The military wanted Lucinda Montross. She wants something else.
After the US military failed to reach its enlistment quotas last year, recruiters stepped up their efforts with new financial incentives and modified criteria to widen the base of potential enlistees.
The Santa Fe chapter of Veterans for Peace (known as the Joan Duffy chapter) wanted to provide graduating high school students considering the military with another option. So it sponsored an essay writing contest in which students were asked to explain how they might contribute to a peaceful and just society.
The contest was geared to Navajo students, many of whom come from families with a long history in the military. Santa Fean Lucy Moore coordinated the project for VFP after meeting Fernando Suarez del Solar, a man who became an anti-war activist after his 20-year-old Marine son, Jesus, was killed in Iraq. After hearing his story, Moore says she asked him: "'What can someone like me do?' and Fernando said, 'We have to make an alternative for kids who want to do something with their lives so they don't have to go into the military to get their dreams fulfilled.'"
Moore decided to focus on the Navajo reservation for the first essay contest because she had lived there during the Vietnam era. "The Navajo are unbelievably patriotic, and when I was living
there it was the Vietnam war and I saw a lot of young men coming back really destroyed in a lot of ways by the experience of being over there. I have had that memory, and I just couldn't bear to think of a whole other generation experiencing the same thing."
Moore subsequently raised the money for this year's winners ($1,000 each) and plans to continue
the contest.
This week, SFR is publishing the four winning essays by Lucinda Montross, Aubrey C Smith, Tawny Alisia Draper and Baron Burnette, all of whom are now in college, and all of whom write about how their upbringing and values have led them away from joining the military and toward trying to make a peaceful contribution to society.
VFP's essay contest ties in well with the Peace Art Brigade, a joint project between SFR and Victoria Price Contemporary Art & Design. This project invites you to also put on the Make Love Not War T-shirt featured on today's cover and help make a statement about the future. Come join us Nov. 7 to kick it off. We're going to give peace a chance-and have fun while doing it.
The First Steps
BY LUCINDA MONTROSS
There is always going to be violence in the world. But that does not mean that there are no actions that can be taken. Violence can take many forms, and it does not discriminate against age, race, gender or wealth. There is the kind of violence that leads to fighting with weapons and fists. Then there is verbal violence: racial, gender slanders, stereotyping and racism. No matter what form is used, both forms hurt just as equally in all aspects of life.
All my life I have seen violence take action in both forms daily. I have read about child abuse, spousal abuse, terrorist threats, war and fighting with one another in the newspapers. I have seen the various wars take place in the world, terrorism and murders, all by watching a half hour of CNN. There are horror stories coming from left and right. There are the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Israel. The genocide movements in Africa. Young men and women are being shipped off to fight someone else's war. They are used as tricks in some wars and some are lured under false pretenses. It amazes me that people all over the world cannot submit to peace and the great lengths they
are willing to go in order to continue the war. They push more important issues off to the side, like the nation's health and poverty. Violence is like a disease that begins within homes and becomes a continuous cycle for the next generation. Physical abuse and racism begin here, and the hatred begins to grow and grow. It spreads from the homes into the world like a pandemic.
Honestly, I believe that everyone wants to strive for world peace, but the people are so bogged down by the fact that the cycle can never be broken. I understand why people would feel this way because I lie in bed praying to God for world peace. It is always the first thing I pray for, and sometimes I wonder if my prayers will ever be answered. When I see no light at the end of this long road of violence, I see a little flicker in the corner of my eye. I see families making amends, people together in a prayer of peace, people holding their hands out to help
one another and people raising their voices about the unspoken truths of violence. Then I sit back and think that every little step made to stop violence is a step forward and not backward.
I personally have never experienced physical abuse, but I have endured verbal abuse. I believe people think it is OK to say such things because I am light-complected and my father is an Anglo. The people around me, including my friends, have made racial jokes about the Native Americans, about how they are nothing but "drunks" and are always asking for money. Such remarks hurt, but the first and most difficult step toward ending violence is to accept yourself so that you can accept others. I have had to look at myself more than a few times and correct the way I act. Now I know what I have to do in life: be a leader and an advocate for peace within ourselves and in the world.
