Special ONLINE ART SALE To Help Fund sending LA Youth to the Conference. Great Art by local artists ! Click here!
Closing Reception for the art show and Send-Off part fot NNOMY youth
~ July 11 at Stories Bookstore in Echo Park.
Project Great Futures
By Michelle Cohen
June
23, 2009
I want to tell you about an interesting day this spring, at a high school near downtown L.A., when strikingly different realities were being experienced by students at exactly the same time.
On the football field, a JROTC class was being led through a series of military drills. Students, many who could have been placed in JROTC involuntarily, in place of a real P.E. class, were being trained to obey harshly-shouted orders without question, and move, dress, and respond as "one unit," instead of as their unique and individual selves...
Inside the student cafeteria, however, something much different was happening. Curious, relaxed students moved at their own pace from table to table, taking in the displays and conversing with representatives of the diverse and inspiring programs that came to share information.
Here are some of the opportunities presented at this different kind of information fair:
To clean up the ocean and grow careers as environmentalists; (Heal the Bay)
To plant and care for trees to green their city and clean their air; (TreePeople)
To get paid to tutor and mentor younger kids in public city schools, with almost $5000 for college upon completion (CityYear)
To develop their leadership skills in full-time paid apprenticeships with local nonprofit organizations (Public Allies)
To become well-paid, technically-skilled, unionized craftspeople in the film and TV industry- for free! (Workplace Hollywood)
To gain construction skills in a very low-cost program that consistently places grads in good jobs leading to apprenticeship programs in the skilled trades (WeBuild)
To get out of the city, away from violence and negative influences, to get healthy and strong working in the parks and forests doing natural resource work and responding to emergencies, and getting paid to do it (California Conservation Corps)
To sponsor and build affordable homes with and for local families (Habitat for Humanity)
...and more...
As you can see, these kinds of opportunities are just a few of the ways that youth can learn valuable career skills and further their educations through exciting, hands-on experience, with stipends, college money , and even housing attached to many choices. Youth who choose these develop self-confidence, responsibility, pride, critical thinking, and know they are truly, honorably, serving their communities and their country. None of these paths to greatness routinely involve being screamed at, humiliated, "broken down to be built up as something else," or possibly sent to war...
Project Great Futures invited these presenters to the fair, and has helped develop similar information fairs for other schools and events. Why? Because we know about so many healthy, safe, meaningful, and rewarding alternatives to the military path those JROTC students were being prepared for. But too many students still don’t know about them. They feel hopeless, listen to recruiters' tempting promises, and end up enlisting without ever knowing about all the great alternatives. Project Great Futures is here to help spread the word and undo the hopelessness. Check us out and consider inviting us to help organize your next school or community event.
SPECIAL ONLINE ART FUNDRAISER CLICK HERE.
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Staring Militarism down.
June 4, 2009
Gregory Sotir
What does it take to stare militarism down? To stare it in the face, see it for what it is, and then work to creatively transform it, and the time, and the culture, into something more sustainable and evident of life’s possibilities?
There are the iconic images of the past, of the young man at Kent Stare placing a flower in a gun barrel, or the Chinese citizen in front of the line of tanks on their way to Tiananamen Sq twenty years ago today. We have these glimpses of individuals doing heroic things that are caught in history’s photographic memory like a Pleistocene creature caught in amber. But for the rest of us, these momentary acts of heroic defiance are too unusual and too controversial to approach by ourselves as the actor and instigator. We, who live in this militarized democracy that seeks to make perpetual war normal, that seeks to insure our youth will be taught that war is okay and something that cannot be avoided, that war is America acting to protect it’s own, are confronted daily by those who would seek to demote a sustainable future to an unquestioned obedience to the Pentagon. Wrapping ones ideals and practices, no matter how unattractive, in necessity and ritual (as JROTC does when they teach students that using mock and even real weapons is an honorable and desirable pedagogy), makes the violence of perpetual war normal. They normalize war. These ‘teachers of war’ can thank the television and videogame industry for their support, as well as the educational chain-of-command that insures their place in public education regardless of credentials or classroom experience. Here in LAUSD we are losing 2500 young passionate teachers and yet the programs that teach military acceptance and the normality of war are untouched and sacrosanct.
