[Peace-discuss] A reminder…
Brussel Morton K.
mkbrussel at comcast.net
Sun Apr 20 11:20:59 CDT 2008
Wars Begin in High School Cafeterias
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/32813
By David Swanson
Citizens in a number of school districts around the country have
dramatically reduced military recruitment through simple procedures
that anyone can do. No marching or civil disobedience is required.
You might, however, have to chat with a principal at a football game
or write a couple of letters. Why aren't more of us doing more of this?
That's the question I came away with after interviewing Pat Elder for
an hour (here's the audio: http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/audio/
2008/#april ). Pat is a member of the coordinating committee of the
National Network Opposing Militarization of Youth: http://www.nnomy.org
In Pat's view, we shouldn't stop marching in the streets or pulling
stunts for media attention or any of the other tactics employed by
the peace movement, but far and away the most useful thing we can be
doing is changing school policies to block military recruiting
efforts in high schools.
Laws provide military recruiters equal access to students, equal to
the access granted colleges and employers. But often the military
gets greater access. Colleges and companies have to make appointments
with the guidance office to speak to students. The military sets up a
table in the cafeteria to push its sales pitch on every student who
comes to lunch. Why not talk to your local high schools about
changing that policy and complying with the law?
The No Child Left Behind law makes school funding dependent on
providing students' names and contact information to military
recruiters, but parents can opt-out of including their children in
that list. With a little bit of organizing and persuading you can
convince your school and your school district to follow through on
allowing families to opt-out, and to opt-out of military recruitment
without removing names from databases used for other things (like
college recruitment), and to send all parents a letter letting them
know that they can opt-out.
Take a look at this website: http://www.asvabprogram.com Smiling
kids, happy colors, and free career guidance. Would you have any idea
that this was a military recruiting tool? The ASVAB is the Armed
Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Some high schools allow
students to take it, others require every student to take it. You can
persuade your school to not require it, and/or to not send the
results to military recruiters, and/or to inform students and parents
that the test is a military recruiting tool.
These and similar steps can deny the military tens of thousands of
names and the accompanying contact information. Without cannon
fodder, not even today's high tech military can fight aggressive
wars. If the need for a defensive war ever arises, recruitment won't
be hard. Sure the military can simply spend billions of our dollars
to increase recruiting, but school districts that have taken the
steps described here have blocked recruitment regardless.
I recently interviewed Dave Meserve as well (audio here: http://
www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/audio/2008/#february ) who is promoting
an ordinance in Arcata, California, that would ban military
recruitment in locations where there are large numbers of minors.
That sort of approach, if possible in your town, would work as well
to keep recruiters out of schools.
Schools that provide space in their cafeterias for military
recruiters are also required to provide equal access for
alternatives, and that includes you. You can set up a table at which
veterans tell the truth about the military and at which you offer
alternative career choices. But, in Elder's informed view, the more
effective (and measurable) success comes from keeping the recruiters
out all together. You don't have to keep them out of town. You can't
ban their advertising, their movies, their video games, their toys.
But you can keep them out of the cafeteria of a school and keep their
souped up vans and simulated weapons off school grounds.
And if you can keep their numbers too low, you can shut down ROTC
units in high schools and JROTC units in junior high schools.
You can take your message to recruiting stations as well.
Grandmothers can try to enlist, or knit stump socks in front of the
entrance. You can dress up as Bush and Cheney and try to enlist,
since you missed your chance in Vietnam. Such stunts may have a use
if they bring more people into your organization or change the media
discourse, but - says Elder - the bulk of the recruitment is not
happening at recruiting stations. It's happening in schools. And it
can be stopped where it's happening. And it's not hard to do.
To get involved in this work, go to: http://nnomy.org
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