Since 2008, our project, We Are Not Your Soldiers, has brought veterans into classrooms to share stories of why they enlisted, what they experienced in the U.S. military, the effects on their lives as well as the people of the countries where they were stationed. The speakers expose imperial wars to youth who remain unaware of the crimes being carried out throughout the world in their names.
Your generous donation will help as we get more requests from educators than ever as the Trump regime daily commits increasingly aggressive and dangerous actions against brown people especially as well as all people within our borders and throughout the world.
The U.S. military continues recruiting this generation, maintaining its 800+ bases globally, while preparing for war across the globe. Our core message to youth: If you enlist, you may risk death or injury; subject yourself, your family and community to your own PTSD; and inflict unjust death and destruction on other peoples. You could lose your own humanity.
This year our ground-breaking We Are Not Your Soldiers project has 12 presenters: veterans of the U.S. wars on Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and of the global network of U.S. bases maintaining U.S. imperialist domination. These men and women, English- and Spanish-speakers, tell the hidden stories, bringing living history to high school and college students. The classroom conversations encourage students to do their own further research and questioning.
In 2025, we went to 19 schools, largely in New York City but also in Long Island NY, New Jersey, Philadelphia, North Carolina and Oregon — some more than once. In-depth discussions, requiring critical thinking, took place in 51 classrooms and, additionally, with two student groups. We visited, in-person and via remote technology, two middle schools, three high schools, 5 community colleges and 11 regular colleges — some more than once. 14 of these were public institutions and 5 were private. Your gifts made all this possible! Let’s keep it going!
It is only with your help that we can continue to be the only program in the United States to bring veterans directly into classrooms. Each time a veteran speaks to a class, they receive a stipend to help cover childcare and/or time off from work or school. We cover travel expenses, internet presence, communication tools, materials and some advertising to teachers.
Will you stand with us? Please ensure that the work of We Are Not Your Soldiers continues by donating now to keep expanding our outreach in 2026. In the spring semester of 2025, we visited 13 schools and 23 classes — in the fall of 2025, we visited 15 schools and 28 classes. We want to engage in dialogue with an even wider cross-section of youth.
How else will young people get to learn from those individuals who saw what happened to people in countries the U.S. invaded and to the U.S. troops themselves? Despite the gloom that surrounds us this year is also shimmering with possibilities. Your gift will help us engage in more thoughtful dialogue as students question the wars abroad and the violence being unleashed by the Trump regime against people within our own borders.
At this time donations made to We Are Not Your Soldiers/World Can’t Wait do not qualify for tax deductions.
Checks to World Can’t Wait can be mailed to
World Can’t Wait
2 East 28th Street #321
New York NY 10016-7402
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