by Lauren Martino, intern at the World Can’t Wait National Office in New York City

The WANYS panel at NYCORE (NY Coalition of Radical Educators) on Saturday, March 29th inspired a lot of hope in me that was previously wearing thin. The room was packed with teachers, students and even a film crew making a documentary on kids considering joining the military, all genuinely captured by everything each WANYS volunteer had to say.

We started off the panel with a viewing of the Collateral Murder film.  Looking at everyone’s face in the room I saw despair and awe of how this country we live in could be such a charade. I saw people whose faces were twisted away from the screen in disgust, including mine and Elaine’s multiple times.  And I saw the same draining of faith in this country roll out of everyone’s eyes.

When the video ended Elaine, Mathis and Joe talked about their first-hand experiences with the US military. Each of them was captivating, each story so different from the next, but the messages were the same: the military
will lie with every intention of being brutal and dehumanizing and hold no remorse for the atrocities committed. The soldiers are viewed as disposable and no matter what recruiters might say, it’s the farthest away from finding
a family, the opposite of building a future and even farther from making anyone a true man or woman. Recruiters will tell people what kinds of off-the-field jobs you can have, what kind of benefits you can get from the government from your service, but what isn’t communicated is that there is no guarantee of these things.

Though these things sound awful and completely helpless, I found hope. I found hope in all of the people who came together that day. I found it in the reaction of teachers and students who will together shape the future. And
I found hope in the three speakers who demonstrated strength and will of superhuman proportions, people who have sacrificed and suffered so much and still sacrifice more to educate and fight for humanity. These are the people
who should be talking to kids, not recruiters; these are the people who actually selflessly care about the future and success of my generation.
Would you rather promote a college education or crime? Rather promote life or death, humanitarian values or murder, sanity or a spew of other mental issues created in warfare? As an 18-year-old high school senior, I would
hope to everything in this universe that anyone who is a teacher, anyone responsible for educating my generation and the generation to come knows what choice is the responsible one.

Invite WANYS into your schools, fight for WANYS to come to your schools, there’s no time to waste.

flier:  http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php/organizing-material-site-map-192/7070-to-our-generation-we-are-not-your-soldiers-flier