.

2013-2019: I worked in the solar energy industry doing both business development and construction; as a farm hand, and as a waiter. I started several enterprises including a food manufacturer, a cafe, and an environmental fundraising organization. I raised over $700,000 in startup capital, employed over 30 people, won MIT’s business model competition for projects addressing climate change, and became a “Climate Fellow” for a world class social entrepreneurship accelerator called Echoing Green. One of those businesses spectacularly failed.

I participated in ayahuasca ceremonies while traveling to Colombia. My intention for this experience was to bring my heart and mind to a fuller trust and acceptance of the unknown. It was beautiful and powerful. 

In 2015 I returned to live in Vermont and married my life’s love and creative partner, Lauren Murphy. In 2019 Lauren gave birth to our son, June. This May, our son Winn came on the scene.

2020-2021: I work as the director of solar energy for a Vermont home energy company and also support my wife’s successful online herbal products business. 

In the Fall of 2020 I was kicked off of social media for no stated violation, but presumably because I recognized the red flags of overt censorship, and the same tell tale signs of a coordinated propaganda and the exploitation of fear that I saw in relation to the war in Iraq happening again with Covid 19. I saw Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford’s senior epidemiologists silenced, denigrated and attacked for their commonsense perspective that Covid 19 could have been dealt with through a less costly plan of focused protection of the vulnerable, without the need to censor, lockdown or mandate. I could no longer ignore that the two party system is incapable of solving our problems without turning every issue into a tribal propaganda war, burning all of our creative energy for their pursuit of their temporary power.

I decided that I would offer myself into service to help illuminate a path to liberation from their death-grip on our ability to self govern.

If you are satisfied changing the players, you have plenty of good options this election. If you know in your heart that we must change the rules of the game, you have one clear choice. Send me to Congress. Let’s rebirth democracy together.