Wars Begin in High School Cafeterias
David Swanson at AfterDowningStreet.org
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