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YouthPeace Connecticut Challenges Militarism

By Angie Hart

outhPeace Connecticut had a busy year. Members of the group based at Norwich Free Academy (NFA) were active locally, around Connecticut and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

YouthPeace organized several vigils at a war memorial by the high school to protest the war in Iraq. Local newspapers covered our vigils several times, with front page pictures of YouthPeace activists. WRL/New England staff took YouthPeace activists to demonstrations in Boston, several attending large demonstrations for the first time. Joanne Sheehan.

Last summer WRL New England and YouthPeace co-sponsored a Youth for Peace Day with American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Western Massachusetts. AFSC intern and YouthPeace activist Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer helped to bring together the workshop, which with its focus on counter-recruitment was good preparation for the school year ahead.

The cold and snow of the day after last Thanksgiving did not deter Norwich Free Academy YouthPeace from standing outside the local mall for the fifth year in a row. Signs encouraged shoppers to take war toys off their Christmas lists. Joanne Sheehan.

Military recruiters at our high school, NFA, are a big problem. They come weekly, exaggerating the fun and amount of money for college joining the armed forces can bring. The truth is only a half a percent of military personnel receive the advertised maximum scholarship of $50,000. As a counter action, YouthPeace set up Alternatives to the Military Tables for the fifth year. About once a month our members give up their lunch hour to be at the table with WRL/New England staffperson Joanne Sheehan. The table provides information on military realities, how to get scholarships, and information about YouthPeace activities. Former NFA YouthPeace coordinator Suzy Stockton, who had spent a year in Italy and then organized the WRL chapter at UCONN, wrote a brochure on volunteer programs that let you see the world without killing people. The No Child Left Behind Act, passed in 2002, mandates recruiter access to high school students’ phone numbers: On the table at the end of that school year, WRL/New England displayed phones to illustrate the urgency of parents taking advantage of a provision allowing them to remove the students name from the recruiters’ list. Otherwise, their phones will ring off the hook.

Joanne Sheehan.

The fourth Nonviolence Weekend for YouthPeace in Connecticut and second in New Hampshire took place last winter. There were workshops on nonviolence training, globalization and counter-recruitment and a women’s panel.

To spread the word and share our experience, I did workshops on counter-recruitment at Peace Days in Hartford and Storrs, CT, and for a Unitarian Universalist youth gathering in Massachusetts. Each week, I also staff a literature table at a local club. This summer we are co-sponsoring a film series with the Martin Luther King Center and preparing for another year of activism.

Angie Hart is the YouthPeace Coordinator at her high school in Norwich, Connecticut.