North America

Mon
5
Jan
2015
New translation available
A peace sign printed on the American Flag is raised during a protest against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Archive / History Channel)
Submitted by Gary

Statement written by Ben Norton, Tyra Walker, Anastasia Taylor, Alli McCracken, Colleen Moore, Jes Grobman, Ashley Lopez / Codepink -

Once again, US politicians and pundits are beating the drums of...

Fri
08
Apr

This Ex–Army Ranger Goes on Missions to High Schools—but Not to Recruit

 (AP Photo / Hasan Jamali)

By Rory Fanning 

For a decade, Afghanistan vet Rory Fanning has been battling the desire to inflict pain on himself. Instead, he visits schools.

Early each New Year’s Day I head for Lake Michigan with a handful of friends. We look for a quiet stretch of what, only six months earlier, was warm Chicago beach. Then we trudge through knee-deep snow in bathing suits and boots, fighting wind gusts and hangovers. Sooner or later, we arrive where the snowpack meets the shore and boot through a thick crust of lake ice, yelling and swearing as we dive into near-freezing water.

Sun
03
Apr

Military recruiting in public schools can be disruptive

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 11: Members of the U.S. Navy march with the American Flag in the the nation's largest Veterans Day Parade in New York City on November 11, 2015 in New York City. Known as "America's Parade" it features over 20,000 participants, including veterans of numerous eras, military units, businesses and high school bands and civic and youth groups. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (Credit: Getty Images / Spencer Platt)

By J.B. McGeever

The local Army recruiter is at my classroom door, and I wish he’d stop doing this. He needs to speak to a student in my English class at Jamaica High School.

When I explain that there are designated areas for him to speak with potential recruits, he apologizes. In fact, his etiquette is always spit-shined and gleaming, like something he’s learned at a seminar. He shows me his visitor’s pass, smoothed against a lapel, and apologizes once more. Never again, he says. It’s just that this time it’s important. Could he please have a word with Ernesto?

I like to believe I have the final say on these matters, but Ernesto is already out of his seat and calling the man “sir.” His slouch has been corrected and a hand keeps his jeans from dropping below the waist. They shake hands and a heartbreaking glow washes over his face. I shut the door while they confer in the hallway.

Fri
12
Feb

The Violence Behind The Words 'Be a Man'

Be a human

By Katherine Marrone - Alternet

Fri
05
Feb

Why Is My Kindergartner Being Groomed for the Military at School?

Military recruitment efforts, whether societal or sponsored directly by the US military, reach children as young as preschool, priming them to think of war and soldiering as cool and exciting, without any discussion of the trauma and death they bring. (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)

By Sarah Grey, Truthout

When he got home from Iraq, Hart Viges began sorting through his boyhood toys, looking for some he could pass on to his new baby nephew. He found a stash of G.I. Joes - his old favorites - and the memories came flooding back.

Tue
19
Jan

SkoolLive - School Jive - A new, interactive digital invasion of our high schools by corporations and the military

High school students line up to use the new SkoolLive kiosks

Pat Elder -

For years DOD recruiting commanders have attempted to circumvent student privacy protections that are designed to shield minors from the wholesale transfer of student information from the nation's high schools to the Pentagon's Military Entrance Processing Command.

The DOD markets "career opportunities" through the schools, relying on a variety of methods, from Channel One, a 12-minute, highly commercialized, daily TV program that reaches as many as 5 million children a day, to various posters and announcements touting military service or other schemes like the Career Exploration Program. For the most part, however, these outreach efforts ultimately rely on the schools as a third party from which to extract student data. Until now, the DOD's quest for greater access to children has been somewhat stymied by pesky state and federal laws that regulate the flow of student information from the schools.

Sat
12
Dec

AFSC & Bay Peace Presents Youth Manifesto

American Friends Service Committee and its San Francisco Wage Peace Program staff in partnership with BAY-Peace of Oakland California,  have been supporting Oakland Youth in taking a bold step to demilitarize their schools.

The San Francisco Wage Peace program challenges the militarization of U.S. society, changing the narrative of military efficacy by:

AFSC & Bay Peace Presents Youth Manifesto
Thu
26
Nov

DoD Starbase Militarizes Education for Disadvantaged Children in the USA

2014 DoD Starbase Annual Report

The U.S. Department of Defense recently released their 2014 DoD Starbase Annual Report covering this program's impact on 10 to 14 year old children in U.S. public schools. One of the Starbase organizers is Major General  Lee Tafanelli, of the Kansas National Guard, and his comments reveal how normalized and commonplace has become the language of militarization inside U.S. Schools. As part of the "community covenant " strategy of the Pentagon to "own" townships and school districts to support and participate in military focused science and math programs, children are now openly given science education directly related to defense issues. Starbase proponents focus their outreach in poorer districts , where children are at greater risk to conditions of poverty or lack opportunities afforded to youth living in more affluent areas and attending better funded schools.

Mon
02
Nov

Education as Enforcement:Militarization and Corporatization of Schools

The Chicago Memorial Day parade is Saturday, May 23, 2015, had  80 percent of the parade was hundreds and hundreds of children, in military uniforms, proudly marching behind military banners.

Kenneth J. Saltman - Public schools in the United States have increasingly come to resemble the military and prison systems with their hiring of military generals as school administrators and heavy investment in security apparatus—metal detectors, high-tech dog tag IDs, chainlink fences, and real-time Internet-based or hidden mobile surveillance cameras—plus, their school uniforms, security consultants, surprise searches, and the presence of police on campuses.1 But it would be a mistake to understand the preoccupation with security as merely a mass media-driven hysteria in the wake of Virginia Tech and other high-profile shootings, and myopic to ignore the history of public school militarization prior to September 11.

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