So what does it take to stare militarism down? Peace and justice educators have constantly paid the price for teaching intelligent life-skills and handing over knowledge bases to youth that are sustainable even as the status quo co-opts the very patterns and claims them as their own. These teachers are attacked and scapegoated. The creative teachers who force the issue of confronting our acceptance of war and violence are not given praise, or support, quite the opposite in many cases. I guess this is what it takes in a society that is so militarized as our own.
The lies beneath the surface stay the same though, and so the Pentagon now claims to be green when they are the worst polluting agency on a planet facing massive atmospheric change, and the ‘green’ Pentagon will then become a source of pride for the nation. Those who promise that our youth deserve and need the forms of warfare to learn to be aware citizens play this same game of semantic reversal, it’s not greenwashing, it’s the same old brainwashing. Well teachers of America, we need to stare these ‘teachers of war’ down. A child forced to accept perpetual war, or the prison cycle, is being taught a form of unsustainabilty, just as when our culture believed that slavery was normal and correct, or that slaughtering all the buffalo was normal and a manly thing to do. We need to stare this down and make it disappear. It is not normal. And our time to build a sustainable future is going quickly.
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Dear CAMS Members and Friends,
We have been working hard on the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) National Counter Recruitment and Demilitarization Conference called- It’s Our World-Change It! It will be held July 17-19, 2009 at Roosevelt University in Chicago and we are excited about building unity, focus and momentum for the national counter-recruitment movement.
CAMS is a sponsoring organization, and we’ve been involved in NNOMY since its inception four years ago. We felt that it is critical and timely to organize a national counter-recruitment conference as the issue of militarism of youth has seeped into every aspect of society. We are in this for the long haul, as our youth continue to be pursued by military recruiters in their schools, homes and even now on their cell phones and on Facebook and Myspace.
The gathering of all ages, brand new as well as seasoned activists, from all over America is critical as we tackle the issue of the militarism of our culture and youth. One goal of the NNOMY conference is to sponsor 100 youth from across the US to attend this conference. However, the scholarships will only cover the partial cost of attending, which is estimated to be approximately $550 for airfare, registration, and the youth hostel for youth coming from the LA area. CAMS is fundraising now so that we send approximately 10 youth from various schools for the nominal cost to them of $10 to $30. To do this we have planned a fundraising event on Saturday June 13th, 2-5 p.m. at the home of Bob McCloskey and Linda Tubach, that will feature music, spoken word, original art pieces, and great food. Won’t you please join us? We are also marketing stainless steel water bottles and are organizing a traveling art show and online silent art auction. Already, eleven generous artists have agreed to donate money from sales of their work, and more offers are coming in steadily. Check our MySpace site for updates and where to see the art.
So far we have our brochure artist David Mesina and five students from Garfield High School who are requesting funds to attend the conference. There are many others who have expressed a strong interest including students from the South Bay, Venice High, Verdugo Hills High, LA High School, and Roosevelt High School.
You are a sustainer and supporter of CAMS, who has made our work possible. We would deeply appreciate any contribution you could make towards sending youth from LA to the NNOMY conference. I assure you, that in doing so, Los Angeles will never be the same. We will continue with fervor to resist the militarism of our youth, and to provide nonviolent and green alternatives. For every contribution of $50. or more we will send you a free stainless steel water bottle specially made for CAMS that says “Peaceful". Click here for the flyer. Arlene Inouye for CAMS
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A Classroom Presentation
Arlene Inouye
May 20, 2009
A teacher from a high risk program in Boyle Heights invited CAMS to make a classroom presentation because she was startled by how many in this community had brothers, sisters, and friends in the military. She also sensed that they were captive to the military advertising and Latino cultural endorsement of the military as “macho”. The 25 students in the classroom were 15 and 16 year old students, from local gangs, and from a local housing project, and all presented academic challenges. So Maricela Guzman, of the American Friends Service Committee, and a navy veteran from 1998-2002 went with me to make a presentation and show the video “Before you Enlist” and engage in a discussion with the youth.
