Spring Break Fast: Teach-in for Peace and Education
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As I recall from my younger years I used to spend spring break eating Dorritos and watching TV. Some of the students at Gateway, Miramonte, and Mission High (all in San Francisco), decided to do something with more meaning. They organized the 2003 Spring Break Fast: Teach-in for Peace and Education. For four days they have fasted in front of the San Francisco Federal Building to protest the US invasion of Iraq, interventions in Colombia and the Philippines, and the fact that oppressed people don't get a spring break.
While on my way to photograph the group I notice a defaced Coke vending machine (below). The cool guy asking if you are thirsty now says "No War" and seems to be missing a tooth. Perhaps the cool dude and his crew will join the Spring Break Fast protesters after he realizes that he is contributing to the general callowness of youth today as well as tooth decay.
I arrived just as the group of students (and Gateway High Math teacher Andrew Rose) were ending their fast. I sincerely hope that they are indicative of the younger generation. If they are perhaps the future will be better than the recent past. There were also a group of people participating in a continuous vigil that began at the start of the Iraq invasion. Apparently, three members of the Margerin family have been at the vigil in front of the Federal Building for the last five days.
The dedication both groups are showing in the face of the media's claims that we have won the war is inspiring.
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