“A Few Good Kids?”

As the kids return to school, a couple of interesting articles dealing with the subject of military recruiting on campus:
A Few Good Kids?
(Mother Jones) Sept/Oct 2009 – John Travers was striding purposefully into the Westfield mall in Wheaton, Maryland, for some back-to-school shopping before starting his junior year at Bowling Green State University. When I asked [...]

Hate goes back to school.

You can tell it’s time for the kids to head back to school.  You can tell by the amount of stupid the parents are sending out there…

“Devil” shirts send kids home
GAINESVILLE, Fl (Gainesville.com) 26 August – More children from the Dove World Outreach Center arrived Tuesday at area public schools with shirts bearing the message [...]

What he said.

Playing at war.

Not sure what to think about this.  You tell me…
Military enthusiasts begin re-enacting the Vietnam War
BOALSBURG, Pa. (AP) 17 August – The dirt paths that lead to Alpha Company’s field headquarters are lined with overgrown grass and weeds. A canvas tent is protected by machine guns, sandbags and Army-green storage boxes.  And lurking somewhere outside [...]

Yes!

WASHINGTON (AP)  17 August – The  Supreme Court on Monday ordered a new hearing for death row inmate Troy Davis, whose supporters say is innocent and should be spared from execution for killing an off-duty police officer almost 20 years ago.
Davis has spent 18 years on death row for the 1989 slaying of [...]

Peace-making 101:

From Daily Kos yesterday:
What would you do if you found yourself standing face to face with people bearing signs accusing you by name of killing babies and encouraging the shooting of American soldiers?  Might you lose your cool?  Might you get involved in an exchange that would ultimately lead to anger or descend into the [...]

Little victories, cont.

North Carolina activist can coax students away from military
RALEIGH, NC (AP) August 12 - A rural North Carolina school district with a proud military tradition is allowing a Quaker peace activist a chance to coax high school students away from careers in the armed forces, attorneys said Wednesday.
For years, Sally Ferrell had been asking permission [...]

“Registering for Peace.”

by Tobin Jacobrown
(YES!) August 6 - On Wednesday, the 29th of July, I filed a lawsuit against the federal government declaring that, because of my religious beliefs, I should not be required to register for the draft unless it could be officially recognized that I claim to object to all war. 
I grew up believing not only [...]

“Learning from Harry Patch.”

by Belinda Webb
(Guardian/UK) August 6 – Today is the day that Harry Patch, having lived 111 years on the earth to become last surviving “Tommy” of the first world war, is laid to rest in Wells, Somerset.
Like Henry Allingham, who died aged 113 just weeks ago, Harry kept silent for over eight decades about the [...]

“Selective Service Is Sued by Quaker.”

(Washington Post) July 30 – A Washington state Quaker filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the U.S. government is discriminating against him because it will not recognize his status as a conscientious objector on military draft forms.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of Tobin D. Jacobrown, 21, in the District’s [...]

Here we go again…

Good grief.
Obama’s military spying on U.S. peace groups
by Amy Goodman
(TruthDig) July 28 - Anti-war activists in Olympia, Wash., have exposed Army spying and infiltration of their groups, as well as intelligence gathering by the Air Force, the federal Capitol Police and the Coast Guard.
The infiltration appears to be in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus [...]

Say the words.

Now spread the word.

“Youth of Color Resist Military Recruiting.”

(Dollars & Sense)  In 2006, high school senior Stephanie Hoang started working with Better Alternatives for Youth—Peace (BAYPeace), educating her peers about the potential risks of joining the military and helping to build alternative education and employment opportunities. For Hoang, her truth-in-recruitment work is more than just an internship. “It’s my peers being affected. [Recruiters] [...]

Bad to worse.

First, we had all the news this weekeknd about the shananigans at the CIA.
Now THIS:
WASHINGTON (AP)  July 12 – President Barack Obama has ordered his national security team to investigate reports that U.S. allies were responsible for the deaths of as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners of war during the opening days of the war in [...]

Go, girl.

WASHINGTON, DC (Courier Post) July 9 – Physically and emotionally bullied as a fourth-grader, Jackie Andrews is fighting back.
She’s doing so not with taunts or fists but with an anti-bullying campaign the 16-year-old high school junior is developing with her sister Josie, 14, that might soon get a national audience.
Wednesday, the Andrews sisters, from Haddon [...]

Adding up the costs of war.

First, there’s this, by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda J. Blimes:
MADISON, WI (The Capital Times) July 8 - Last week the U.S. “stood down” in Iraq, finalizing the pullout of 140,000 troops from Iraqi cities and towns — the first step on the long path home. After more than six years, most Americans are war-weary, even though [...]

In memoriam.

Allow me to vent.
They’re burying Michael Jackson today, and they’re throwing him a big send-off in Los Angeles, and that “service” is being paid for with taxpayers’ money and that bugs me.  That’s millions in taxpayers’ money that the state of California apparently did not have when it shut down schools and laid off thousands [...]

Sick sad world, v. 1.

I give up.
Gun-loving pastor to his flock: Piece be with you
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) June 4 – A Kentucky pastor is inviting his flock to bring guns to church to celebrate the Fourth of July and the Second Amendment.
New Bethel Church is welcoming “responsible handgun owners” to wear their firearms inside the church June 27, a [...]

Remember.

Twenty years ago today.

“War is sin.”

by Chris Hedges
(TruthDig) June 1 – The crisis faced by combat veterans returning from war is not simply a profound struggle with trauma and alienation. It is often, for those who can slice through the suffering to self-awareness, an existential crisis. War exposes the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves. It rips open the hypocrisy [...]