When Maricela introduced herself, the students, gave approval with ”oohs and ahhs” showing their pavlovian response to being in the military. It was an automatic conditioned elevating of a military person, who was seen as “bad.” But the mood in the room rapidly shifted as Maricela got into her story. She told them that she may look like a normal person but she had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and was not well. She would get depressed, and even had tried to commit suicide. Without flinching she told the students about how she lost her marriage and was raped in boot camp. And the students were also shocked to hear that all of the promises of college money, job training, and being taken care of after serving your country were only lies.
I wondered what a 15 year old mind able to process, and of how can they ever begin to understand something like PTSD? How can any of us, who have not been there, know what this really means? In May a 44 year old soldier who was at Camp Liberty, a massive US base in Iraq was arrested after shooting five fellow US soldiers. What is particularly horrific is that he did this on a base that catered to service members suffering from PTSD after serving three tours in Iraq. The man’s father said, “These soldiers didn’t tell him they were there for his benefit, they were there to help him so that he wouldn’t kill his wife or himself when he came back home. He was trained to kill and I guess he couldn’t help himself.”
And tragically many other veterans cannot as well--at least one in five American soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from some degree of PTSD-- it’s the biggest killer in war. All of us must stop this mentality of war, and we must help our youth to understand why.
Oarsman Student Newspaper at Venice High School
Selling the U.S. Army
Commentary for May 6, 2009
Arlene Inouye
The April 2nd edition of the Venice High School newspaper Oarsmen (which should be called Oarspeople) was recently sent to me by a colleague.
The paper included articles about the budget cuts and its impact on Venice High, the new sponsor for the Drill team, the state decathlon and news about the seven Venice high school students leaving for Shanghai China on a foreign exchange. There were interviews from students from the question man: How is the Economy Affecting You? Ninth grade Abraham Solis states “this economy is really bad, sometimes I don’t even have enough money to take the bus”, and 10th grade Nilska Guerrero expressed “because of the economy, my allowance shrank. I’ve also been looking for a job and there are none available. It is very frustrating.” But if you turn to page 9 of the Oarsman, there is a full page ad, in which a student could easily interpret as the answer to their financial worries.
The US Army ad says in huge letters: DID YOU KNOW as a high school senior you could earn $1,000 each month if you are enrolled in the US Army Future Soldier Training Program? Which by the way is an enlistment incentive offered to high school students to commit now, and serve later. The ad also states: You could earn $40,000 for 4 or more year of enlistment, $30,0000 for 3 years of enlistment, etc and up to $81,756 dollars. No where is it mentioned that there are conditions that must be met for this so called sign-up money, that enlistment is 8 years of your life, how high school graduates will actually end up with less than minimum wage and could go to jail for deciding to quit.
I’d like to know why a student newspaper would even allow such an ad, and receive in payment thousands of dollars from the Army, and not even attempt to investigate these claims or provide a balanced viewpoint. In fact, a 9th circuit court of appeals ruled that since the question of military service is a controversial political issue, there must be equal access to the forum.
Eleventh grade student Deborah Membreno states, “I was taken aback to see the false advertisement and encouragement our school is providing for students to join the Army. This is upsetting because they target us because we are innocent and indecisive about our future. Is the payment of the ad so beneficial that it’s worth losing the lives of children?” Another student who has expressed an interest in enlisting states, “The school is so hypocritical, they talk to us about college, but why then do they push the military.” Good question, we of CAMS have contacted the editor, and are still waiting for an answer.
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A Call to Shut Down the Army Experience Center
Arlene Inouye
April 22, 2009
You’ve got to admit it’s an innovative concept- this one of a kind pilot Army Experience Center that opened up at the Franklin Mills Mall in the suburban Philadelphia last summer. It has plunged military recruiting to another subliminal level- visit the shopping mall, and drop off the kids for a free virtual experience of shooting at the enemy with M-16’s and 50 caliber machine guns.
Video games offer the perfect transition between childhood innocence and institutionalized killing, and the Army has no qualms about exploiting this for their purposes. The highlight of this Army Experience Center is the Black Hawk Simulator that takes a virtual tour through an Afghan mountain village while shooting at enemies who are trying to sabotage a U.S. medical convoy headed to a field hospital. A 13 year old who was having fun “blowing people away” said “we’re the good guys trying to bring medicine to people and the bad guys are trying to stop us because they hate our freedoms.” We’ve heard this before.
