BOARDWATCH: Veterans for Peace continues to criticize hypocrisy of Chicago for having America's most militarized school system
[Editor's Note: The following remarks were delivered to the Chicago Board of Education on January 28, 2015 as part of the Veterans for Peace campaign to remind the seven members of the Board that they are responsible for overseeing the most militarized school system in the USA. The veterans noted the recent holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but the members of the Board of Education sat smugly without comment. George N. Schmidt, Editor, Substance].
January 28, 2015
TO: Chicago Board of Education and Rahm Emanuel My name is Robert Lamont. I am a member of Veterans For Peace.
You have 10,000 children learning the military model of conflict resolution by violence. The military teaches violence.
There is a more efficient and effective method to resolve conflicts than violence. Nonviolence. Nonviolence requires training. Replace military training with education that teaches life skills, not how to kill.
Dr. King in April of 1967, in his speech �Beyond Viet Nam�, said �. . . I speak for those whose land is being laid waste. . . . . I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Viet Nam. . . . . I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation.� In the next paragraph he quotes a Buddhist leader who said, � . . . the image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.�
DeMilitarize the Chicago Public Schools by removing JROTC, Cadet programs, military academies and all forms of military involvement from our children�s lives.
