By Debra Sweet
Students at an alternative high school in Manhattan are still talking about Ethan McCord’s visit to their classes last fall. They still message him on Facebook, asking for advice, letting him know about their lives, and checking up with him.
Ethan stood outside a packed assembly room while they watched a film of him talking about the 2007 Army operation in Iraq where U.S. Apache helicopters, firing from 1.5 miles up, systematically killed 12 civilians, and wounded more. Ethan, a member of Bravo Company, 216th Infantry, rescued 2 children wounded, and got harsh criticism from his command for doing so.
Since the footage of that attack was posted by Wikileaks as "Collateral Murder" in April 2010, Ethan has been speaking out. He told me after speaking in that class in New York, "I think I’ve found my calling in talking to kids." He has the moral authority to speak on such war crimes, the knowledge from the inside, and the humanity to connect.
A film by James Spione about Ethan, Incident in New Baghdad, debuts April 24 at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC. World Can’t Wait will bring Ethan for the opening. He’s offered to speak to more students. Please donate now to the We Are Not Your Soldiers tour, bringing anti-war veterans like Ethan, Matthis Chiroux, and this Army veteran who spoke Saturday at the antiwar protest in Chicago, into schools.
Meeting teachers: This Saturday, World Can’t Wait will present a workshop for teachers on how to bring veterans into the classroom, at the New York Collective of Radical Educators Conference.