INTERNATIONAL YouthPeace Week was a wonderful week of exploration, action, protest and celebration. The week was the result of the coming together of committed organizations and individuals for an important coalition effort: the demand for peace and justice for all young people.

That rallying cry was heard as far away as India, where the YouthPeace message was spread with the YouthPeace litany and prayer; Uganda, where activists took part in a YouthPeace program; South Africa, with students there writing to U.S. students about what peace means to them (the letters should be available by January).

In the United States the Stop War Toys message was broadcast around the country by Santa and Mrs. Claus (in Los Angeles), press conferences, leafleting and peace marches. YouthPeace issues were addressed through nonviolence workshops and training sessions, through counter-recruitment forums (see essays below) and roundtable discussions. Peace and Justice was the demand as young people (and those who care about young people) distributed and signed petitions in support of Azi Kawule, the 17-year-old South African facing the death penalty in Mississippi (see letter, below), as well as No More War Toys petitions and the YouthPeace Pledge. People came together in parks and schools and churches and in streets to have the YouthPeace rallying cry heard around the country, reverberating with international echoes!

--Malkia M’Buzi Moore
WRL YouthPeace Program Coordinator

"Latrine specialist is just another name for
one who deals with toilets"
In this essay I will be presenting three views on the military. The first is how the military sees itself, the other will be how the War Resisters League sees it, and the last will be my own viewpoint on the military.

The military has a high view or opinion of themselves. I mean, first look at their commercials. In the overly played and overly hyped commercials the military sells itself very aggressively. From talking about the job skills you will gain, how proud your entire family will be if you join. And get money for college if you choose to go after the service. Like in this one commercial, they talked about how this cat by the age of 22 will be a world traveler and have job skills and some years’ experience plus money for college. Another commercial is played out on a giant chessboard. On the chessboard you have medieval queens, kings, knights and their soldiers. They begin to make their moves, and finally when the queen is captured the knight on horseback turns into a Marine, followed by the words, "THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE MARINES." And you’re left sitting there saying, "Wow!," and that’s what I mean about these hyped-up commercials. I’d rather see military life as it is and not that fantasy. Not only do they use these commercials to sell the military, they also use movies, cartoons, radio and newspaper ads in the classifieds.

Then you got the War Resisters League. The WRL will tell you differently. They will try to show that the military is not all it claims to be. The WRL will tell you that the job skills they offer are basically worthless when you are released because they are good for military life, not civilian life. WRL also tells you that those so-called job skills come with ridiculously large titles but are in fact not as prestigious and don’t carry as much weight as you might think. One, Latrine Specialist, is just another name for one who deals with toilets, another is Custodial Engineer, which is another name for janitor.

About discrimination in the military, the WRL says that while whites are the majority in the military, minorities are the majority in the military jails. There are also not many higher ranking officers of color.

Now my viewpoint on the military is similar to that of the WRL. I dislike the military for the simple fact that you have to sign four years of your life away doing what they want, when they want and how they want. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the other four years of inactive service. Luckily, I caught my absentmindedness, but your recruiter might not be as quick to give information that is not asked of him. I must admit I caught myself listening to those commercials, questioning myself, "By the age of 22, will I have done as much as that cat in the commercial?" But I can’t see myself taking the verbal abuse for four years, plus the fact that minorities populate military jails more than whites,I could really see myself in that position. And this is for the ladies who are thinking about joining. Know this: that it is just much harder on you because two out of every three girls are sexually harassed.

About the GI Bill,that’s how you get the money for college, but you have to meet certain qualifications for the four years you are there, and most don’t meet those qualifications. So why serve four years when you can apply to programs that will help with the cost of college without the four years of military service?

I could talk, I mean write, about things I do like about the military, but my arm is tired. I mean, the military isn’t all bad, it must have some good points, but I am not objective enough to see those points. But just like at the end of the WRL video I saw, you should really find out for yourself before deciding if it’s for you or not. Especially if you’re just trying to get the money for college.

--Omar Ramos
Satellite Academy,
Bronx Regional H.S.
Bronx, NY

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"Why should I fight for a country that I’m
not even considered equal in?"
When you sign up for the military they tell you that there will be no racism and no sexism, but a lot of GI’s face racism and hostility. They tell you that there will be no sexual harassment, but two out of three women report sexual harassment.

I feel that the military is another form of slavery. This is just another way for the government to control the poorer societies. The government makes the ghettos poor (by cutting job training, education, financial aid, Medicare and now welfare); they leave us no choice but turn to them in the military. They degrade us and they want us to feel worthless so that they can have more control over us.

I am grateful that I have the opportunity to go to school and make something of myself because in some countries they don’t have that choice to make. I feel that the military makes a lot of promises and it may be good for some people but I just don’t feel it’s for me. As a student about to graduate from high school I feel I’d rather go to college than join the military and end fighting a war without even knowing the reason why I’m fighting. I look at it this way, why should I fight for a country that I’m not even considered equal in?

--Shannon Blakely,
Satellite Academy,
Bronx Regional H.S., Bronx, NY

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Superhero Tolstoy
and the Gandhi Scouts
Our local was very excited to take part in International YouthPeace Week. We organized the Gandhi Scouts, a nonsexist version of boy/girl scouts with no principle of authority, weaving together a curriculum encompassing the wisdom of ecology through indigenous legend. At our first meeting we closed our eyes and let our imagination take us. Afterwards we began age-appropriate nonviolence training; we explored our beliefs about tolerance, violence in our lives, the violence of weapons building and the unfairness of wealth and poverty and listened to each others’ opinions on how to change the world we live in.

A few days later, we helped a local nursery school celebrate YouthPeace Week with a visit from Leo Tolstoy the puppet. With wild gestures and fantastic fire, he told his story of how he was converted to nonviolence by a singing flower. Afterwards, we and the children thought of gifts we would give to the world and decided to become peacemakers by being peaceful ourselves and helping others not to fight.

Later, during free play, the children of their own accord elevated Tolstoy to super-hero status. Two children would pretend to fight, and Tolstoy would jump into the fray with his wavy white beard and cast a magic spell on them that suddenly made them calm down and "use words."

Root and Branch enjoyed the experiments. This YouthPeace Week we did not confine ourselves to adults on the sidewalks, but ventured in new worlds and new ages. Maybe next time we’ll bring a Barbara Deming puppet to convert Tolstoy to feminism, but this first essay was a playful and exciting step indeed.

--Oliver Hydon
Root & Branch Collective/WRL
Ridgewood, NJ

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