Contact us – wearenotyoursoldiers@worldcantwait.net 347-581-2677 – us so we can set up a visit to your class no matter where located.
We Are Not Your Soldiers is ready once again to work with educators to present veterans and their stories of time spent in the U.S. military to your students and to dialogue with those students – promoting critical thinking while examining the role of the military and its effects on U.S. troops as well as the peoples of countries under occupation and attack. The uprising against white supremacy of people all over the United States and the horrific response of the fascists in the White House has now opened discourse about the domestic role of the military – even more pressing as Trump threatens to involve the armed forces in the election process.
At this time, all our visits will be remote. We Are Not Your Soldiers will plan with you a virtual visit to not only support your curriculum but to utilize formatting that will be meaningful and appropriate for your students under these unprecedented learning conditions. Depending on the situation during the year, we may be able to return to in person visits.
Below you can meet our speakers, each of whom has a very different presentation but all speak directly from the heart and respond to any comment and answer any question to the best of their abilities. Presentations involve the use of media such as music, film clips, photos and Power Point slide shows which can be adapted to be used on whatever remote platform is in use in your school.
Please contact us – wearenotyoursoldiers@worldcantwait.net 347-581-2677 – so we can set up a visit to your class no matter where located.
Best wishes for a semester that is as good as can be in this strange time and that will work both educationally and health-wise.
John Burns: “I got out of the Army (active duty) in 2009 after serving for roughly two years, first as Explosive Ordnance Disposal and then Military Intelligence. Basic training was the first but certainly not the last grim reminder that what I knew and believed from movies, games or news wasn’t the reality we are all collectively forced to digest on the daily. These speaking tours serve not only as a form of therapy for myself but as a way to give students a chance to ask questions and become more critical thinkers. With all that’s happening in the world right now, this sort of thinking is needed more than anything. Unlike the military, I will never tell someone what to believe. I’ll bring you facts and evidence, maybe my opinion, and you can make up your own mind. My only goal with this program is to educate.”
Will Griffin: “I was born and spent my childhood on a U.S. military base overseas, being completely raised through the military-industrial-congressional complex. My experience in the U.S. Army was as a Paratrooper and Mechanic. I speak about my experience in the failure of the Iraq Surge under President George W. Bush, a Republican, and the failure of the Afghanistan Surge under President Barack Obama, a Democrat. These experiences led me to study more deeply about U.S. foreign policy history and the oppression that comes with it all around the world. Through my personal experience and studies, I provide an in-depth critical analysis of the global security state that covers land, sea, air, outer space and cyberspace.”
Miles Megaciph: “I was in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1992-1996, November to July, three years 8 months 6 days and 10 hours in total. I use hip-hop/rap music to tell my personal stories of the racism, sexism and oppression of the military. The lies of recruiters and the inequities seen all throughout the fleet, from Cuba to Okinawa and back to Jacksonville NC. I enlisted under the veil and had it pulled back in Cuba seeing America’s hypocrisy firsthand. The classroom visits I’ve done with We Are Not Your Soldiers have been both cathartic and inspiring. This is vital work; I wish I had the opportunity to receive someone’s truth when I was thinking of enlisting.”
Lyle Rubin: “I talk about my journey from a privileged childhood to commanding an intelligence platoon in Afghanistan in 2010. I recount my brief time as an enlisted Marine, especially my experience at boot camp in Parris Island (SC) and the dehumanization of entry-level training. I also speak in detail about participating in the partial destruction of a remote village in the Helmand province, among many other actions I now profoundly regret.”
Joe Urgo: “After growing up in a white, conservative, middle-class neighborhood in NYC, I became a Security Policeman in the U.S. Air Force (May 1966-February 1970). I speak about military basic training with a special effort to talk about morality with the students whose relatives have been in the military I talk about my experience in Vietnam, coming home to become one of the leaders of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and what I learned about the long history and role today of the U.S. military around the world to defend and expand the U.S. empire.”
