On Monday June 8th, Carly Sheehan (whose brother Casey was killed in Iraq) and Rafael from World Can’t Wait went to Hayward High School as part of the "We Are Not Your Soldiers" tour. Hayward High is a diverse working class school in the Bay Area that recruiters regularly come to. There is also a brand new recruiting station that just opened in Hayward, right next to the junior college. We did four seperate hour and a half long presentations, to about 120-150 students. Attached is a rough outline of our presentations. The whole thing was set up by a teacher and a student, who got a few other teachers involved.
Report by Carly Sheehan
Walking into Mr. Dwyer’s class at Hayward High School Monday, I had no idea what to expect from the students I was about to speak to. Speaking for the first time with the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” tour, I didn’t know if the students would be receptive to the message of resistance to recruitment and military service. I’m really heartened by what I found.
Through a multimedia presentation, Rafael and I shared the message of active resistance to military recruitment with the students. The students discussed the experiences of family and friends in the military and what they understood about how the military works. Their knowledge of these experiences was limited, ranging from “They said it sucked,” to “They said the military is a good opportunity.” We also asked if military recruiters had approached the students and if they planned to join the military. Many had talked to recruiters, and a couple actually wanted to join up after graduation.
We showed the students a video from Winter Soldier, so they could hear and see some of the truth about the military. Some students reacted strongly to images of soldiers shooting up a mosque minaret, and others to the admission by the soldier that he randomly shot a man in the street for his first kill. We also did an exercise to illustrate how detainees at Guantanamo came to be there, by having the students sell each other out as “gangmembers” for “money.” I shared with the students how my own brother was a victim of the poverty draft and how his death in Iraq changed our family forever.
Overall the students’ response to We Are Not Your Soldiers was positive. Before one class a student said he was going to join up and another girl said she believed the military was an honorable career choice. After the presentation, the boy shook his head “no” vigorously when asked if he still wanted to join. The girl cried during much of the presentation and then quietly told me that she would never do “that” to her family, by which she meant join the military. In another class a sophomore told me that she would never allow any of her seven brothers to join up. Not all the students got our message. It upset one sophomore to hear that Barack Obama is carrying on policies of torture and is bombing civilians in Pakistan. She argued, vehemently, that Obama probably had more information than the public and we should just let him do what he feels is necessary. She would not back down, showing these students are passionate about their beliefs, but more eye-opening education is needed. One junior said he was going to join up because he was from a military family, and almost proudly declared he was not going to college at the beginning of our presentation. At the end he had not changed his mind, but he was not as forceful in his conviction, and I hope he is now thinking twice about the possibility of ruining his life by becoming complicit in the war crimes perpetrated every day by our military.
I believe that last Monday Rafael and I, through the We Are Not Your Soldiers tour, opened the eyes of many students to the realities of the military and recruitment of students in schools. I believe recruiters will have a hard time getting any of those kids to join up, and I hope we see the students out at protests against the new recruiting station in Hayward.
Wrong, Chris. Like other patriots, I love the U.S. as it was designed to be, and much of what it was with all of it’s fault, which I felt could be grown out of in time. Now, however, there are a relative – and almost a literal – handful of people using the resources of our government and country for personal aggrandizement and in irrecoverably destructive ways. I do NOT belief that criticizing them and what they so is un-American. To the contrary, it’s totally American and completely patriotic. When the government does wrong, it’s up to the citizens to point it out and to do something about it. American government should not RULE, it should SERVE.
Ian
You morons are the biggest losers I have ever seen. You have no class and you are not patriots. You lie and distort the truth to promote your outright hatred of the greatest country ever.
4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
For someone to take an oath and uphold that oath, they need to know what they are upholding. The Second Amendment is near and dear to many Soldiers hearts. Fear not our soldiers fighting or policing our citizens, but be ready for the re-establishment of our founding fathers principles within government; interpret that how you want it.
Don’t tread on me.
Ian-
So I checked out http://www.oathkeepers.net/ .It seems as though many Americans can quote or attempt to quote the first, second and fifth amendments, however they have no clue about the third, fourth or even the fourteenth amendments. I will also include the recently controversial Posse Comitatus Act as a reference to not using our military as a police force.
Amendment 3 – Quartering of Soldiers. Ratified 12/15/1791.
