![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Well, today I set out to join a group from our local peace resource center. We've been setting up to work on counter-recruitment--letting kids know that they don't have to give their names to military recruiters, and that they have other options. We were going to have a table at a career fair for 8th graders, and were going to tell them about things like grants for college, service organizations like American Friends Service Committee, etc. And we were planning to wear our group's T shirts, which say "Peace is Patriotic" on the front and have the group name on the back.
The fair was for the public schools, but was being held at a community center at the local army base. (I must admit I was wondering if this would all work out. I've worked with the group for a long time, and they are sensible but forthright, but did not know this particular committee or the people organizing the event because they meet on a night when I have another commitment.)
The event started at 10 and my shift was going to be 12-2. I got in the gate with no trouble--they had our names listed by the event organizers and so let us through. But when I got to the center, I was told that our group had been asked to leave. So I started to leave. The MP's stopped me, took my ID, made me wait while they wrote down all my ID info, and escorted me off base, keeping my driver's license until I was off the base. I asked why and they said that it was because I had on the shirt. I told them I was leaving but had not been told I should not wear the shirt. They were reasonably polite except for one who rather belligerently asked me if I had told them I was from the peace organization when I arranged to come out. I said I hadn't made the arrangements and didn't know.
A woman from the Career Focus,evidently, also came out and was apologetic, in a way, but said the literature had been inappropriate, that someone had shoved a security person, and that they hadn't known we'd be distributing anti-military handouts and wearing the T shirts. She said she "had problems with how the incident was handled on both sides."
I'd like very much to know what the real story was, and what to expect they'll do with the information they took down from me. I haven't been able to talk to the other people who were there when whatever it was happened, but I'll bet there's more to it. Stay tuned.
The fair was for the public schools, but was being held at a community center at the local army base. (I must admit I was wondering if this would all work out. I've worked with the group for a long time, and they are sensible but forthright, but did not know this particular committee or the people organizing the event because they meet on a night when I have another commitment.)
The event started at 10 and my shift was going to be 12-2. I got in the gate with no trouble--they had our names listed by the event organizers and so let us through. But when I got to the center, I was told that our group had been asked to leave. So I started to leave. The MP's stopped me, took my ID, made me wait while they wrote down all my ID info, and escorted me off base, keeping my driver's license until I was off the base. I asked why and they said that it was because I had on the shirt. I told them I was leaving but had not been told I should not wear the shirt. They were reasonably polite except for one who rather belligerently asked me if I had told them I was from the peace organization when I arranged to come out. I said I hadn't made the arrangements and didn't know.
A woman from the Career Focus,evidently, also came out and was apologetic, in a way, but said the literature had been inappropriate, that someone had shoved a security person, and that they hadn't known we'd be distributing anti-military handouts and wearing the T shirts. She said she "had problems with how the incident was handled on both sides."
I'd like very much to know what the real story was, and what to expect they'll do with the information they took down from me. I haven't been able to talk to the other people who were there when whatever it was happened, but I'll bet there's more to it. Stay tuned.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
:o(
From:
no subject
That may just happen. I will post about it later.
From:
no subject
;o)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Also waiting to hear the rest of the story...
From:
no subject
It's scarey to think that wearing a shirt can be considered a threat to security.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
But actually, I could avoid it by living even in Illinois. Somebody has to make the police state a little harder to maintain.
Thanks. If you see someone trudging up the street with a knapsack...
From:
Badness
From:
Re: Badness
From:
Re: Badness
From:
Re: Badness
Seminaries have promises of eternal salvation.
Military has shiny Hummers.
What does the IRS use? Sexy blonde bomb-shells discussing the pleasures of filling out forms in triplicate?
From:
Re: Badness
What does the IRS use?
Actually they were two dorky guys complaining about being audited every five years. If you work there, you get audited a lot. They were wandering around from table to table making jokes about the IRS. I figured they were trying to show that they were wild and crazy guys.
From:
Re: Badness
From:
no subject
This takes all whole new angle since you were booted out by a government entity... but I'm wondering if this is a free speach issue or just "privilege of the host"? If we look at it in terms of non-government hosts: would it be out of line for a recruitment fair hosted by "Toxic Polluters for Drilling in Alaska" to bar Greenpeace from putting up a stand? or for one hosted by PETA to not permit a booth from the American Fur Association? Do government bodies have the right to say who can recruit at fairs they host?
Was the woman at Career Focus the one who booked your group? It sounds like she didn't actually BOTHER to read about your organizations goals and aims. She's the reason that you end up seeing recruiters for jobs in accounting at engineering job fairs, and recruiters for jobs in upper management at entry-level career expos. But instead of actually admitting that she might have hand in things....
And I hate to say it... but as a
potential terrorist OMG!!!peace demonstrator, the government's been keeping records on you LONG before this.Remember, you do have the right to see your FBI/police records. They'll give you shit for requesting it ("oh only people who have SOMETHING to worry about ask for that!"), but you have a right to know.
Crossing fingers and toes that you don't end up on a "no fly" list.
From:
no subject
I think the question of why the fair was there is really the biggie. It was billed as just "Careers" to the students, but may have been a military thing in disguise. But if that's so, why are the kids being bussed there? This is a public school--were they able to say no? and at that age, would they?
Yes, they had the right to kick us out. But why did they let us in to start with?
The thing is, the military is able to get into kid's lives at an early age and present its views with no opposition. Who falls for the pitch? The poor trying to become middle class, who aren't informed of other ways of getting there. That's why we don't have a draft.
And think about why Bush's new budget cuts college loans. One of the main reasons people go into the military is to get college paid for, but if they can borrow money, they don't do that.
It's not a fair system, and needs to be challenged.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Have to give them reason to cover your angle ... it's less a corrupt system than a mindlessly omnivorous beast.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
That's the point, and the advantage / benefit: practitioners have no need to fantasize ... angry dogs are angry dogs, and corrupt bureaucrats are etc etc etc.
From:
no subject
I'll explain in greater detail in a post shortly, but you may disagree.
From:
no subject
But I also doubt that writing off media entirely is good tactic.
From:
p.s.
Viz.: "How to get straight to the people: control the message, stage the event (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/news/nation/stories/0213_BUSH_COMMUNICATIONS.html)"
(That's the stuff my peers and I have been doing for years; I'm living in a chill basement room, at 50. The rightist consultants are having booming careers. Go figure.)
From:
Re: p.s.
And that's the thing with the Bush events. Fritz Hollings, the Democratic Senator from SC who just retired, had similar meetings for years, but didn't have the $$ to get the media to cover them.
And that might explain your situation also.
From:
Re: p.s.
0_o
Dunno ... my ruckus' have done pretty well, all things considered. Any anyhow, better bad press than no press.
"the Democratic Senator from SC who just retired, had similar meetings for years, but didn't have the $$ to get the media to cover them. And that might explain your situation also."
Just so ... the buzzword I use is "economic warfare". Basically, a tremendous proportion of "progressives" are hypocrits.
/shrug/
And raisins have wrinkles.