-------- Original Message --------
Subject: OCT.23: Rally/St.Paul Board of Edu: No Military Recruitment in
Schools! TUES. Oct.23, 6pm
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:55:47 -0500
From: Lydia Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: YAWR <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Vets For Peace <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "(Nonviolent Peaceforce)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CC: david shove <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Charles Underwood
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dick Bernard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Andy Driscoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Chante Wolf
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Jack Rossback <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Barry
Riesch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Kim Doss-Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Roger Cuthbertson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Will Shapira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Steger, Phil"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Bruce Lissem <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Demi Miller
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Mary Jane LaVigne
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Rachel Nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Patricia Jurewicz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Jeff
Pilacinski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Kieran Knutson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dave
Riehle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, rachleff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Emiliano
Silva <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Jesse Mortenson
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Betsy Barnum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Share with youth, parents, teachers, activists!
NOTE: The "adult" peace movement MUST stand in solidarity with our youth
who are challenging the militarization of their schools!!! So far, the
StPaul School Board has IGNORED YOUTH VOICES on the issue of military
recruiters being given free rein. Too many of our kids are being
CHANNELED into the military--They youth of color & low-income youth in
inner cities & rural areas are being TARGETED by military recruiters.
offered NO OTHER CHOICES--NO trade schools or apprenticeships, NO help
going to college--just "join the army". The recruiters make FALSE
PROMISES and outright LIE to get kids to sign up! (Since Bush-Cheney
need more cannon fodder to continue their occupation of Iraq for Oil &
Empire and to pursue an attack on Iran---and who knows what other
countries). To find out more about the YOUTH-LED counter-military
recruitment, tune in this FRIDAY, OCT. 19, 11am to my show CATALYST on
KFAI Radio. I'll be broadcasting more from AIMEE ALLISON, co-author of
the new book "Army of None" about the counter-military movement. KFAI
90.3fm Mpls 106.7fm St.Paul all shows archived for 2 weeks after
broadcast at http://www.kfai.org
Peace activists who want to end the occupation of Iraq and prevent an
attack on Iran must see that perhaps, the WEAKEST link in the
war-machine chain is their need for an endless supply of people willing
to kill and die for them (since the Bush-Cheney types don't join the
military themselves). It's CRUCIAL that adults be a strong presence at
this rally.
Lydia Howell, host/producer of CATALYST:politics & culture on KFAI Radio
******************************************************************************************************
Come support antiwar students, as they...
T ell the St. Paul Board of Education:
"NO to MILITARY RECRUITMENT in OUR SCHOOLS!"
---------------------
Tuesday, October 23
6:00pm:
Students will hold press conference outside Board of Education
(Administration Building)
6:30pm:
Board of Education meeting starts; students and community will give
public testimony
---------------------
St. Paul Schools Administration Building
360 Colborne St, St. Paul ( click here for map
<http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=360+Colborne+Ave,+St.+Paul&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.544155,59.765625&ie=UTF8&ll=44.932329,-93.119559&spn=0.013307,0.029182&z=15&om=1>)
*** Sign up for public commentary by calling (651) 767-8149
---------------------
Across the Twin Cities, students with Youth Against War & Racism and our
community allies are stepping up efforts to end military recruitment in
our schools. As a step forward, YAWR is demanding military recruiters be
banned from visiting schools any more frequently than colleges, and that
they be kept out of the lunch-rooms, classrooms, and sports events, and
instead restricted to school career centers like most college
recruiters. These are restrictions School Boards can pass without
violating Congress's "No Child Left Behind," which blackmails schools
with federal funding into giving recruiters a direct line of access to
students ( click here for more info on NCLB
<http://www.notyoursoldier.org/article.php?list=type&type=13>). Our
demands are echoed in a letter to the Board of Education which has been
signed by over 70 community organizations so far (see letter below).
With elections coming up next month for the St. Paul Board of Education,
now is the time to turn up the heat! Please spread the word, and come
support our effort to make our schools no-go zones for military
recruiters and their racist poverty draft. Counter-recruitment is among
the most important, strategically important antiwar campaigns, because
if we can cut off the supply of troops Bush and Congress can't continue
their war ( click here for "Not Your Soldier" flash video
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUO3fL4vfMA>).
At 6:10 we plan to hold a press conference where St. Paul students will
explain their demands to restrict military recruitment in schools, and
where students from across the Twin Cities will announce plans for a
metro-wide antiwar student walkout on November 16th to pressure area
school boards to pass restrictions on military recruitment in schools.
Then at 6:30 we'll have veterans, military family members, students,
teachers, parents, and others speaking in public testimony inside the
Board of Education meeting. Community support will be crucial to push
the Board into action (last year they tried to sweep our demands under
the rug - read more here
<http://www.worldwidewamm.org/newsletters/2007/0507/military.html>), so
please spread the word and come out to support us!
