You are not connected. The newsletter may include some user information, so they may not be displayed correctly.

NNOMY News: Witnessing for Peace

NNOMY News: Witnessing for Peace

top.jpg

NNOctober 2023  


"You are part of the national network of peace groups working to stop the militarization of schools and young people! "

 

 

1060: NNOMY News October November 2021 - Witnessing for Peace

Hello ,


In this moment of our continuous war economy, groups that push back against the cultural militarism that permeates our society are facing difficult decisions.  Peace activists and their organizations are experiencing existential challenges that threaten their continuation while trying to relate to a rapidly changing landscape consumed by digital media distractions and a flailing political structure that more resembles a reality television show every successive season.

 

In the last two decades for activism against war and militarism, whether from mass demonstrations from millions of people globally in 2003 or a handful of people protesting in front of a military recruitment center, those who profit from war, respective of the prosperity for the few or the declining standard of living for the many, are not open to negotiation.

 

Militarization and the justifications for our wars and their enormous expenditures and personal sacrifices are interchangeable and largely meaningless to those who profit.

 

Constant and protracted witnessing to the moral and ethical contradictions of our war economy are our historical response to war makers and still an important role we perform reminding those who can be awakened enough to understand our addiction to war and become influencers themselves for peace. 

 

Equally important, activist efforts are there to remind the vast majority who have become normalized to our system of violence for profit, that there is a discontent within the system and powerful arguments against it, whether they are willing to listen or not.

 

Our children and youth are being indoctrinated into a permanent war culture more clearly than ever before and the resources allocated to this banal evil is increasing as our groups pushing back against the militarizing of young minds are diminishing.  In the NDAA budget for 2022 military programs like JROTC seek to double the amount of corps programs in our public high schools from 3500 to over 6000.

 

Counter-recruitment activists provide an alternative narrative to challenge military recruiters in public schools because speaking out against our captive war economy and its human costs to our future generations must be done; bottom line. It is time to inspire another generation to take up counter-recruitment activism in schools and online and to innovate ways to keep it relevant and accessable to the same youth that the military has access to.

 

Below are examples of those who have struggled and provided witness against the abuses of our cultural militarism in the last year of 2021.


#counter-recruitment | #nnomypeace | #peacefulcareers | #revisitingouroutrage |  www.nnomy.org

middle.jpg


 

Expanding the Military Draft Is Not Feminism. Abolishing Draft Registration Is

23/08/2021 /  Danaka Katovich / Truthout - In the past year alone, nearly 3 million women in the United States have been forced out of the workforce due to coronavirus-related issues. Across the country, women are being pushed into crushing poverty as homelessness and mass incarceration rise among women and children at alarming rates, and health care, voting and reproductive rights continue to be under assault.

What’s the government’s response? Passing expanded paid family leave? No. Continuing expanded unemployment benefits? Absolutely not. Unwilling to provide solutions to the very real issues that everyday people are facing, Congress has instead found a way to suck more resources into the war machine: expanding the draft to include women.

 


How to Disappear: What happens when pacifist soldiers search for peace in a war video game

27/05/2021/ Directors: Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf / For as long as there have been wars, there have been soldiers refusing to fight in them. The experimental short How to Disappear examines the history of military desertion via the online war video game Battlefield V (2018), drawing wry and provocative contrasts between digital and real-life combat. Created by the Austrian art collective Total Refusal, this thoughtful film also asks: what does it mean that you can’t desert within this computer-generated world? Unable to abandon the battlefield or surrender within Battlefield V, Total Refusal invents new and unusual forms of pacifistic disobedience for their user-controlled soldiers. Their imaginative tactics walk a thin line between trolling other players and challenging the frameworks and mores of this peculiar space. By putting aside the intended gameplay, the group explores muddy moral questions of play, patriotism and war in a society where lines between digital and real environments grow more blurred by the day. For more from Total Refusal’s Leonhard Müllner and Robin Klengel, watch Operation Jane Walk.

 


 

War making as spectacle, entertainment and education

USS Midway Museum - Climb aboard the USS Midway carrier in San Diego, a former naval vessel that now plays home to a fascinating range of exhibits on the American military. It’s a fascinating way to learn about military history along with an iconic piece of Americana.