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment 4 – Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment 14 – Citizenship Rights. Ratified 7/9/1868.
1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Greetings from Afghanistan!!!!!
James Ference – I cannot agree with you more. The fact that our military is a community unto itself that reflects the civilian society tells me that if so many people have such disappointment in our military and the soldiers that are presently serving (Roarrr and Wakeel created this general stereotype), why not blame the society and community that these \\\”senseless\\\” volunteers are created and not the government and politicians that this \\\”innocent society\\\”(general American public including myself and the rest of you) have elected and put in place to institutionalize these policies that are so despicable.
Mr. MacLeod, I appreciate your view upon the \\\”War\\\” but I don\\\’t understand your rebuttal to Mr. Ference\\\’s view (conspiracy stories). It’s a little bit out of left field to be honest.
The War is here, it’s been here, and it’s not going anywhere. Instead of trashing the military and our government for so called \\\”brainwashing\\\” the youth, maybe this group going around convincing youths to not join should instead create community pools to take in donations for school books and invest in higher education for the children. That would open up more opportunities for school, scholarships, jobs, and non-military opportunities for \\\”them\\\” to succeed instead of being \\\”cornered\\\” and not having any other choice due to pitiful education systems or lack there-of.
A word of advice to those that may join…..The military is going to get everything they can out of you but it is up to YOU and your personal fortitude to get everything you can out of the military and if you push as best you can, the opportunities to better yourself in every way are endless, literally endless. Take my word for it.
To James Ference,
I don’t pity you.but I wish you had better vision. The Iraq war was instigated for a false reason, and then continued for lie after lie. Greenspan admitted, “Of course Iraq was for oil!” US policy has considered the resources in other countries that we need or may need to be “ours,” regardless of the natives. As Kissinger said, the US military is being used as an instrument of foreign policy. They are not, as they are now, worth the service of any American. It’s my belief that they will be used, run into the ground and cast aside. The final test of who is useful and who is not may well be whether they will disarm or fire on other US citizens. By then it will be far too late to back down without risking your own execution on the spot. Our country has been subjected to a coup; these people are systematically destroying everything that once set America apart as something special. A right that can be taken away was NEVER a “right,” but a privilege. And ALL of rights so-called rights are things we have only by the sufferance of the government, which can, will and does remove any of them it find inconvenient.
What will you do when you are told to force someone to take a vaccination, and if you can’t, send them to a FEMA internment camp? What will you do when you are told to disarm citizens? Ever read, “The right of citizens to bear arms shall not be infringed”? It’s not an exact quote; sorry. I’m very tired. It’s been a rough time. Will you fire on old people, women, children? If not, then on an adult male who won’t cooperate? Will you stand by and watch someone else obey such an order? Will you confiscate supplies a family or even a lone citizen has laid by to survive an economic collapse with? You need to decide what kind of order you will or won’t obey before it happens. And look into the Oathkeepers blog: http://www.oathkeepers.net/
They have a LOT to tell police, active duty, discharged and retired military. For me, there’s little I can do but write, and I’m getting weaker by the day under inadequate treatment and too much to do with too few resources. You’re young yet, and there’s a lot you can do. Look up Naomi Wolf on YouTube – there’s a lot she can show you. You are needed, and may be needed desperately. Think hard, and good fortune to you!
Ian MacLeod
Activist PRN, Nonprofit, Nonpartisan, 501(C)(3) Corporation.
Veteran, Disabled, Chronic Intractable Pain Patient, 25 years
Oathkeeper.
Primum, non nocere!
Illegitimis non carborundum!
To Pastor Dak:
Do not feel sorry for me. I am a first generation Soldier, meaning my parents in no way influenced me to join. My mother works for the state and my father is a business owner. You of all people should know what warriors of past generations have done for religious persecution. I will be the first person to let you know that I am not a rocket scientist. I do believe in Selfless Service, and doing things for others without expecting your thanks. I do it because I love our country and its citizens. Call it brainwashing but is it so hard to BELIEVE that I would lay down my life for a perfect stranger? Faith is a funny thing isn’t it? Do not feel sorry for me. Do not pity me.
