News » September 29, 2005

Witnesses to War

Military families bring the cost of war to students

By Phoebe Connelly

Juan Torres places a cross next to his son' photograph at "camp casey" in Crawford, Texas.

At 7:45 am on the second day of school, Karen Meredith, a founding member of Gold Star Families For Peace, sat in front of a senior sociology class at Thomas Kelly High School on Chicago’s south side. “I am not anti-military, my son was a fourth generation army officer,” she told the class. “But I believe that this administration is not using the military in a way many of us in this country think they should.”

The visit was part of the “Bring Them Home Now Tour,” a combined effort of Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Vets Against the War and Veterans For Peace that spent the end of August and early September crossing the country.

The group advocates immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq and demands that elected officials account for starting and supporting an unsubstantiated war.

The tour began in Crawford, Texas, at “Camp Casey”—the site of Cindy Sheehan’s vigil. In three contingents—north, central, and south—the tour wended its way to Washington, D.C., for the September 24–26 mobilization sponsored by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). At Kelly High School, three parents of slain soldiers, Al Zappala, Karen Meredith and Juan Torres, gave presentations. Each went to a different classroom, speaking to the first three classes of the day.

Karen Meredith, mother of Sgt. Ken Ballard, spoke quietly, at times nearly drowned out by the cars passing in the street below. “When he was killed I asked the government for a photo of his body being returned,” Meredith said. “You may not know but the government doesn’t let us see the caskets coming home. This administration does not want us to see that because they don’t want us to see the human cost of war. If we see these caskets every night, whether we know the person or not, we can still see what is happening to this country: We’re losing children.”

“Ken was the 89th soldier from Iraq to be buried at Arlington,” she said. “Some friends of mine called me yesterday, they were at Arlington [and] they said [the government] was clearing a whole new area—so they know there are more causalities to come.”

The Gold Star Families’ efforts are yet again revealing a truth that has haunted the U.S. military for decades: recruitment tactics often focus on low-income minority students to whom society offers few other options.

Al Zappala’s son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, was killed while guarding a team in search of WMDs in Iraq. After telling the story of his son’s death, Zappala asked the students to consider what military recruiters offered them. “I know you have recruiters coming in here. … I’m not saying everything they tell you is not true. But, like everything else, listen to what they say, but you have to make up your own mind,” he said. “You see the recruiters, they come to schools like this, they don’t come to schools in the suburbs, ‘cause those kids aren’t going to go in no army. They know you guys don’t have as many options as they have, so this is where they come.”

Zappala was joined in the second class by Cody Camacho, a veteran of the Iraq war from Chicago. The kids noticeably sat up in the presence of someone closer to their own age. “I don’t know what else to tell you except it is a mess,” Camacho said. “You have to realize that you all are the ones that are the boss. These politicians have no strength without your voice and their goal is to keep everyone ignorant and keep them poor.”

Juan Torres, a Chicago resident whose son, Juan Manuel Torres, was killed in Afghanistan, spoke to Spanish-speaking classes about his son’s death and his family’s subsequent sorrow. Torres and his family emigrated from Argentina to the United States. Having lost a son, he says he feels a duty to educate other parents about military recruiters. When he was finished speaking the class broke into applause.

Michael McConnell, the Great Lakes regional director of the American Friends Service Committee, helped organize the Chicago stop of the Bring Them Home Tour.

“In the past military families have had a code of silence,” McConnell says. “They have broken that code and said what they really think about the lack of protection for their families and the fact that the war has not ever been justified. When the history of the opposition to the Iraq war is written military families will be noted as one of the main forces that turned the tide against the war. They are the credible witnesses to the cost of the war.”

• Help In These Times publish more articles like this. Donate today!
• Subscribe today and save 46% off the newsstand price!

• subscribe to print magazine

• stay in touch with our email newsletter

  Subscribe to our regular weekly e-mail newsletter. It's packed with updates on recent and upcoming stories, events, campaigns and things every progressive should be informed about.

   

• email this article to a friend

  Your Name Your Email Recipient Email

  Personal message Thought you might be interested in this article from In These Times.

   

  Please help us prevent spam by verifying the word you see in the image above

  Send to multiple recipients. Just separate each email address with a comma.

• Reader Comments

  “You see the recruiters, they come to schools like this, they don’t come to schools in the suburbs, ‘cause those kids aren’t going to go in no army.”

  
  Simply not true, at least where i live. Is there *any* basis for such a claim?

  
  I wonder, anyone know the demographics of those who volunteer for serving their country? I would imagine the new officers have lots of options (the ones i know personally did, and most came from rather affluent households). I am unsure about the enlisted folks, but from what i read most have at least a high school diploma.

  Posted by wolf on Sep 29, 2005 at 2:20 PM

  You hit it on the head OFFICERS have the options, their talking to kids who would end up as enlisted men. Kids that don’t have parents to pay for college let alone lifes nescessities.

  However I will say that they do hit the suburb schools very very hard. So I do somewhat agree with you on that point. However visit some poor kids and see that they look at it as a chance to come up not as another option to choose from mainly because they don’t get to many options.

  Posted by cnote on Sep 29, 2005 at 2:48 PM

  Rabbit saw some info on demographics of enlistment as it happens, hopefully can sniff it out, and come back.
  ..

  Are you sure you don’t want to stick with the God thing? You were always such a fan of God before, what has happened?

  Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 30, 2005 at 4:04 AM

  These families should not be able to make it harder for recruiters to do their jobs. I signed up & was not lied to. This is an old trick of the left to bring down the military. Secondly sadition is illegal. Look it up & these families are using their fallen heros to promote a stupid cause. everyone in the military is A VOLUNTEER recruit. Of course poor people join the military while rich sit it out. this is the way of the world. It is time to kill the enemy that is muslims. Not a time to pussyfoot w/ anti military personell in this country. Lenin had a name for these kind of people. It was called usefull idiots

  Posted by fatherof2 on Sep 30, 2005 at 7:11 PM

  Practically all front line troops are WHITE. That is right white. More whites have died in this war than the population of this country. Something like 80-85% . The point is whites join poor whites & the army is not sending so called minorities ito battle

  Posted by fatherof2 on Sep 30, 2005 at 7:13 PM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 55 posts.

Also featured Hurricanes Rain on Bushs Tax Cut Parade
A Fundamental History Lesson
Silent Beauty

Full contents
Previous issues
Subscribe and save!

Also by Phoebe Connelly

• The Politics of Everyday
  The political changes for which we've striven have made a material difference in the way women conceive of their lives, writes Katha Pollitt in Learning to Drive and Other Life StoriesPosted on October 9, 2007
• Two Degrees From Devastation
  George Monbiot's book Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning argues that we must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percentPosted on June 22, 2007
• Portrait of the Activists as Young Women
  It's been more than a year since the ads for 107.9 FM (La… morePosted on January 10, 2007
• Women and Their Boxes
  For too long women have dwelled on the categories that box them in.Posted on November 3, 2006
• SOSing the Vote
  Secretaries of State are essential to making free and fair elections possiblePosted on October 18, 2006