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Update!
Thanks to numerous donors contributing in amounts from $5 – $5,000 (in matching funds), our goal of $10,000 to get the tour back on the road was exceeded!
This will not be the last time you are asked to contribute to this project – we raised $7,130.15 before matching funds this weekend, but are up against a military with a recruiting budget of $7 billion. This is going to be an uphill battle, but what we have going for us is reality, morality, and a vision of a truly better world.
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By Debra Sweet
What are you being asked to give money towards, in this Anti-War Offensive fundraising drive? We have a plan to stop the war – but you are needed.
The We Are Not Your Soldiers tour is getting ready to hit schools in Ohio this weekend, with more requests coming in from Seattle, Massachusetts and Connecticut. This tour brings Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to the schools to talk to students about the on-the-ground reality of the wars and the need for students to stop military recruiters.
We want recruiters out now and we want to turn schools into hot spots of resistance, creating a situation where military recruiters are met with daily protest by the students themselves in all areas where they recruit. There is great need and a demand for this from teachers, parents and students. Watch some of the previous presentations:
Coming up soon, March 29th and March 30, Liz, a World Can’t Wait activist, and Anthony Wagner, an Iraq War veteran, will be traveling from Chicago to Cleveland, Ohio, where they have been asked by teachers to reach out to 2 schools and at least 200 students. Then, on March 31, they have been asked to travel to Columbus, Ohio to speak in multiple classes to 110 students!
The schools are saturated with military recruiters, located in low-income areas with Black and Latino students that recruiters consistently prey on. One teacher told us, "The school will sometimes sign students up for JROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps, viewed as a "military club") as an elective course even if they don’t request it."
Another teacher said, "I am extremely concerned about my students. I know that if things don’t change, a good chunk of my students will be joining the military and fighting in these illegal wars."
Both Liz and Anthony live in Chicago, where they have spoken in classes regularly. We need to fly them out to Ohio and to fund them for transportation and stipends for transportation and stipends, especially because Anthony is currently a student. They will not be able to meet these requests we already have and the new requests that are coming in daily without meeting our goal of $10,000.
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These young women protesting the war in Seattle on Sunday told Emma they were in second grade when the war started. Now, they’re old enough to be recruited.
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One parent wrote to the us, "I am absolutely distraught because I just found out my son is joining the military. He joined the ROTC clubs at his high school and now he has signed his life away to join the military. I don’t know where to turn and I am hoping you can help me."
A high school student wrote to us from a wealthy suburb in Florida, "[Emma’s] absolutely right, students need to resist. It’s sickening to see the military come to my high school and try to lure kids into fighting this imperialist war. It’s simply not right for military recruiters to go to high schools (like mine) to try to get teenagers to stray from education by joining the military. I believe that a bright future will come from going to college, not enlisting to fight an imperialist war for this fake idea of terrorism, and committing crimes against humanity.
I would absolutely love for the World Can’t Wait to come to my school."
Will a whole new generation of young people be duped into becoming trained killers, occupying and oppressing the people of the world and not able to live normal lives because of the things they were apart of or will we inspire them to drive out the recruiters as a part of stopping these wars and fighting for a better world? If you want to stop these wars, help unleash resistance to military recruiting.
Update! (3/22/10 @ 1:30pm CT)
If we raise $5,000 by midnight a generous donor will match it & we will have reached our goal. Donate to get the We Are Not Your Soldiers Tour back on the road!
Hey, how about we all just go fishing instead? Enough already with the “Imperialist/Resistance” mumbo jumbo. Wet a line!!