To Ian Macleod:
Thank you for your service and your opinion. I am truly sorry that our government got it wrong during YOUR generation. Many things have changed since your time. The military is not perfect, it is however a microcosm of the United States and reflective of the morals that our parents instill upon us. I respect your views on the current Military, however that young man or woman that you convinced not to serve could have had my back, could have saved my life, could have replaced me so that I could see my son have his second, fourth and sixth birthday. I fully recognize my Duty to our country and ask not for your pity but your support. I VOLUNTEERED for the sacrifice. Do not feel sorry for me. Do not pity me.
To Pamela:
Thank you for your opinion. As a father I realize that I will not live forever and that it is my Duty to raise my children to make decisions and fulfill their responsibilities. I am in no way telling you how to raise your children. I am however letting you know that I am planning on raising two young men able to be decision makers without my bias. I RESPECT you for taking a stand which seems like you are protecting them. I would also like to thank my own mother on this medium for letting me make my own decisions in life and supporting me in everything I do.
To Roarrr:
Do I dare justify a response? The very fact that you cannot spell honor leaves me suspicious. I will not deny the facts that you have brought forward. The Military being a microcosm of America is still prone to Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assaults. The Policies in place are zero tolerance. We conduct more training on sexual harassment then we do weapons training. Of my entire career I have not been required to kill anyone.
To Wakeel:
Thank you for prejudicially grouping and categorizing me into one stereotype. Your response is ill informed to say the least.
To Lanny Parker:
Obviously couldn’t agree with you more.
To Ian Macleod again:
I/WE can and will continue to point fingers all day with conspiracy theories and politics. The question I ask myself is what can I do to make it better? What can I do? What will I accomplish if I start playing the blame game? The answer is unequivocally nothing. My path may be different than yours but our ultimate goal is one in the same; Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. I look at myself, then at my generation and think if not me then who? Who will be there to answer the call of Duty when my nation needs me? Oh that’s right nobody wants to harm Americans I forgot. I would rather die for my family, my country on my feet as a brainwashed stupid animal than be a slave on my knees. I ask you not to feel sorry for me; don’t pity me for I pity the moral state of our country.
Hello from Afghanistan!
We need to abolish our all volunteer force by discouraging young men and women to resist serving their country. Today’s Military is the highest educated force known to ever exist. We need to put a stop to it and start a draft so everyone can have a fair share of the cost of freedom. We need to stop having recruiters waste their time and your tax dollars recruiting at schools like Hayward High school. Their state tests say enough; http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_school/ca/121
If your school has a 3 out of 10 ranking it means that the average student in that school will score a 30 on the ASVAB. Recruiters, stop trying to give everyone an equal opportunity and stop wasting our tax dollars, just give up on them like the rest of society. Let’s do away with the Military so we can live in a Utopian society with free stuff everywhere. Stop trying to convince these kids that West Point was ranked as the #1 College in America. Source: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0824/colleges-09-education-west-point-america-best-college.html
TO: Lanny Parker,
Think again, Marine. I was Hospital Corps. The military hasn\’t protected any but corporate rights for a long time. They\’ve been, as Kissinger said, \”…just dumb, stupid animals who are only good for instruments of US foreign policy\” when Third World countries object to being robbed and poisoned by the multinational corporations our government now represents. About \”complaints about every little thing\”, if you\’ll LOOK, you may notice that we can only complain when it divides us as a people and sets us against each other. And \”rights?\” I don\’t remember any, \”Free Speech Areas\”, or a \”Constitution Free Zone\” back then. Or our imprisoning more citizens than any other country on earth, mostly for non-violent, victimless crimes. And all for a drug war that actually creates the problems they insist it was created to solve.
There are still patriots. Check out http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/ These are veterans who all took the same oath I did over thirty years ago. None of us have ever repudiated that oath: \”…to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies both foreign and domestic.\”
The above paragraph, if the government chooses to take exception to it, is illegal THOUGHT, and can be considered \”domestic terrorism.\” Is that the America you joined to protect?
