[Peace-discuss] Killers in the Classroom

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Ms. Terpstra's reference to a sheepskin in the following recalls a 
story about H. D. Thoreau, author of "Civil Disobedience," who graduated 
from Harvard with honors in 1837 but did not have a particularly high 
opinion of colleges in general or in particular. When his friend Emerson 
once boasted that Harvard taught all the branches of learning, Thoreau 
quickly replied, "Yes, but none of the roots."  When Harvard, as was 
their strange practice then, offered him a master's degree, five years 
after graduation, for the payment of a five dollar diploma fee, he 
refused it, saying, "Let every sheep keep its own skin."  He thought 
colleges had too many professors of philosophy and too few real 
philosophers.  And he said he got more from his association with 
cultivated companions on the college campus than he did from his 
classes: many seem to agree. --CGE]

	*Killers in the Classroom*
	*By Dr. June Scorza Terpstra*
	*02/15/07
	http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17074.htm

During a heated debate in a class I teach on social justice, several
US Marines who had done tours in Iraq told me that they had "sacrificed"
by “serving” in Iraq so that I could enjoy the freedom to teach in the
USA. Parroting their master’s slogan about “fighting over there so we
don’t have to fight over here”, these students proudly proclaimed that
they terrorized and killed defenseless Iraqis. They intimated that their
Arab victims are nothing more to them than collateral damage, incidental
to their receipt of some money and an education.

A room full of students listened as a US Marine told of the invasion of
Baghdad and Falluja and how he killed innocent Iraqis at a check point.
He called them “collateral damage” and said he had followed the “rules”.
A Muslim-American student in front of him said “I could slap you but
then you would kill me”. A young female Muslim student gasped “I am a
freshman; I never thought to hear of this in a class. I feel sick, like
I will pass out.”

I knew in that moment that this was what the future of teaching about
justice would include: teaching war criminals who sit glaring at me with
hatred for daring to speak the truth of their atrocities and who, if
paid to, would disappear, torture and kill me. I wondered that night how
long I really have in this so called “free” country to teach my students
and to be with my children and grandchildren.

The American military and mercenary soldiers who “sacrificed” their
lives did not do so for the teacher’s freedom to teach the truth about
the so-called war on terror, or any of US history for that matter. They
sacrificed their lives, limbs and sanity for money, some education and
the thrills of the violence for which they are socially bred.
Sacrificing for the “bling and booty” in Iraq or Afghanistan, The
Philippines, Grenada, Central America, Mexico, Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq,
Afghanistan, or any of the other numerous wars and invasions spanning US
history as an entity and beginning with their foundational practice of
killing the Indians and stealing their land.

Many of the classes that I teach now include students who “served” in
the US military and security corporations. There are also many students
who intend to join the US military upon completion of a degree because
with the degree they get a bigger “sign on” bonus of ten to fifty
thousand dollars. Their position is supported by many of the student
body, who, vegetating according to the American Plan, believe they
should “support their troops”. The excuses that they give for joining or
intending to join the US military terrorist training camps are first and
foremost motivated by a desire for money. One student proudly said that
he is willing to kill for money, a better standard of living and an
education. Another student, who had done two tours of duty to the Empire
in Iraq, justified killing and torture, citing the importance of staying
on top as the world’s number one super power so that his family could
have the highest standard of living and unlimited access to the world’s
oil supplies.

Yet another soldier-student said that there would always be wars and
someone had to do it.  The “it” is killing, rape, and plunder for
profit. Some of the soldier-students agreed that military terrorism was
thrilling. Stopping and killing people at checkpoints in order to
maintain a comfortable lifestyle in the USA was worth the risk of being
killed or maimed. Little did they know that the very education they
would kill for could include a course on social justice in which they
would be compelled to examine their motives, beliefs and actions in an
evil, illegal, immoral and unjust invasion and occupation of a people
who never hurt or harmed them or any of their fellow citizens.

To be fair, in this week’s discussion in class there was some mention
that some of the student’s intentions had been honorable at the time
that they joined the military. They wanted to “help other people”. A few
woman students who want to join the military commented that they would
be working to “free and defend” people here and abroad. However, for the
most part and by their own admission, personal financial gain was their
main focus in signing on. Their bottom line was getting the money and
their thrills by joining and belonging to the biggest terrorist
organization in the world, the USA.

What appears to trouble the soldier student is that the rhetoric of
fighting for freedom and democracy is a lie that cannot blanket the
horror and guilt of their terrorism. They do not want to hear that
participation in invasion and occupation, murder and pillaging, is
logically inconsistent with any legitimate concept of freedom or
liberation. They know the greed and programmed lust for violence that
motivates them. They expect that if they can make it out alive, they get
some money, a comfortable lifestyle and an education. Their plan is to
secure the oil, the diamonds, the gold, the water, the guns, the drugs,
and the bling for their masters, who they hope will cut them in on the
swag. They say that someone has to be on top and they want to be on the
side of the strong, not the weak. Robbing Hoods, not Robin Hoods.

And now, here they sit in my course on social justice, terrorist war
criminals, wanting high paying “criminal justice” jobs in a university
Justice Studies program. They want approval, appreciation and honors for
terrorism, torture, and murder. They want a university degree so they
can get an even higher salary terrorizing more people around the world
with security companies such as Blackwater or Haliburton. They want
that appropriately named “sheepskin” so they can join the CIA, FBI, and
other police and track down and terrorize US residents here.

These military and mercenary terrorist-students are trained in terrorist
training camps all under the USA, funded by American taxpayers. In fact,
people under the USA are “sacrificing” their health care and their
children’s educations while donating their tax dollars to these
terrorist training camps. These terrorist camps train money hungry
working class stiffs to murder, steal and plunder for the power hungry
US corporate war lords.

There is a saying that “if you do the crime, you do the time”. My
response is that “If you do the war crimes, you will do time in hell,
whether the hell of war trauma and shock, of diseases such as those
caused by depleted uranium, the old-fashioned traditional hell, fire and
brimstone assigned to malefactors…or the hell of sitting in a social
justice class and discovering what the hell you are in hell for, or are
about to be."

/Please visit Dr Terpstras' website <http://www.juneterpstra.com>/