What comes across as actually funny if it wasn’t so tragic is that the active military recruiters at the Center state that this 14,400 square foot facility costing 12 million of taxpayer dollars is not about military recruiting. They explain it this way, “the Army is giving back to the community by preparing students to pass the exam needed to enlist into the Army.” Their logic escapes me. The fact is that they are testing out this new approach of military recruiting in the hope that it will spread to shopping malls throughout the country.
Does the seduction of our young through virtual war and video games cause you concern and outrage? Many parents, students and community activists representing 22 regional groups in Philadelphia are boldly saying “shut down the Army Experience Center and have planned a boycott on the mall, Saturday May 2nd. The boycott is being accompanied by an email protest to the owners of the mall, The Simon Property Group, the world’s largest retail outlet owner. Go to www.simon.com to send your message of protest.
Let Simon know that it’s not okay to play with the lives of our young, and shut down the Army Experience Center. For more information, contact www. shutdowntheaec.net
Stopping A Military Van
by Arlene Inouye
February 12, 2009
About a week ago we had heard (through our school contacts) that a military van (American Soldier Adventure Van) was scheduled to be at Verdugo Hills High School in LAUSD, Southern California today. Teachers were asked to sign up for their classes . The description from the Army web site says it all:
Train like a Soldier with the interactive Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) and Basic Skill Trainer -- Protected inside a replica HMMWV, you control the weapon and the mission as you navigate through a variety of action-packed scenarios.
Prime for battle with the Marksmanship Training simulator -- Fire a replica M4 Carbine and an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon as you steer through a series of challenges from target practice to intense close combat.
Get your hands on the a test and greatest Soldier equipment from Interceptor Body Armor and helmets to the new Generation III Extended Cold Weather Clothing System -- See for yourself the latest gear that is enhancing Soldier lethality, survivability, and mobility on the battlefield.
See, acquire, and target with the Sensor Technology station -- View a simulated battlefield scene where smoke, haze, and light conditions are no match for the Night Vision Devices and Thermal Weapon Sights. Even in the most extreme environments, you will see how our Soldiers own the night.
The van, a joint venture of the Army's Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier and the Accessions Command, highlights the Army's most technologically advanced equipment with interactive demonstrations, hands-on exhibits and video displays.
WE ARE HAPPY TO SAY THAT BECAUSE OF VARIOUS INTERVENTIONS THIS VAN WILL NOT BE GOING TO VERDUGO HILLS!!! It is canceled, not postponed. but canceled.
As members of the LAUSD Military Advisory Committee we explained to the administration regarding the district policy (and federal mandates) of equal access and why the military van is out of compliance. Military vans are clearly taking military recruiting to another level, with the glorifying of weapons and war. We sent him the district policy (2067.1) plus policies initiated by individual high schools to maintain a balance.
The CAMS and Palisadians for Peace leafleting team was in front of the school covering the entrances handing out flyers to students.
Students were ready with signs and banners of protest in case the van showed up. They recently formed a peace club called Peaceful Vocations which was ready for action.
We were also ready to take photographs to document this event, if it occurred.
NOT ONLY IS THIS A VICTORY IN STOPPING THE VAN BUT ALSO IN WORKING TO CHANGE THE CLIMATE AT VERDUGO HILLS HS.
The Administration (who make the decision at all of our high schools) learned that allowing this military van into school is controversial and risky. Perhaps now there will be an attempt to look at military recruiting from a different lens, and to not be so quick to say "yes" to military recruiters. We will see, and will be watching closely.
All of our victories are possible only because of YOU, and the working together that stops the militarism in our schools. ORGANIZING WORKS!
Thanks to the Verdugo Hills students and teachers and the leafleting team!
Generals Lead our Schools
Arlene Inouye February 1, 2009
I have a question that’s been bothering me. Can you tell me what the difference is between public schools in America and the military? I ask this because it just seems like everyday the institutions appear to be merging more closely together in the most unlikely of ways.
