The planned, yet abrupt pull-out of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the bombing of Iranian-backed militia in Iraq, happening while most people living in the U.S. pay little attention, nevertheless call our attention to U.S. global aggression and vulnerability. World Can’t Wait began organizing U.S. vets to speak to students when the US army of occupation was in high gear in both countries. Even though this phase of the “war on terror” is ending, the nature of U.S. threats to the globe continues.
We Are Not Your Soldiers finished the 2020-21 school year with a June presentation by Joe Urgo, Vietnam veteran, to five classes at a large NYC high school. Joe was the last in a series of five We Are Not Your Soldiers speakers to talk to these same five classes during the spring semester – we have not done a series before! The students had previously engaged in discussions with Miles Megaciph, Will Griffin, Joy Damiani and John Burns. Giving a historical perspective showing the continuity between the current wars and the War on Vietnam of 50 years ago was a significant way to end this unusual speaker series.
A student in one of the classes on June 10 wrote: “Thank you, Joe, for coming to our class to speak. I’m sure it was a very hard thing to talk about and I appreciate people who do hard things to benefit other people. Thank you for your nobility.”
In that same school, we also visited a different set of five classes two times as well as a third set of five classes once. Because of the need to have primarily remote learning, there was not as much personal interaction among students outside of class as there usually is. It will be interesting to see, over the next year, if such a concentration of speakers had a greater effect than when we have engaged with students once or twice during the school year and/or only a few classes in a school.
Other schools
We Are Not Your Soldiers spoke with four classes at a small alternative NYC high school. And, we had some great interchanges with five well-prepared classes at a middle school.
On the college level, We Are Not Your Soldiers had discussions with five university philosophy classes and engaged in discussion with five community college classes, three in NYC and one in Nassau County. Along with these NY visits, we were able to present to four JROTC classes in Philadelphia, another very special opportunity.
Kudos go to all the educators and students with whom we interacted this year. It was a tough tough year. Those educators who invited us virtually into their classrooms are exceptional and deserve special gratitude for having found ways within the craziness of this year to relate to and with their students. They managed to keep them studying, thinking and learning. And, the students had fortitude, persistence and a strong desire to continue their educations. It was truly a pleasure to work with all these people.
A NYC high school teacher, March 2021: “Thank you so much for coming to our classes. I learned so much and had a very busy weekend trying to further educate myself. I imagine that it is really draining to speak about your experiences and I appreciate your honesty and openness. The students were so moved by your work.”
A NYC high school student, May 2021: “It was truly wonderful to listen to your experiences and your knowledge on the military. I was very unaware and shocked that I would have a higher chance of dying by suicide than dying in battle. I also love how you did your research, gave us a whole list of wars that happened, and showed us a list on the amounts of bombs dropped in 2016.”
We Are Not Your Soldiers gained a proficiency in doing remote visits which will serve us well as we are now highly prepared to do “distance” visits when we get requests from locations that are too far for us to travel. Also, we are able to bring in West Coast speakers remotely who live too far to come in person to speak at East Coast schools.
More exciting events
We were on two radio shows: first, a full class presentation at Nassau Community College and second a Veterans Day interview with Joe Urgo, Vietnam veteran, and Joy Damiani, Iraq veteran. And, we had our own We Are Not Your Soldiers live panel discussion with five of our wonderful presenters.
Despite all the problems – faced by middle schools, high schools and colleges – We Are Not Your Soldiers had another remarkable year reaching over 1000 students and engaging them in thoughtful conversations. With your help we can expand further during the 2021-22 school year. Students will either be back in their classrooms or all will have adjusted to hybrid or remote models and we’ll connect and reconnect with additional teachers and schools. Your donations will enable that to happen. And, thank you for all your support over this year!
