This past weekend, World Can’t Wait organizers attended a conference of Free Mind, Free People in Providence, RI, which brought together progressive educators and students from around the country – many of whom had never heard of We Are Not Your Soldiers or World Can’t Wait before. People were very interested in the fact that we had veterans speaking to students, especially young veterans from the current wars.

We also met a veteran from the war in Afghanistan suffering from PTSD. He was upset about the one-off stories people focus on because he thinks people need to be talking about the overall situation. He felt people always want him to say that it was horrible, but don’t want to know why or what it really was like. They don’t want to hear that we’ve screwed up things so bad that it’ll be awful if we stay or if we go. One of the worst things was coming back after the election and hearing people go on about “this change and hope” – but he couldn’t make sense of how people thought it was going to change… how this guy (Obama) no matter who he was or what he said was going to change what was happening. We supplied him with more information about the ongoing mission of World Can’t Wait and a DVD – now he’s linked in with a movement that is taking on these questions in a serious way, and determined not to give up on challenging people to recognize and transform this terrible situation.

Overall, we talked to probably over a hundred people, got out 66 information packets and signed up more than 40 people. Our table brought a good mix of students and teachers. Almost all the teachers who signed up were interested in having the tour come to their classrooms, including middle school teachers. Along with teachers at many different schools, a Latino youth group in Boston which runs an afterschool program for high school youth wants to bring the tour.

A lot of teachers would go directly to “how do I get it into my school, what do I have to do?” People thought it was refreshing to see this, and were also impressed with the fact that the tour will come to any school for free, based on the fundraising efforts and donations of individual supporters around the country. We even had a sustainer sign up right there on the spot via a laptop, because of this (a teacher in Camden, NJ said, “I can donate!”)

This whole weekend-long effort would not have been possible without the continuing support of our wonderful sustainers around the country.

Inspired? You too, can join the movement at the level of a sustainer, and by giving anywhere from $2-$1,000 a month, can contribute to expanding this movement beyond the “usual suspects.”