On February 15th, members of the Carolina Peace Resource Center were ejected by military police from Fort Jackson, where they had been participating in a career fair for the Richland One School District. The CPRC members did everything in their power to cooperate with

In the Full Article there is a CPRC press release about what happened, followed by an article in the State Newspaper.

Carolina Peace Resource Center
Columbia, SC
February 15, 2005

At 10:00 A.M. today, members of the Carolina Peace Resource Center were ejected by military police from Fort Jackson, where they had been participating in a career fair for the Richland One School District.

CPRC staff and volunteers were distributing resources on careers in the non-profit sector and peaceful alternatives to military enlistment at Richland One's Career Quest, held at the Fort Jackson Community Activities Center. About an hour after the fair began, CPRC volunteers participating in the Human Services cluster were questioned in a belligerent manner by Area 3 Superintendent Nate Miller about what career they represented.

Superintendent Miller repeatedly challenged volunteers Sara Williams and Rob McCue when they responded by listing the nonprofit careers and organizations they represented. Miller told volunteers to remove their handouts, which they did, and, following further discussion of the volunteer's rights to talk to students, called military police to escort the volunteers from the base.

As several volunteers left the Community Center, MPs confiscated their drivers' licenses, which were returned to them at the main gate. A volunteer in the Education cluster who had removed a T-shirt bearing the non-profit's name and the phrase "Peace is Patriotic" was also escorted from the building when an MP took him by the arm and escorted him outside, saying "I saw you take off your shirt."

When volunteers attempted to question Miller about why they were being forced to leave, he took off his name badge; military police surrounded him, protecting him from questions about why volunteers were being ejected.

Lori Donath, Career Fair Liaison for the CPRC's Counter-Recruitment Committee, said the group had registered to participate in Richland One's Career Quest weeks in advance, with the goal of offering students peaceful career alternatives to military enlistment. Members had been issued name badges and information packets for the fair. The group had prepared resources for online employment searches, non-military national and international service opportunities, and nonprofit careers.

Among the handouts were brochures listing questions students should ask military recruiters before deciding to enlist. These brochures were targeted by Miller as inappropriate resources for the 2,000-4,000 students who would attend the fair; Miller argued that information on military recruitment was not relevant to the fair's purpose. When CPRC volunteers pointed to military recruiters in fatigues in a neighboring cluster Miller said, "This is a military base; if you want to talk about peace you'll have to go to the church."

However, Michael Berg, director of the CPRC, notes that the career fair was not held at a church, but at the military facility of Fort Jackson, at taxpayer expense. The eighth-graders were required to attend the career fair, where they would come into contact with military recruiters, although they are too young to be legally targeted for recruitment.

Williams, who regularly treats military personnel as a health care contractor, fears that Miller's accusations that she is anti-military, along with the ban on returning to Fort Jackson that members face, may blacklist her from future employment. "My career has been in healing; there will be a lot of need for people willing to take care of our wounded soldiers. I'm highly offended that Miller impugned my character and my motives," she said.

McCue noted the irony that he was born on-base at Fort Jackson, but that he is now prohibited from returning.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Activists told to leave career fair

Originally published in The State

At Fort Jackson, group distributed ‘anti-military literature'

By LAUREN LEACH

Staff Writer

Several activists were told to leave a middle school career fair at Fort Jackson on Tuesday because they were handing out brochures promoting peaceful alternatives to the military.

The group from Carolina Peace Resource Center was asked to leave because it had misrepresented its intentions, said Karen York, a spokeswoman for Richland District One, the group that sponsored the event. Military police escorted them from the event.

The group had said it would be discussing careers when it signed up to participate at the Richland One Career Quest, York said. The career fair was held in partnership with Fort Jackson at the Fort Jackson Community Center.

"Instead of career information, they started handing out anti-military literature," she said. The district thought that was inappropriate because the activity did not follow the event's focus, she said.

About 200 people representing businesses including BellSouth, the Columbia Police Department and Coldwell Banker United Realtors were at the event. Army recruiters were also there, said CPRC member Gerald Rudolph.About 2,000 Richland One eighth-graders attended, York said.

No other employers or groups were offering anything other than information about careers, York said.

The activists were wearing T-shirts with the slogan, "Peace is Patriotic" on the front and the group's name on the back, said member Lori Donath. She said she and others offered to take off the shirts if they were causing the problem but were told they had to leave immediately, she said.

"Our goal was to provide students with alternatives to military enlistment," Donath said.

The brochures contained information about the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, careers in peacemaking and social change, and North Carolina Outward Bound.

But the group also distributed military-related brochures. One brochure listed questions to ask if considering enlistment because recruiters "stress the benefits of the military — not the problems."

Another document contained military "myths." "Fighting for peace, equality, justice?," it read. "Peace is nonviolent. Fighting kills. Period."

Rudolph said the group was "trying to educate students about the reality of military life."

"It's very upsetting," the center's director Michael Berg said. "We want to promote peace and social justice. ... None of us had any ... desire to have any protest or civil disobedience. It was very much a surprise."

Add your comment

Your name:
Your email:
Subject:
Comment:	Image Pagebreak Read more
Word verification:
	Post Preview

yvComment v.1.19.3