Telling kids to say 'no' to war [Peacenik alert]

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | 09/15/2003 (for edition of 9/16/2003) | Marjorie Coeyman

[GeneD]

PHILADELPHIA – John Grant and Frank Corcoran have both been restless this summer, eagerly awaiting the reopening of school.

Yet the two men are not teachers and they are not students. Nor are they parents of school-age children.

Rather, they are Vietnam vets with a message they long to bring into schools and share with a younger generation.

The essence of that message: Don't be sucked into believing in notions of war as glorious and patriotic. War is an evil to be avoided at all costs.

Military recruiters and government advertising often dominate access to schools and tell teens the opposite, Mr. Grant says. That's why servicemen who have fought need to tell them the truth.

"In ads, you see out-of-work actors on helicopters," he says, shaking his head. "But that's not what it's really like. We've got to go out there and tell them that."

Grant and Mr. Corcoran are both members of the St. Louis-based Veterans For Peace. The group was founded in the mid-1980s by two veterans, one who had fought in World War II, and the other a Vietnam vet. It sees its purpose as debunking false notions of war as glorious, and alerting the world - particularly those who have never fought - to what they see as the stark and horrible reality of combat.

Part of its credo reads: "We find it sad that war seems so delightful, so often, to those that have no knowledge of it. We will proudly and patriotically continue to denounce war despite whatever misguided sense of euphoria supports it."

Governments want young people to believe that war is necessary, the group believes, but that is rarely - if ever - true. Some members of VFP are pacifists, while others believe war may be necessary to counter aggression. But most agree that the US government has - at least at times - waged war unnecessarily.

And they would like young people, particularly the potential enlistees, to examine the reasons for war much more critically than they are encouraged to.

Schools aren't the only channel of outreach of VFP, but they are an important one, says David Cline, president of the group. "It's one of our mainstay activities, especially for the Vietnam vets," he says. "We're trying to pass our experience on to our children and the younger generation."

But the group's forays into schools are limited partly by its small size (they have only 3,500 members nationwide), and partly by resistance from schools.

"There are teachers who want their students to hear another point of view," Mr. Cline says. But many are uncomfortable with bringing into the classroom a message that may seem not only antiwar but possibly even antigovernment.

[Blah blah blah etc. etc. etc.]

[GeneD]

By boneheaded coincidence, in tomorrow's edition the Monitor will also run THIS STORY on Wahhabism in Indonesia's Muslim schools. What do you have to say about that, exalted peaceniks?

By the way, don't you like that guy's shirt?

[Lunatic Fringe]

Don't be sucked into believing in notions of war as glorious and patriotic. War is an evil to be avoided at all costs.

Nice message... by all means, let's continue the sissy-fication of America.

[WOSG]

Governments want young people to believe that war is necessary, the group believes, but that is rarely - if ever - true. Some members of VFP are pacifists, while others believe war may be necessary to counter aggression. But most agree that the US government has - at least at times - waged war unnecessarily.

Of course, this is true. Courage is never necessary. You dont *have* to fight wars against aggressors and tyrants; the alternative is always to surrender to evil.

[HungarianGypsy]

Remember, kids, when a bully is beating you to a bloody pulp and has every intention of killing you, make sure to try to find out what's "really" bothering them.

[Britton J Wingfield]

War is an evil to be avoided at all costs.

I would say it should be avoided if possible, but there are certainly costlier things than war.

[PokeyJoe]

"In ads, you see out-of-work actors on helicopters," he says, shaking his head. "But that's not what it's really like. We've got to go out there and tell them that."

He's right.

It really looks like this.

and this . . .

God save the United States from Islaminazi's and liberal progressive socialtist Peaceatanycostfascists who don't see the big picture.

Oohrah!

[Rain-maker]

Dean campaign motto:
Tell kids to give up, bend over and die,
cause Islam and China is coming and that ain't got a chance.

[Richard Axtell]

Idiocy is sadly a permanent aspect of the human condition. Men like these re-prove it to me, over and over. If they were to have their way, and their kind of mindless pacifism were to take root culturally in America, their most deeply held agenda would bear fruit; the de-militarization of the country, leading to weakness, chaos, world war and miltary defeat of the United States. Their fondest wish of millions of deaths, and destruction of the "American Empire" would be the result. To their horror, this would not lead to international peace and freedom, but to a new dark age, and their own destruction. Idiots should never be given the reigns of power... remember this when Dean, Hillary, or any other Democrat rants in their sputtering inanity about "Republican Warmongers" in the near future.

[sergeantdave]

Veterans For Peace

Jim Long, a rabble-rouser for the Veterans Speakers Alliance and Veterans For Peace, showed up to protest a fund raiser for President Bush this past summer in San Francisco and extolled the virtues of comrade Castro, dictator for life in Cuba.

A screaming mob of anarchists, environmentalists, Marxists, the Service Employees International Union, the Communications Workers of America and Green Party watermelons cheered him on.

Long proudly proclaimed that on every November 11th, he goes to Cuba to meet with comrades and honor communist veterans in a special commemorative ceremony.

[Guillermo]

They look like a couple of homos to me.

GTFO of the schools, perverts.

[mrmeyer]

Wonder if they served with Gore and Kerry?

[Guillermo]

Kerry served? I had no idea.

[CARepubGal]

Commie Pinko Fags? Wonder if they served with Gore?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!