I will stand up toward wrongful actions, volunteer at various shelters, join committees that work toward peace and continue to use the power of prayer because you never know when God will answer a prayer, a prayer that peace is what joins mankind. I would like to be that voice to those who are thinking about joining a military service. I understand that the United States needs many troops to protect our country because of the 9.11 attack and to assist other foreign countries that continue to strive for peace within the world, but I cannot sit back and have our youth, the future of our tribe and nation, lured into joining military service.
I personally experienced their continued persistence to have me apply through daily calls and even a house visit. My mother put a stop to this by calling the recruiter's supervisor and telling them that this was a form of harassment that could lead to a legal action.
Yes, I did think about becoming a nurse through the military service and looked at their brochures that offer many opportunities and, most of all, their sales pitch for a free college education that most high school graduates want when scholarships become scarce. Because of this, I would like to become a part of a group, committee or organization that informs our youth of other opportunities and lets them know that joining military service is not the only option to pay for a college education. Hopefully many more will join me and others in this endeavor to protect our future, the youth, most of whom have just begun to plan their futures, a future without some form of violence and without a "war" that ends in a needless loss of lives.
As I plan a career in the health field, I have read and listened to the news about the president's budget-cuts he has made to fund the wars in the foreign countries that affect the health services to the most vulnerable: the needy, the elderly and the young. Our native people seem to be the first to get their most needed services cut to fund other programs. Again, as I pursue my career as a nurse, I would like to attain a degree that will put me in a position that will allow me to advocate for my people, the Navaho people.
I also would like to continue to be a part of my traditional doings/ceremonies and continue to learn about the "old" teaching and knowledge about a peaceful, harmonious existence with all that surrounds us. I would like to impart this knowledge to other students, friends and others. These teachings have sustained our Navaho people through the hard times and through the various organizations.
As I conclude my essay, I would like to quote Gandhi: "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent." This is found on the home page of the Veterans for Peace Web site, and I strongly believe it is very true. After all the violence from wars, a return to peaceful existence and justice for all people is hard to reattain. I would like to see, if it is possible, a sit-down session discussing all types of peaceful resolution when people, countries or nations are at odds with each other. This may not happen in our lifetime, but we may be the beginning.
A New Path
BY AUBREY C SMITH
I come from the Diné people. Growing up in a small town, I came to appreciate our veterans. Not only on the Fourth of July and Veterans Day, but every time I looked into my grandfather's eyes, for he is a Navajo Code Talker: a group of Diné men who, during World War II, fought for this country, not only with weapons but through our native language. The Diné language proved to be a powerful weapon during the war and helped the Pacific Fleet win over Japan. His dedication to the United States Marine Corps was passed down to my father, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1982. He served five honorable years before he was discharged. He later met my mother and started a family: my brother and I. He raised us through a childhood that you can only have on the Diné reservation. Hearing the Marine Corps anthem played or sung at every family get-together, both my brother and I were destined to fulfill the family tradition and join the United States Marine Corps. I joined the JROTC and began to see what military life was like. I gained the discipline I needed, and it also gave me confidence to become a leader. I saw the positives of being in the military and was looking forward to joining the military. When my brother and I were the right age, my father told us of his military career. My brother was graduating from high school that year, but my father left the choice of the military life up to us. My older brother signed up for the Marines right after high school and spent six years in the Corps. When he finally came home, he told me his stories about being in Iraq and Japan, his triumphs and his life-threatening moments. Hearing these stories of the military from my father and older brother made me feel proud to join the military, to be a part of a group of people who protect America and keep this country great.
The only stories that troubled me were the ones not being told, the stories from my grandfather. My grandfather never talked about his military service or what happened during World War II. I figured the stories were too painful and that it was better not to talk about them, for this scared me. During my high school career, I debated about going to college or joining the military. I found myself talking to recruiters and looking online to see what was best for my future. In the fall of last year, my grandmother passed away. This was very hard on our family because she was its heart and soul. When she was alive she told me, "Grandson Aubrey, life is too short. Live life to the fullest. I am so proud of you. Make me proud." Those were her last words to me and I will never forget them, for these words changed my future. I was no longer looking for what military branch I was going into, I was looking for what college I could attend. I wanted to live life and live it to the fullest. I wanted to graduate from high school, go to college and receive my degree.