Begin your USS Midway visit on downtown San Diego’s Embarcadero, boarding the ship any time during its regular hours of operation. This marvel of engineering once housed more than 4,500 crew members across its various decks, and served in the US Navy between 1945 and 1992, making it the longest-serving aircraft carrier of the 20th century. Over the years more than 225,000 sailors have walked its sturdy decks.

 

San Diego California is the most militarized city in the U.S. and so is its entertainment establishment by extention. Militarism is so entrenched in our culture that images like the one above evoke no concern that nothing should be more inappropriate than "harvesting" children for war. Local businesses, and military contractor +Qualcomm participate by providing school scholarships in this offer and the Department of Defense STEM program is integrated into what is called Education including soliciting parents and teachers to be complicit in this indoctrination. Read it to be your own witness. Better yet, send them an email of your concern for this type of offer for children. You can contact the Midway Museum at: https://www.midway.org/contact/

 


 

Time to Question the Militarization of Our Children

17/06/2021 / Ernie McCray / OB Rag - When we say to a veteran or to someone active in the military, “Thank you for your service” what are we thanking them for? I ask this question for the children’s sake, for the many teenage warriors, fresh out of high school, who find themselves off somewhere in a land, that was never mentioned in their schooling, “making a difference.”
I mean after World War II came to an end, has there been any real reason for our country to be involved in war? I can’t help but remember a neighbor of mine, a family friend, a kid a few years older than me, coming home from Korea an emotional wreck, staring into space. Another childhood friend returned from Vietnam in the same condition and another came back in a casket having earned a purple heart for his bravery.

 


 

Breaking Cadence: One Woman's War Against the War

15/10/2021 / Ooligan Press / Rosa del Duca is a writer, journalist, teacher and musician. She grew up a tomboy in rural Montana, where she joined the Army National Guard at seventeen. During her time in uniform, she became not only a conscientious objector, but a feminist and unlikely rebel.  That tumultuous time is the focus of her memoir, Breaking Cadence: One Woman's War Against the War, (Ooligan Press, 2019) and her companion podcast, Breaking Cadence: Insights From a Modern-Day Conscientious Objector.

 

Special Offer to Benefit The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth office operations.

 

Rosa has given her permission for #NNOMYpeace to offer a signed copy of her book, "Breaking Cadence," for those who make a $60 Donation to NNOMY

 

Make Your Tax Deductable Donation at our DONATION PORTAL

 

 


 

Anti-war veterans explain how US lost Afghanistan while leaders lied, profited

21/08/2021 / Greyzone / Two US veterans, Matthew Hoh and Daniel Sjursen, explain how the war in Afghanistan was lost, Afghans suffered, and military contractors profited -- all while the American public was kept in the dark.

Guests:

Danny Sjursen. Retired US Army officer, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at West Point. His latest book is "A True History of the United States." https://twitter.com/SkepticalVet

 

Matthew Hoh. Former Marine and State Department official who resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan over U.S. policy in September 2009. Now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. https://twitter.com/matthewphoh

 


 

Northwest Suburban Peace & Education Project

04/09/2021 / Libby Frank / The Northwest Suburban Peace & Education Project formed in the spring of 2004. We all lived and worked in the community. Many of us had children in the public schools. As parents and community members we were concerned about the role of the military in our schools. This became very clear in the run-up to the Iraq war. The government was beating the drums of war and the military recruiters were all over the high schools trying to recruit young people. We felt the need to offer an alternative view.

We had been losing members over the years. None of us have children or grandchildren in any D214 schools any longer. Then in 2019 the school district essentially made the decision for us by implementing a new policy which restricts all outside groups to one visit / semester. Although there were slight differences in how the policy was administered between the six high schools, it was a game changer for us. To be clear, the same policy applied to the military. In fact there was a rumor that the policy came about by a parent angry about the presence of recruiters at the school with unlimited access to the students. Then the pandemic hit and access to students was limited. At that point we decided to disband. Our archived blog, which we started in 2010, follows as a PDF Below. Just click the button Read More.

 


 

 

Our Peaceful Career Alternatives project seeks to resist the militaristic culture that impacts our youth, only this time we focus on offering youth a valuable resource to choose a path away from military service and more in line with their abilities and preferences.  We continue to believe in peace and social justice as a fundamental right for all young people, that is why we invite you to be part of the project by spreading our resources and following us on social media.  Your support is important to us! 



bottom.jpg