So tell me: where IS my country? It had fair elections; it had a Social Contract that helped us care for each other when hard times hit; it wasn\’t run by corporations with lying “elected officials” voting as they\’re ordered to no matter the damage it does. My country doesn\’t give away the hard-earned tax money needed to fulfill it\’s purposes to the very corporations that engineered an economic collapse to tighten their control and keep the rest of us poor. My country doesn\’t torture, kidnap, or hold indefinitely. It isn\’t so propagandized and conditioned by a corporate MSM that citizens don\’t understand why their \”elected officials\” vote against their clear interests and desires EVERY TIME. In my country it was considered patriotic to criticize corruption and demand accountability. It\’s a legal RIGHT to gather peacefully to dissent and to present legitimate complaints to our public SERVANTS. But those \”servants\” have made themselves public MASTERS, and now such patriots are attacked and abused by police without cause for daring to think they have rights.
My country values honor, courage, honesty, strength of character, and we are born with the rights to think and act as we choose so long as we harm no others. Our laws do not allow the government to interfere in our private lives as long as we harm no one else. Enough molehills can add up to a mountain though, as well as dig the ground right out from under our feet. It IS a cold, hard world, but a society that doesn’t take care of it\’s own is no more than another form of jungle – like the one we live in now.
Lastly, do you truly believe that any government could be so stupid as to have so many real experts to advise them, could spend so much money to fix what\’s wrong, and still manage to accomplish the exact opposite of their stated purpose? Speaking to my comrade in arms, there\’s only one answer, but you have to be honest with yourself to see it.
So, Marine – what country do you serve?
Ian MacLeod
Veteran, USN Hospital Corps
Disabled
You guys crack me up. Don\’t forget it\’s the military that protects your constitutional right to complain about every little thing. You people make mountains out of mole hills, learn to be more pragmatic in your views. The world is a cold and hard place and while I won\’t condemn you for not serving you should be ashamed of how you act towards those that do.
Semper Fi
Not what this immoral millitary is doing, but what you are doing is honorable.
Keep up the good work.8ynnd
I was one of the young ignorant teenagers that believed that going into the military was a good thing to do. My mother often had watched a TV program: Navy Log which depicted officers as gentlemen and the navy as a honerable, decent lifestyle so encouraged a career navy relative to take me down to join.
I DID receive good training in electronics but when aboard a Distroyer was subjected to constant sexual harrassment by an officer including threats of death if I didn\\\’t submit etc.
This resulted in my developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which has had a continuing negative effect upon my life for the next 50 years.
The concept I\\\’m attempting to leave is that you turn your life over to the military when you join and they have essentially the right and freedom to allow you to be physically or psychologically maimed or even kill you in the process of attaining their goals, whatever they may be. Unless you prospects for your life are somehow likly to be worse than that you don\\\’t want to go there! The arn\\\’t in any way decent or loving people and will use you and throw what\\\’s left out when you can\\\’t be of further use to them.
True, you may receive some educational or other benefits when you are discharged but you may also spend a decade being required to kill innocent families in foreign lands before you can leave.
Been there!
I’m a mother of three adult offspring. No government will ever get my kids, I did not bring them into the world for them to be taken away from me and brutalized, or worse. I brought them up being fully aware of the false advertising of the armed forces with their glossy flyers and tv ads that try to make it all look like a fun boy scout weekend. They have turned their talents to constructive occupations rather than DEstructive.
TAKE PEOPLE LIKE ME WITH YOU TO THESE THINGS!! I am a Vietnam Era veteran who joined in time of war. Both of my parents and my brother were and are vets, as is every male ancestor and relative I can find. So far, on my own, I\’ve talked several young people out of joining. My own son is the first generation I know of not to join, and I couldn\’t be more proud of him! You need the voices of veterans there with you; kids tend to listen to us. Please consider it. In fact, try to find vets from the areas where you\’re going to speak. That will add that much more reason for them to listen because it won\’t just be someone they don\’t know standing up there claiming to be a vet – it\’ll be someone on their paper route, or a neighbor, or the mailman or someone they\’ve at least seen. It couldn\’t hurt, and may help. If you ever end up in Madras, Oregon, or Bend or anyplace near there (Central Oregon), call on me – I\’ll be there!
Ian
It is this type of education that needs to be done to the students if we are ever to get away from this “war mentality” our country is so enmeshed in.
Thankfully many students are waking up to the fact that the military life is NOT the way to go. You have to really feel sorry for the military students and sheeple as they have been brainwashed for years by their family military traditions.
Best wishes, Cindy, and those who are, or have been, seeing the Light for the first time or for many years. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, you know?!
Pastor Dak!