Friday, May 22, 2015

Calling all Travis Rebels to fight injustice with nonviolence

Hart, Tami, Susana, special guest, Ryan and I had a SOY table at Travis HS this past Tuesday.  It was great to have Ryan with us, who is an IVAW member and brought along copies of the IVAW 10th Anniversary "Celebrate People's History" publication that include some of the excellent graphics created by the JustSeeds Artists' Collective and veterans over the decade.  We posted these along with our other displays.  We were glad to have an opportunity to talk with students who said they were thinking of enlisting. Ryan and Hart were able to offer other perspectives from their own experience.
As always, the Penny Poll results showed students' priorities were Health Care and Education, above all.  Health Care came in at 37% of the budget, Education at 27%, Military at 14%, Environment at 13% and Humanitarian Aid at 9%.
As part of the t-shirt challenge, we asked students which of the Super-Villains of Poverty, Racism, Sexism, Ecocide and War they would rebel against.  I was inspired when one of the students immediately chose Sexism, saying she may pursue a career in human rights law as a way to strengthen women's rights.
Travis Rebels, we hope you will each find your ways to rebel against injustice using strong, nonviolent means -- like education above all.



 
One of the IVAW posters from the 10th anniversary publication


Hart and Ryan, Veterans for Peace

Peace Strong!




Peace Strong!