Billionaires Eli Broad and Bill Gates are familiar to many, and have become huge players to influence and buy public education since the 1980’s. According to Susan Ohanian in” Beware of Robber Barons Carrying Sacks of money”, they have embarked on a PR campaign both to ramp up hysteria about the so-called failure of public education and to divert attention from corporate greed.
A further development last month at the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems brings out the Broad agenda. According to Broad this program was established to dramatically improve urban K-12 education. It is the only program in the country that recruits and trains superintendent candidates and educators, and is highly competitive selecting only 2% of its applicants.
The program’s influence reaches widely throughout the U.S. and has filled 53 superintendent positions and 70 senior school district executive positions and this year includes U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan’s former chief of staff. And this year, participants accepted into the program include the highest numbers in the academy’s eight year history of high ranking military generals. You heard me right, military generals.
But I suppose, since our public schools allow military recruiters on campus and military programs and tests such as JROTC and the ASVAB, one could mistake it for a military academy which are also expanding nationwide. A school superintendent in Seattle who was one of the Broad fellows from an earlier class of graduates closed 5 schools last month. They are also considering getting rid of the career/college specialist positions in the schools-which would give the military recruiters pretty unfettered access and create a more direct line from the school to the military.
Sounds like a trend to me. LA Unified had a navy admiral with no educational background run the second largest school district in the nation. He left after two years, but hey, there will be plenty more in the wings ready to take command of our schools. That is unless we the public, educators, parents and students want something different for youth. Stop the militarism in our school and society.A New Day
Arlene Inouye
January 2009
As Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States, the country is filled with anticipation and hope. He promises an economic stimulus package that will help the everyday homeowners and middle American, a responsible ending of the war in Iraq, though the troops in Afghanistan will increase. What will all of this mean in relation to the militarism of youth that has steadily increased under Bush and since the Vietnam War?
There have been several alarming trends as we ponder the future. The most serious is the violence in the Gaza strip and the nearly one thousand innocent Palestinian civilians massacred while US Congress condones and supports Israel’s attack. Though many Americans are demonstrating for peace, why is the murder of innocent civilians acceptable and why isn’t peace demanded by our leaders?
The military recruitment of youth nationally continues unabated and unquestioned with greater intensity. There is the Army’s free computer software, media marketing ads, licensed military clothing, and even a $12 million virtual warfare simulation called the “Army Experience Center” for 13 years and older to enjoy.
In the schools the battle for military ownership of our students continues. The military lays claim to the personal information of our high school students through the No Child Left Behind Act, gives the military ASVAB exam on school premises and military recruiters lure students directly. The expanded JROTC military programs are indoctrinating half a million students while budget cuts slash classes and expand class size. A few districts have even converted their high schools into military academies such as Chicago which leads the nation. And what is probably most insidious of all, is the militarism embedded in the educational system itself with fewer resources and emphasis on critical thinking strategies. Instead students are forced to regurgitate information and taught to obey while our universities and colleges close their doors to youth. The economic crisis hurts youth and their families in many ways.
Up until now, there has been no serious national debate on the issue of the militarism of youth. Even the peace movement has failed to make it a primary focus for protest. Yet, it is the long term strategies and those that cultivate the future that will truly bring about hope for the future. History has shown us that when the American people become complacent and drop out of political activism such as after the Vietnam War we loose ground. Militarism has been rebuilding over the past 28 years along with policies that have shifted from human needs to warfare. We must continue with more fervor than ever during the Obama Presidency to stop the militarism in our schools and in the world. Please join us.
News Archive of older commentary
Welcome To CAMS!
CAMS is a program of the International Humanities Center under Section 501{c}(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and a member of the Human Rights Committee of UTLA.
We thank you!
CAMS has been awarded grants from
The Victor and Lorraine Honig Fund of the Common Counsel Foundation,
Unitarian Universalist Fund for a Just Society,
The Diane Middleton Foundation,
Agape Foundation Fund for Nonviolent Change ,
RESIST,Inc.,
A.J. Muste Memorial Institute,
The War Tax Alternative Fund
and in past years from Liberty Hill Foundation and the Tides Foundation. Thank you for your support.
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