If I was to go into the military, I didn't see having a future. I saw myself going to Iraq and not fighting for the same reasons my grandfather fought for, but for a reason I was not sure of. I watched the news and saw what was happening in the world: thousands of people fighting for a cause I do not believe is right. A friend of mine who went into the military was killed in Iraq. He graduated one year before I did, and this hit home for me. I could not believe that what was happening in the world was hitting so close to home. From this moment, I decided that the only way to get my family and friends out of harm's way was to demonstrate peace.
I respected my family for going into the military, but I needed my own path. I began talking to my mother for advice on how I could share my ideas. My mother told me I should start sharing my ideas with my peers to see if they agreed with my ideas. I
asked my fellow classmates about their opinions and most were unaware of what was happening. I decided I needed to tell my school first of my ideas. I wrote an article in the school newspaper telling people what was happening in our world today, how it relates to them and the peaceful solution we need to settle this conflict, for war is not the answer. They need to go to college and further their educations, to go out and get their degrees and come back to help their people, lead the world of tomorrow in a more positive direction. To be leaders and make up their own minds. Going into war is giving up the reason to negotiate. If we negotiated before we went to war, thousands of lives would have been saved, including my friend's life.
I started to listen to people's views of war, from past wars to current wars, and they all have the same outcome. You can't make the other side change their minds or force them to change their minds; you have to negotiate. Early in our people's history, we learned that negotiation was the only path to follow. Our people were dying and our leader loved his land, but he loved his people more and presented the United States with a peace treaty. The same thing is happening with our country today, but does our leader feel the same? If he did, he would have figured out a peaceful negotiation for our current circumstance. Nonviolence is an easy way to settle differences, but most people do not avoid confrontation. They seize the opportunity to show their strength, to show they are not afraid and are not to be reckoned with in the future. The same theory applies to the United States and other countries. In the future, I hope our country will be ready to accept what we are doing to it now. We are putting ourselves in a place where we are not trusted to the world. In our future, we need to have peaceful understandings and negotiations for a better tomorrow.
In my future, I plan to receive my degree in engineering. I always want to challenge myself and improve myself, and in engineering I see my next challenge. I also plan to keep my efforts for peace active in college. I want to attend meetings and try to receive enlightenment on the issues of today to get the knowledge I need to contribute to a more peaceful society. America is a country recognized for its peaceful and just society, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. We can only improve our society, and that is what our country needs to do: improve for a better future.
Teaching by Example
BY TAWNY ALISIA DRAPER
As a young Native American woman, I possess the power to be a person who can be a positive member of my community. By being drug-free, receiving a quality education and being a positive role model, I can contribute tremendously to a peaceful and just society.
This is the attitude every young American should have toward life. This is not the case-especially on the Navajo reservation. I live in a society within a society. Ideas and values differ greatly, and young Native American youth are struggling to balance the two.
A society like no other; this is a true statement about present-day American society. Though said in this instance without the presumed presence of pride, an avoided avenue of questionability is rediscovered. What truly makes this a unique society are, perhaps, the sad truths that surround the misconceived concept of what it really means to fight for freedom and preserve the utopian ideal of peace and prosperity for all. Or what really makes this society different is the choice that each individual has to create a positive change by sharing his or her thoughts and ideas and creating opportunities for younger generations to come. Sadly, the number of people who take the initiative to do this are outnumbered. However, there is one possible way a truly peaceful and just society can evolve, by
challenging the norm-this is true patriotism. Therefore it is my responsibility to share my perspective on American society, and it is also my obligation to initiate positive change. Surely I am not Martin Luther King or George Washington, but even helping one human being is worth a lifetime of work.
