Temescal Canyon High School's administration will do anything to stop the Peace Club from meeting. But they gladly allow military recruiters on campus.

TCHS is a public school in Lake Elsinore, California. Ted Pennings is a student at TCHS. Ted believes in a peaceful world. Apparently, the adminstration does not.

Pennings has been trying for weeks now to organize a Peace Club on campus, and has encountered numerous obstacles. Posters weren't allowed at first; an on-campus peace rally was banned. Then they were allowed, but under restrictions not imposed on other student organizations. Then they were off again, because faculty advisors for the club resigned.

Now we hear that the administration is planning to allow Army recruiters to come on campus February 26, with the goal of enticing students to join the military. Under the "No Child Left Behind" law passed last year by the U.S. Congress, the schools are provided to turn over student contact information to military recruiters or face loss of federal funding. These recruiters regularly mislead students about the benefits of military service in order to get them to sign up. Once recruited, you may be stuck, and the government increasingly doesn't follow through on their own promises to those who choose to serve.

The Peace Club and local community peace activists are therefore planning a peaceful protest on February 26 at 1:00 p.m. outside Temescal Canyon High School. The last community protest, against the TCHS administration's refusal to support the peace club, drew a number of students, supporters from the area, and students from UC Riverside despite the dismal rainy weather of that day. The students of TCHS's peace club want to be heard -- and what they are saying is "no war."

This isn't the first time that the administration has had "control issues." Last year, Principal Steve Haney censored a student videotape announcement. Why? Because it urged students and their parents to participate in an issue that would have very serious effects on their lives -- cutting of school programs as the district deals with massive deficits. Apparently students shouldn't show an interest in that.

Nor should they show an interest in how many classes they attend. Haney blocked publication of a school newspaper editorial that criticized the decision to reduce the number of classes from eight to six. In addition, the TCHS administration also used the campus "censorware" software, designed for preventing minors from accessing pornography at school, to block access to a student-run Web site critical of the school district.

Okay, let's look at this carefully. No talk about alternatives to war, even though our high school students are being actively recruited to serve in the upcoming war and subsequent occupation of Iraq. No talk of budget cuts even though they'll directly impact our students. No discussion of changes in the educational quality due to schedule shuffling. And above all, no sign of dissent. Wait, are we still in America?

Military recruiters have access to students, off and on campus. Car dealerships have access to students. Computer industry giants have access to students. Why can't peace have access to the students? The obvious answer, of course, is that peace doesn't donate oodles of money to the district.

steve.haney@leusd.k12.ca.us

The wrong crowd is the Military. The Military has one function,despite all the video game rhetoric in the commercials,to train people to kill without thinking. Period. JUST DO WHAT WE TELL YOU...GOOSESTEP GOOSESTEP....THE ONLY OPINION YOU WILL HAVE IS WHAT THE BUSH-BUND TELLS YOU....GOOSESTEP GOOSESTOP.....WE ARE ALWAYS RIGHT....GOOSESTEP GOOSESTEP....
If we spent some,or all the almost 600 billion dollars that goes toward defense each year(if you count "all"military spending,including all the intelligence budgets and the interest we pay on the war debt) and educated people here at home we wouldn't have to "recruit" anyone.
Anyway I hope that the military recruiters bring some test tubes so the kids being recruited can freeze some of their sperm before their gonads get a nice radioactive tanning with all the depleted uranium floating around in the Middle East so that their future children won't end up with the mentality of......naw that's too easy.

If there is type of salesman lower than an Insurance or Used Car Salesman it is a Military Salesman er, I mean Recruiter. Yeah, Recruiter.

"Yeah Kid you'll love it, visit exotic far away places, get an education, free medical (including new Prosthetics), meet fascinating people - and kill them. Now just sign here and you're off to Boot Camp - you'll love it - everybody remembers Boot Camp. You'll never forget those lovable DI's.

I don't like calling anyone "the wrong crowd," but with full 1/3 of those who served in gulf 1 on diability, I do think there are crowds to hang with that allow for a more promising future.

I made a mistake on the time. The correct time is 11:30 a.m. If anyone is planning to attend from the area, drop me a note.

I wouldn't say that the military is necessarily the "wrong crowd", but I am wary of military recruiting strategies, especially when the U.S. military routinely makes and breaks promises. I hope that the Temescal Canyon HS administration will not view those who want to learn about peaceful alternatives for war as "troublemakers."

--Kynn

I suppose I should defend the "wrong crowd" argument here, as I would be one of the members of that "wrong crowd." We are peace activists. We believe that a world without war is achievable and the only thing that hinders us from the actualization of this is the fact that people like "Bush Admirer" feel that peace is unreachable; it's not. We can reach peace, but we must believe it. Most of the club is very determined to reach it. We have been harassed and harangued, had our posters vandalized and stolen and been insulted and yelled at, but we persist. Does the "right crowd" have such determination to their cause?

Imagine a world without war. Whom do you see in that world? Whom do you see in this world that has war? This world with war has many people who die for nothing. Are they "right crowd?" We just feel that if we have trust in a world of peace, it can happen; we'd like you to join us, for if we don't learn to live as brothers we shall most certainly perish as fools (the "right crowd?"). That's Martin Luther King, Jr. by the way. Was he part of the "wrong crowd?" Christy? Gandhi? Tolstoy? Buddha? Bush? It should be obvious who is on what side.

If you wish to debate this further with me (or simply want more information), there is a contact form on the club's website. I will promptly respond usually within a day.

I wish Word wouldn't do weird things to my text like add a "y" to Christ. My apologies.

"-Next to be avoided would be political and religious cults who advance extreme
points of view-"
Like that religious freak and his friends in the
current administration.

I have the butter and dildos, Sheepdog. I may not be a hairless child, but we can pretend if you must.

While I'm not going to debate on people's opinions, I will make one of my own. Seeing as how I have been on both sides of the lines. I attended Temescal Canyon High and graduated c/o 96’, and also have served time in the military. Where as I agree peace should be chosen over war, it’s not always easy to accomplish. You can easily talk about it from the outside looking in, but put yourself in the shoes of the young men and women who serve our country every day, fighting for the many things we take for granted on a daily basis. I've spent time in other countries where these rights aren’t abided by. Countries where it is illegal to watch television or to express your own opinion. Most citizens do not understand that while our military may be at times harsh or seem controlling, they allow us the comforts that we have grown to neglect.

Excuse my ramblings, forgot to get to my main point. Point is that seeing both sides of the story, I also agree that rights should be provided for each side, and in my last statement stated that the rights we neglect in this country one of them being freedom of speech. And if these kids wish to get together to stand for their rights and express their beliefs then why are our "teachers and liberators" trying to discourage them? Don’t give up for what you believe in but also don’t deny to others in what’s being denied to you, the right to choose.

It is the soldier,
not the President who gives us democracy.
It is the soldier,
not the Congress who takes care of us.
It is the soldier,
not the Reporter who has given us Freedom of Press.
It is the soldier,
not the Poet who has given us Freedom of Speech.
It is the soldier,
not the campus Organizer who has given us the
Freedom to Demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag;
who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
that allows the protester to burn the flag.
(Father Dennis O'Brien, US Marine Corp. Chaplain)

You can deny this, but you'd be lying.

It is the soldier,
who kills innocent civilians.

It is the leftist-anarchist who is too cowardly to post his ludicrous thoughts under his own name.

Save your propaganda for elementary school girls that you are trying to impress.
I think i speak for everybody here
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Knock it off! My dad is a mess hall sergeant and he'll kick your ass!!!

So the good padre is a chaplain in the Marine Corps but doesn't know that people in that branch of the service are known as marines, not soldiers. Doesn't sound like he hung around too long, does it?
Maybe he high-tailed it out as soon as he found out that he would actually be sent overseas and might get shot at or blown to pieces. Or maybe he found out about some good pedophelia opportunities at a parochial school. Maybe he's up at Corcoran Prison right now and someone could ask him. O'Brien would have found out how much the Marine Corps stands for freedom of speech if he had tried to publish an article against war in the base newspaper.

...your stupidity is almost boundless.

You've never served, yet, somehow, you're an expert in military affairs. Interesting.

And why should anyone believe you? Because you SAY you're an expert?

Oh, don't get me wrong...there are plenty of indymidiots who will believe you simply because you criticize the military...and in the dispeptic livers that pass for brains around here, that's proof enough of your expertise.

You simply cannot conceive of anyone voluntarily giving their life in service of their country, can you? You know why that is? Because you're a coward, and cannot conceive of you sacrificing your life. Pathetic.

Oh, and fake guy: you're a coward, too.

Hey Davey have you been fixed yet?

...don't you have to go stick your arm up a cow's butt?

cranking out his garbage at tax payer costs.
Our hero.

I'm at home now, you dork.

But still, I get paid on duty or off, 24/7/365.