---------------------
Open Letter to Twin Cities Area School Boards
---- Signed by over 70 local organizations ----
"We support Youth Against War & Racism's efforts to restrict military
recruitment"
The US armed forces have an inappropriate presence in the Twin Cities
metro area public schools. Due to the pressures of the wars on Iraq and
Afghanistan, the military is stepping up efforts to use our schools as a
place to recruit young people. Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR), a
local group of students from schools spanning several area districts,
has been seeking to limit military recruiters' access to students at our
public schools.
As parents and concerned citizens, we support YAWR's efforts to restrict
military recruitment and to address the problem of excessive, unfair,
and at times dishonest recruitment practices in our public schools by
the military.
As elected representatives with the responsibility to set public school
policies and procedures, we request that you consider our support of
YAWR's efforts and that you demonstrate your commitment to making our
schools places of learning, not of recruitment into the military.
We would urge you to formally consider YAWR's call to keep military
recruiters out of the lunchrooms and classrooms, and instead to restrict
them to school career centers where their contact with students is
supervised by school officials. Further, we join YAWR in urging you to
restrict the number of school visits by the military to no more than any
other post-secondary institution.
Other responsible school boards across the country have passed similar
policies, acting both within the law (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,
Section 9528) and in the best interest of our students by restricting
inappropriate access by the Pentagon to our young people in their public
schools.
We hope to see these policies on your agenda before the end of the year.
Open Letter Initiators:
Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace, Women Against Military Madness,
Veterans for Peace, Socialist Alternative, Military Families Speak Out,
Fellowship of Reconciliation, Nonviolent Youth Collective, Youth Against
War and Racism
Signed onto by:
1. Al-Aqsa Institute
2. Alliance for Democracy - Minnesota
3. AlliantACTION
4. Alternatives to War - St. Cloud
5. American Association of University Women, Minneapolis Branch
6. Atheists For Human Rights
7. Basilica of Saint Mary, Peace & Justice Council
8. Carleton Wellstone House of Organization and Activism
9. Citizens for Election Integrity
10. Citizens for Global Solutions - Minnesota Chapter
11. Colombia Support Network Of Minnesota
12. Crocus Hill / West 7th Neighbors For Peace
13. DO Peace, Minnesota
14. ELCA Twin Cities Synods Peace with Justice Committee
15. Every Church A Peace Church
16. First Unitarian Society of Mpls, Social Action Committee
17. First Universalist Church of Mpls, Pathways to Peace Committee
18. Foundation for Global Community Minnesota
19. Friends for a Non-Violent World
20. Grandmothers For Peace
21. Ground Zero Minnesota
22. Growing Communities for Peace
23. Haiti Justice Committee of Minnesota
24. Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, Peace and Justice
25. Impeach For Peace
26. Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
27. Inter-Faith Peacemakers of Edina
28. Judson Memorial Baptist Church
29. Macalester-Plymouth Church Peacemakers
30. Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace
31. Middle East Peace Now
32. Military Families Speak Out - Minnesota Chapter
33. Minnesota 911
34. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights
35. Minnesota Fellowship of Reconciliation
36. Minnesota Labor Against War
37. National Lawyer's Guild - Minnesota
38. Nonviolent Peaceforce
39. Palestine-Israel Justice Project, United Methodist Church
40. Pax Christi Twin Cities Area
41. People of Faith Peacemakers
42. Plymouth Congregational Church Global Concerns Committee
43. Prospect Hills Friends Meeting
44. Resource Center of the Americas
45. Sacred Heart Church, Peace & Justice Committee
46. St. Joan of Arc Church Peace and Justice Committee
47. St. Luke Presbyterian Church
48. St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral Faith in Action Committee
49. St. Paul Area Council of Churches
50. St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign
51. Sensible People for Peace
52. Soka Gakkai International-USA, Minnesota Chapter
53. Tikkun Community of Minneapolis and St. Paul
54. Twin Cities Peace Campaign - Focus on Iraq
55. Twin City Artist Front
56. United Nations Association of Minnesota
57. University of Minnesota Human Rights Center
58. University of St. Thomas Justice & Peace Studies
59. Veterans for Peace, Chapter 27
60. Veterans for Peace, Chapter 80
61. Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundations
62. Walker Community United Methodist Church
63. Walls to Bridges
64. Wilderness Connections, Inc.
65. Witness for Peace - Upper Midwest
66. Women Against Military Madness
67. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - MN Metro
68.
68. World Citizen Inc
_______________________________________________
Mellon Myers Undegraduate Fellowship Program at Macalester (http://macmmuf.org)
[email protected]
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html
http://macmmuf.org/mailman/listinfo/list_macmmuf.org
