A local Connecticut newspaper featured an article
on World Can’t Wait Student Organizer Pat Korte and news on mobilizing
for the State of the Union Protests and the Feb.4th National
Mobilization in D.C.
By Elizabeth Yerkes
Stonington
Patrick Korte can’t vote yet, but he’s already developed a political conscience well beyond his years.
The Stonington High
School senior is a quiet leader who has thought
through his beliefs, according to friends and teachers.
‘Inside class, he takes a clear, well-thought-out position,’ said Tim Smith,
who has taught Korte in English and other courses. ‘He knows what he thinks is
right.’
Outside of class, Korte takes action on those beliefs.
The 17-year-old Pawcatuck resident spoke before an audience of 200 at Columbia
UniversityLaw School
in mid-November as Connecticut’s
student organizer of The World Can’t Wait, a single-issue organization centered
on ousting the Bush administration. He was also invited to speak at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on National Public Radio.
Korte’s message is clear: ‘The Democratic Party is not going to stand up for
us. The Republican Party is churning out lies every day. We must stand up for
ourselves,’ the teen said last week in Pawcatuck.
Korte is the Connecticut
organizer of Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, a new version of the
radical left student group that formed in 1959 in Ann
Arbor, Mich., and dissolved in
1969.
Four decades ago, the group promoted non-violent civil disobedience to
elicit ‘participatory democracy,’ and left behind a violent faction, the
Weathermen. SDS chapters thrived on college campuses across the nation, and in
the era of the Vietnam War and the draft, it encouraged students to take direct
political action. The spirit of this anti-war organization frequently resulted
in arrests and, in 1970 at Kent State
University, protesters’ deaths.
‘Civil disobedience serves its own place in American politics,’ Korte said.
‘To bring democracy back to the people we have to give this effort everything
we’ve got.’
He laughed when asked how he felt about possibly being put on a National
Security Administration watch list.
‘I’m sure I’m on one now, especially after speaking at Columbia.
But you can’t be afraid of something like that,’ he said.
In November, Korte organized dozens of student demonstrators in downtown
Westerly to ‘drive Bush out.’ By his own account, Korte said the rally
unleashed a torrent of support. He hopes to organize several more area and
regional demonstrations for SDS and The World Can’t Wait. The next protest,
titled ‘Drown Out Bush’s Lies,’ will take place at 8 p.m. on the night of the State of the Union Address,
Jan. 31, in Dixon Square
across from Westerly’s Post Office.
‘It’s a state of emergency,’ said Korte, who cited domestic spying, the war
on terror and the Patriot Act as a few examples of what he considers urgent.
‘We, the youth of this nation, are going to drown out Bush’s lies. What we’re
saying is, ‘We’ve had enough of this. We’ve heard it before. We, not George
Bush, are going to set the tone for the rest of the administration’s term.”
The crux of Korte’s mission is to organize local youth to understand and act
on today’s political issues. He’s found that organizing his peers at high
school is real work, and routinely counters cynicism and apathy.
‘I say, ‘Look to the future. It doesn’t look too bright with this war in the
Middle East, assault on the free press, and destruction
of the environment,” he said. ‘It’s our responsibility to get involved whether
we like it or not ( it’s our duty to humanity, as members of the richest, most
powerful nation in the world, to bring about positive social change.’
Junior Dylan DePasquale has helped Korte pass out anti-war leaflets and
answer strangers’ questions in downtown Westerly. The two will take part in a
Feb. 4 demonstration in Washington, D.C.,
and they just pulled together a group of 15 peers to staff a
counter-recruitment table at the high school.
‘I do this because there aren’t that many courses in school that talk about
war and political activism,’ DePasquale, 16, said. ‘I’ve learned that when the
military comes to our school to recruit, they don’t always give the full story
to kids who might enlist. So we’ll fill in those blanks.’
As a freshman, Korte said he was ‘deep into’ the works of activist Abbie
Hoffman, anarchist Emma Goldman and historian Howard Zinn, among others. At the
end of last summer, though, it was a leaflet from The World Can’t Wait handed
to him in New York’s Union
Square that finally sparked him to take action.
‘It’s easy to be rebellious and a teenager,’ teacher Smith said. ‘But Pat’s
interest in issues always translated into action.’
This fall Korte has juggled the college application process and his
politically active life. He has set his sights on Manhattan’s
New School
or possibly Hampshire College
in Massachusetts. He’s certainly
ready, and as centers of activism, they will be ready for him.