American society is gold-plated. It is difficult to see the poor and unfortunate beneath everything else. Like so many of the kids I work with, I come from a low-income family. My family encouraged me to become a Marine after graduating from high school. I have been ridiculed by my family because I have an aspiration to go to college and achieve my goal of becoming a pediatrician. I have considered my family's suggestion, but I want younger kids to see that a college education can be attained in a different way. I do not want to be affiliated with the false masquerade of protecting freedom and spreading democracy that the war is promoting. I am a compassionate person who values the concept of what the United Nations strives to achieve and what it stands for. However, many young people are taking part in the war without knowing why. Many questions are unanswered, but I believe that the nature of American society has been a major factor in the manner in which our nation has handled the situation.
Our society exhibits materialist behavior driven by American superfluity. This behavior has resulted in a negligence that is unforgivable. In every way possible, the American people have managed to immensely misconstrue the principles upon which this great democracy was built. The concept of the American dream has been transformed.
Directly correlating to this national blunder is the manifestation of the perfect soldier in every child throughout the land and in every other nation we so kindly bestow our indirect governance upon. Throughout my 18 years of life on this earth, I have been exposed to a wide range of ideas, people and, of course, violence. It is easy for one to say that the modern American can in many ways be compared to the ancient Roman. Presently, a sick lust for the extreme can only be satisfied for a brief moment on a television screen. Children are manipulated into thinking that life is worthless. From the time they are aware of their surroundings, children are conditioned to be insensitive.
Media is a powerful tool that can be utilized to create change, but in this instance it has been wrongfully used. Movies, games and music are loved by children and are now replacing parents when it comes to instilling morals and values in young minds. In addition, the popular culture that exists here in America almost always overpowers the teachings with which loving parents and mentors try to provide their children. A majority of the time, a positive environment that every parent dreams of cannot be found. It is every person's duty as a human being to provide this environment for their children as well as other children.
The issues presented earlier are just a few of the hindrances that face the youth of today. Every single great leader of the past has made it clear that the future of our society is in the hands of the youth. This is common knowledge, and yet it astounds me to hear about how children are treated and are not given the opportunity to make something of themselves. My hard work to help combat this in my community by becoming an affirmative influence is being accomplished. I have been volunteering for five years at an organization that once helped me, the Arizona Bluebird Association. This group strives to provide a drug-free learning environment where Navajo youth can develop into strong individuals. Basketball is the premier sport of the Navajo reservation, and it is the main activity that the organization provides. When I became a volunteer, I decided to help coach both the boys and girls 12-years-and-under basketball teams.
As mentioned previously, I believe that it is my responsibility to increase the number of individuals who create change. I want to influence children to be positive leaders when they get older. Since becoming a volunteer, I have developed close friendships with so many younger kids, and they do look up to me for support and guidance. Many have asked me how I was going to go to college, so now it is my obligation to show them that they can do the same.
It is a difficult task to try to find ways to contribute to a peaceful and just society, but it is possible. I have learned that making a positive change within a small group of people can grow. Although my success is on a much smaller scale than the success achieved by individuals like Bill Gates, I know that I am giving a helping hand to a child in need. It takes more than money, knowledge and skill to get a child to see what he or she is truly worth. A child's laugh and smile is more than enough incentive to devote all my time and effort into getting children on the right path to a good life, where they will be able to experience what individuals like myself are working toward.
Walking in Beauty for Peace
BY BARON BURNETTE
For Navajos,
Hozho
signifies walking through the world in a peaceful and harmonious way, at one with the cultures around us. It means being in balance with the natural world, including humans, animals and the environment. Creating a peaceful world is important to my Navajo culture and my family culture.
Animals are a big part of this world and help bring peace into this world. People and animals are similar in many ways. As Navajos, we tend our sheep carefully and closely. Sheep contribute to our way of life. We have a responsibility to our animals to feed them, shelter them and protect them. In turn, animals teach us what it means to be guardians of creatures other than ourselves. They also labor with us. We learn to treat animals in a caring way because they share this earth with us. As we tend them, we learn the way of peaceful guardianship.