Thanks for the salary!

BTW: what do you do for a living?

thats where i live.

No one has to be in the military to know that people in the Marine Corps are known as marines, not soldiers, or that Marine Corps bases are hardly bastions of free speech, Daveman. By the way, aside from the fact that I did not claim to be an "expert" on anything, I'd like to point out that you feel free to comment on a wide variety of topics - from Israel to educational theory - for which your expert status is hardly clear.

...stems from your ignorance of the term "soldier" being used in the generic sense?

But other than that, you agree with him, right?

Sure, I comment on a wide variety of topics. But I base my opinions on research. Your opinions on military matters show no research at all...oh, ecxcept for that book you read about all the rapes and murders and unpleasantness outside military bases...and of course THAT was totally unbiased reporting of fact.

Uh huh.

Next time you wish to opine on military matters, I suggest you actually talk to some military people.

Who knows...you might discover they're actually human beings after all...not the bloodthirsty killbots you make them out to be.

we attend the "Gay Pride Festival" in San Francisco.
Ya see were bad asses that are into leather and chains.
You'll remember how lonley in gets in those foxholes.

Yes, I am sure that lifer drill sergeants in the Marine Corps would not vote for me in a Mr. Popularity contest. I take that as a compliment; I am sure that S.S. members, KKK members, skinheads, Bible thumpers, that Green Beret hero depicted in the book Fatal Vision, militia members, Arab bashers, Ariel Sharon, Strom Thurmond, misogynists of all types, pra;yer in the schools fanatics and you boobs would all vote the same way. That is the way I like it.
By the way, Daveman, since you are such an avid researcher you should be careful about bashing a book on the subject of crime by Marines at Twentynine Palms that you have'nt even read. And I am sure that all those left wingers in San Diego area police departments are just slandering the Corps when they talk to the press about arresting disease-ridden prostitutes of both sexes who make a living servicing the heroes at local Marine facilities.

Meyer is that you or what.

Actually, no; but the real problem with the cartoon is that the US did indeed murder thousands of civilians - as predicted by the peace movement.

The "free choice" movement is responsible for the murder of a baby every second.

Let me get this straight: legalized aborition makes it ok (in you eyes) or at least no big deal for Bush and Blair to murder thousands of innocent people. Do you always reason like that? How long have you had this problem?

for pointing out the duplicity in these conservative creeps' thinking!

You liberals are idiots.

Duplicity is advocated abortion and protesting capital punishment. Duplicity is peace protesting while a tyrant is digging mass graves for his citizenry. Duplicity is liberal dementia.

lets play reverse wordplay

(the game just lists an opposite word to engage your opponets argument)

HERE WE GO

You conservatives are idiots.

Duplicity is protesting abortion and advocating capital punishment. Duplicity is advocating war while a tyrant here is arresting civil rights for his own citizenry. Duplicity is conservative dementia.

"arresting civil rights for his own citizenry."

If you would, please provide some examples of this occuring. And please try to resist the urge to jump headfirst into the Padilla trap.

how about the patriot acts
and the rainbow terrorist security alert system
once it goes red
its martial law.
You do know what martial law is dont you fascist?

"once it goes red
its martial law."

COINTELPRO agents are hiding under your bed!! You're nuttier than a Planter's peanut factory!

"Duplicity is protesting abortion and advocating capital punishment. Duplicity is advocating war while a tyrant here is arresting civil rights for his own citizenry. Duplicity is conservative dementia."

Please explain how protecting *innocent* children from being murdered, while ridding society of *guilty* murderous deviants is duplicitous.

Please explain how advocating military action against a killer that douses his own people with VX nerve agents and buries dissident citizens alive in mass graves is duplicitous.

Please explain how these postions are demented. I eagerly await your response.

Well, you should know. You're the great citizen-soldier. You're a gulf war vet. You know first hand that the American troops are eager and frothing at their mouths for the chance to pull the triggers of their M-16s while they point them at other American citizens. Their neighbors, friends and brothers. Right.

Martial law is exactly what happens when the terrorist alert system goes red. It means you and your ilk got too cocky and the rest of us gotta bitch slap you back into your place. We'll just let the troops do it for us.

I support you, Eric. Would you like my list of abortion clinics to bomb?

Andy, you got an internet connection in your jail cell? How'd you manage that?

Keep your lists, wacko. I'm a real peace activist. Not a sicko like IMCeepers.

"Mr. Rudolph is really Andy Mickel."

Unsubstantiated Allegation

We hate Muslims. Join us.