NJ - Activists take aim at military recruiting; Antiwar forum stirs emotions over Iraq

• Originally published in the Herald News (Passaic County, NJ) February 27, 2005

Copyright 2005 North Jersey Media Group Inc.,

By TOM MEAGHER, Herald News, North Jersey Media Group

Now that the president has won re-election and the war in Iraq looks unlikely to end soon, North Jersey antiwar activists are turning their attention to frustrating the military's recruiting efforts, especially in high schools and colleges.

More than 40 antiwar agitators gathered Saturday at William Paterson University for a forum on opposing recruitment. During one panel discussion, Dustin Langley, a Navy veteran and antiwar organizer for the New York group SNAFU, told the audience that recruiters often make promises to potential enlistees they can't keep.

"We have an obligation to keep those bastards off our campus," Langley said. "They're liars. They're predators. They will say anything."

Primarily composed of college-age young adults, the audience also included educators and middle-aged peace activists. Sandy Shevack, a public school social worker and a member of Paterson's Inclusive Democracy Project, argued that the burden of military service unfairly falls most heavily on the poor and minorities.

"It's all right for kids from Paterson and Passaic and other depressed areas to go to war," Shevack said. "Let the rich people's sons and daughters fight it."

Saturday's conference, organized by members of North Jersey Anti-Racist Action, took place in the auditorium of the David and Lorraine Cheng Library. Tom Keenan, who led one of the panel discussions, said that he has confronted recruiters on the William Paterson campus.

"I think this is almost a culture war," Keenan said.

"Either we're going to foster a culture of militarism among our children, or we're going to foster a culture of dissent and freedom."

During an open question-and-answer session early in the afternoon's events, some attendees asked for advice on how to keep public schools, required by the federal No Child Left Behind act to allow recruiters access to their campus, from giving students information on the military.

"More importantly, we need to mobilize to stop the war," Langley told the audience. "The politicians aren't going to do it. The people in the streets are going to do it."