The animals that we have and care for are good to me and other people. I treat them with respect. In a small way, I hope that this helps to spread peace in the world. I think that I have learned to treat humans with greater respect from caring for these creatures. I take the care of my animals seriously. People say that I take my animals too seriously. For three years, I had a blind dog named Tez. He was a bird dog, and people advised me to get rid of him because he was blind. It seemed wrong to put him down; I felt that he needed a chance in life despite his handicap. Tez developed an even keener sense of hearing and smell because of his blindness. Somehow, Tez helped me learn to be more generous with people, and to give them a chance when others wouldn't.
While animals are sometimes predators, we don't see animals waging war on one another. Only humans do that. Recently, a teacher asked me how I would help end wars that are going on in the world today. I had no answer at first. Then he asked me how I might stop a fight on the school grounds. I said that first I would stop the violence by calling for a temporary end to the fighting. In war, this is a cease fire. I would ask each side to give his or her point of view. Perhaps the two sides are not aware of why the other is fighting. Perhaps they are only blindly following their leaders.
Talking to each other is the first step toward understanding. Once two sides understand each other's injuries, a solution can be found. I would also have each side work together on a
common activity. Laboring together helps form friendships. Warring sides become familiar with each other instead of viewing each other as "foreign." The idea that different beliefs, ethnicities, religions and languages make us "foreign" to each other is part of the reason we have gone to war.
My grandfather on my father's side was disabled in World War II. Two of my uncles were in the military during the Vietnam War, and one of them fought in the war. I have a cousin who fought in Desert Storm, and I have a cousin in the Air Force and one in the Marines today. I believe that the United States is fighting in Iraq because of power and oil, not in order to end terrorism. It was a small group of terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center, not the Iraqi people. Every day huge numbers of Iraqi men, women and children are being killed, and hatred for the United States is growing with each death. We need to sit down and talk to those who resent us.
I would like to use the example of building a hogan with my family to describe how laboring together can result in peace, harmony and a successful project at the same time. My sister's wedding was the occasion for building the hogan. However, my family realized that the hogan would be used by everyone once it was built. Our ceremonies are conducted in the hogan. Building it together would strengthen us by offering us more opportunities to be together with each other in prayer. It occurs to me that sharing the world's resources might also be possible in the same way we share the earth and the labor for our hogan.
The first step in building a hogan is finding a location. We looked for a spot that was close to everyone who would use the hogan. Then we leveled the ground and sat down to create a blueprint for our work. The blueprint is especially important, because it describes our goal, our final objective. Such a goal is also necessary when working for a peaceful solution to conflict.
After the blueprint was completed, we dug the trench for the cement. Later we all helped pour the cement and pack it tight. After this stage, as in all the stages, we sat down together to discuss the next steps. My father and I would drill because we knew that skill from working together on many projects.
We drilled holes in the logs, and then screwed the logs down to other logs. At one point, a log from the wall was not straight. Everybody talked about the problem, even arguing a little about how to correct the problem. We never considered stopping our work; the problems are part of the work. Once we got the wall up, we began to construct the roof. This is when we ran into another, bigger problem. No one knew how to complete the roof. For the time being, everyone left. We had to work individually. The next day, after my father had figured out what to do, everyone came back. No one had quit. Later, after we finally finished the roof, we painted the hogan.
At last, the hogan was completed. Now it was time for the blessing of the new home. The medicine man prayed and chanted. He offered a prayer of
Hozho
. We gave thanks for our new shelter and shared a meal with family and friends in our new home.
Building the hogan was a peaceful process. I realize that world conflict is not as simple as the construction process, but maybe there is something to learn from what we experienced. However, the completion of the hogan did not end our responsibilities. As months go by, we have to maintain the hogan. We clean inside, wash windows, make curtains, repaint, clean the yard.
When a conflict is settled, you must continue to support the resolution. You must continue to care for and nurture peace. As I mentioned, my grandfathers were veterans. They did not want their children to go into the military because of what they experienced and witnessed. They were not anti-American. They were honorable men who served proudly with complete dedication. If the military draft were to begin again, I would serve for love of my country, but I hope and pray for peace and for love of mankind.
