Positive Opportunities for Youth Resource Fair

Positive Opportunities for Youth Resource Fair & Youth Manifesto
Rally, Feb. 24th

http://oaklandlocal.com/blogs/2010/11/better-alternatives-youth

Meg Spohn
Sun, 14 Feb, 2010

On Wednesday, February 24, from 2 - 4:30 p.m., the Lake Merritt
United Methodist Church (1330 Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland) will be
hosting the Positive Opportunities for Youth Resource Fair & Youth
Manifesto Rally. This free event, supported by Youth Uprising's Youth
Grants for Youth Action, features job, college and internship
opportunities, youth performances, speakers, food, raffles, and more.

First of all, more events should include manifestos. More
importantly, however, perhaps the most striking description of this
event comes from BAY-Peace: Better Alternatives for Youth itself:
"...Oakland youth deserve better alternatives! We believe schools'
main priorities should to be to educate students and provide safe
learning environments. Schools should not be vehicles for military
recruiters to gain students' private information for recruiting
purposes. At the end of the event, we will deliver our Youth
Manifesto petition to the Oakland School Board."

What really jumps out at the reader here is an issue that is of great
concern to us all: "Schools should not be vehicles for military
recruiters to gain students' private information for recruiting
purposes." Right! In fact, it's alarming that this needs to be stated
explicitly.

As higher education costs skyrocket, access to higher education
becomes more and more the realm of the wealthy, as it was a few
generations ago, before the G.I. Bill. Students without wealthy
parents--that is, most students, and more all the time--have fewer
and fewer options for financing degrees. The armed services offer
some educational funding, but with America's two wars and multiple
peacekeeping missions around the world, it's not necessarily the
safest option. Nobody should have to risk his or her life just for
the chance at a decent education. Of course Oakland youth deserve better.

Worse, since the Vietnam War, the U.S. has had a terrible record of
classism in military recruitment. At that time, the children of
wealthy parents not only went to school, but if they chose to try to
get out of the draft, they also had a lot more options for doing
that. Working-class and poor kids didn't have many options. They were
drafted and they lost their lives in that conflict in
disproportionate numbers.

That was inexcusable then, and it is inexcusable now. While young
people who wish for their own reasons to serve their country should
certainly be encouraged to do so and deserve our respect and support,
kids who don't have enough options for education should not be driven
into military service because they don't see any other way to get to
college than through the harsh terrain of Afghanistan--and they
should certainly not be pressured by recruiters to look away from
other possible options as if they were not available. Here are some
of those other options, at this very event. Oakland youth deserve
better, and they should have it.

The Youth Manifesto is endorsed by: All City Council, AYPAL,
Californians for Justice, Youth Together, American Friends Service
Committee, United for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, Courage
to Resist, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and this writer, among other
organizations and individuals.

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