From Draft NOtices, April — June 2009
– Paula Hoffman Villanueva
A truly monumental victory against militarism in our schools has been achieved! And for this victory to come from the city of San Diego makes it even more amazing. The Education Not Arms Coalition, after a 1½-year campaign, has succeeded in moving the San Diego Board of Education to ban rifle training on 11 high school campuses. At the board meeting on February 10, after 90 minutes of testimony and discussion, the vote was 3-2 in favor of banning JROTC weapons training. More than 200 students and local activists filled the auditorium with their now-familiar, bright orange “No Weapons Training” signs.
In the summer of 2007, the San Diego-based Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (Project YANO) was supporting students and others in a struggle to stop the opening of a Marine JROTC program at Mission Bay High School. At the same time, people were learning that a rifle range was to be part of the newly built Lincoln High School campus. When it was discovered that more high schools in San Diego had shooting ranges as part of JROTC, teachers, community activists, parents and students formed the Education Not Arms Coalition (ENAC). Community organizations that supported the coalition included Project YANO, UJIMA Institute for Civic Responsibility, Association of Raza Educators, MEChA and AFSC, among others.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
- Mernie Aste
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The U.S. Military’s Toxic Legacy: A digest of online articles
From Draft NOtices, April — June 2009
– Compiled by Mernie Aste
The Green Valley News and Sun of August 29, 2007, has an article by Riley Merline about the island of Vieques, famous for years of protest and the site of 60 years of military occupation by the U.S. Navy. The 10,000 people who live there, along with the 25 endangered species, are surrounded by unexploded munitions and 37 toxic sites. The cancer rate is 30% higher than on the main island of Puerto Rico. “For more than half a century, the Navy carried out live fire training exercises, including the use of depleted uranium (despite the Navy’s own prohibiting its use during peacetime or training) and napalm.” While unexploded bombs are detonated weekly in designated open pits, they continue to destroy the environment and contaminate the island.
http://journalism.arizona.edu/news/PRV_8-29-07.pdf
From Draft NOtices, April — June 2009
– Ernie McCray
When it comes to freedom fighters, I’ve met a few.
I once shook hands with Martin Luther King long before he gave birth to his wonderful dream.
I twice sang to Rosa Parks and basked in her beautiful and warm smile, so thankful that she once sat down so I could stand up tall.
I remember sipping wine with Pete Seeger and kicking back while he sang and waxed eloquently about civil and human rights and his efforts to get the world to “study war no more.”
Needless to say these were thrilling moments in my life, but no more so than the moments I’ve spent, over the last year, with a number of freedom fighting students from Lincoln and Mission Bay High, two San Diego City Schools.
These kids, more than one hundred strong, most of them Latinos along with a smattering of African Americans, didn’t set out to change their world. No, they were just trying to make their grades and get their homework in on time and get ahead in the lunch line. Then one day, like Mr. Magoo’s eyes popping open, they suddenly came to realize that some of their peers who were looking for college preparatory courses were steered into JROTC (which is often a direct path into the military), based on the lie that the program has academic value. They also discovered that others of them were being enrolled in military science courses without their parents’ informed consent.
And they got wind of plans for weapons training on their campuses which they sensibly felt made a hypocrisy out of the school district’s “no excuses, no exceptions” zero-tolerance policy regarding weapons.
As they pondered what to do and who to turn to, a couple of brilliant, caring teachers came to their rescue with open arms. They were joined by parents and a few other educators and community activists like me. We became the Education Not Arms Coalition and set out on a quest that has been, figuratively speaking, reminiscent of the freedom struggles of yore.
Ninth CIRCUIT COURT RULING: CONFRONTING MILITARISM BY USING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH SCHOOLS
When the military comes to your local high school, you have a legal right to give students an opposing view. This has been the position taken by federal district courts in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois and two federal appellate courts. The most broadly-worded decision came from a case that COMD took to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Here is the background:
