COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
Anti-war group protests National Guard
Staff Report, Daily Lobo
Nov 11, 2007
Members of an anti-war group dressed as clowns and demonstrated near
a National Guard booth in front of the SUB on Wednesday.
"The National Guard should not be here," said Ethan Ganuer, a member
Carnival Insurgente de Albuquerque. "We hope to persuade students not
to join the National Guard."
National Guard representatives were on campus to promote a paintball
tournament Saturday sponsored by the Guard, Staff Sgt. Carlos Tenorio said.
Tenorio said the Guard was not on campus to recruit.
"It's all about just having a good time," he said. "They're traveling
from campus to campus across the nation to bring people's focus on the Guard."
The demonstrators were responding to the seriousness of the Guard by
teaching people to have more fun, said Mike Butler, a member of the group.
"We're also, by dressing as clowns, pointing out the real clowns, the
real stupid-heads, " he said. "The idiots are those who are trying to
get you to join their cause for war, corruption, oil and capitalism."
Tenorio said the representatives came to UNM to tell people about how
the Guard benefits the community.
He said people tend to forget how the Guard helps New Mexico with its
efforts such as putting out fires in the Bosque and searching for lost hikers.
"We help out with a lot of stuff like that, and people tend to
overlook that," he said. "The National Guard is there, and we're here
to support in every way possible."
Tenorio said the demonstrators did not bother him. He said he's proud
to serve in a country where people can express their opinions.
"They're enjoying their privilege and their right of freedom of
speech," he said. "It's great they're able to do that."
Butler said there is a misconception that the military secures rights
for people, but social movements, such as civil rights, prove otherwise.
"Soldiers don't protect our rights," he said. "We, standing up here
as individuals, give us our rights."
People need to learn to relax so things like war don't happen, Butler said.
"In this society, people get mad too easily," he said. "We need more
people who are into fun to go out and have more fun in open spaces."
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen material relevant to the work of Eugene, Oregon’s Committee for Countering Military Recruitment that we think may be of use to others individuals and groups with similar goals.
Because our web site is public, personal comments about the articles and (frequent) corrections of reporters’ errors are also not included. If an article interests you, we encourage you to return to the Counter-Recruitment List Serve and put the article’s headline into the search line, which should bring up (often wise and useful) commentary and corrections. If you do not belong to the List Serve, it can be found at counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the articles on this site are posted without profit to those who have expressed prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposed.