The
Militarization of Our Youth, I Will NOT Kill and REV Sam Smith
“To become
militarized is to adopt militaristic values and priorities as one’s own, to see
military solutions as particularly effective, to see the world as a dangerous
place BEST APPROACHED with militaristic values.” (Militarization
and Globalization by Cynthia Enloe)
In such a world, creative and peaceful means of conflict resolution will
find it harder to compete with military approaches and solutions, and may be
silenced altogether. Today…. we live in just such a world.
One primary objective of our government has become to
infuse a military mindset into our educational system wherever it is able. In doing so, our nation is led to believe
that as one militarizes the educational system; our students will be enabled to
a higher standard of socialization.
Undeniably great social skills such as “loyalty, resilience, courage and
teamwork” are promised to be the results of the militarization of our
youth. ROTC and JR ROTC programs are
presented as assets for our youth to utilize.
On the walls of our high school counseling departments are posters that
push signing up for the military as a “one stop success center” especially for “kids
at risk”. And the No Child Left Behind
Act and the ASFAB Tests allow military recruiters unprecedented access to our
schools and our school mailing lists.
Thus enters the
work of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
and its I WILL NOT KILL Campaign as engaged by the FOR Chicago Chapter. Within
this campaign, students who are continually exposed to the glamorization and the
sanitization of warfare in the world around them are taught the realities of
military engagement. Pacifistic in nature, the I Will NOT
Kill Campaign is designed to question the militarization of our youth. It is designed to help young people think
critically in regards to the military with non-violent approaches presented as
the preferable way to problem solving. Conflict
Resolution today has become more commonly equated with military force. I Will
NOT Kill says, “Let’s Give PEACE
A Chance FIRST!!”
In Chicago, REV
Sam Smith, FOR Chicago Chapter Chair and Chapter Members work closely with
DePaul Universities’ Peace Studies Department and offers I Will NOT Kill Tabling
as one of the Service Learner components to the PAX 200 classes. Rev Sam Smith also speaks widely at schools,
music festivals, coffeehouses, youth groups, churches etc on the subject of
Active Nonviolence as expressed by FOR and I
Will NOT Kill. More information can be found on the FOR USA
WEB SITE under the Local Chapter Tab (http://forusa.org/groups/local-chapters/chicago-for).
