COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
Young Activist Sees Obstacles as Opportunities
Icess Fernandez, Wichita Eagle
May. 28, 2006
Louis Goseland learned to question authority around the family dinner
table.
There, each evening, his father led discussions about politics and
other matters, drilling into his son these basic values: Question what's in
front of you. Protect the defenseless. Make the world better than how you
found it.
Above all, speak up. But before you do, make sure you have your facts.
"I make him research things so he understands all sides," Robert
Goseland said. "He doesn't take things for face value.
"I've always told him that. Find out why."
Those early lessons formed the son, now 18 and a new graduate of West
High School, into one of the city's better known young activists.
He became known as a student leader, circulating petitions demanding
that the school district explain its policies concerning Taser use, and
participating in marches that questioned proposed changes in federal
immigration policies.
A passion for change
Goseland started his activism at 16, working through the Peace and
Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas.
Horace Santry, the executive director, first met Goseland on a trip to
Fort Benning, Ga., to protest the School of the Americas, a training
facility for Latin American military and law-enforcement personnel.
"My tendency was to discount him as a teenager along for the ride,"
Santry said.
But he learned otherwise. After two days with Goseland, he saw that the
young apprentice had a fire to know more about issues, questioned why
things worked and saw a need for change.
"I want to be around passionate people, not angry people," Santry said.
"Louis has passion and uses the passion to help make change."
That passion sometimes gets Goseland in trouble.
Last November, he was escorted from a job fair at Century II after
questioning a military recruiter about the number of recruits who earn
the college diploma advertised in the recruiting efforts.
He was suspended from school in April for an unexcused absence when he
participated in anti-immigration student rally in March.
Goseland sees each obstacle as an opportunity.
"With these confrontations come contacts to get other things done," he
said. "I don't think I'm too aggressive that I repulse people."
With the Peace and Social Justice Center, Goseland has helped bring
attention to a federal law that allows schools to give students' names
and contact information to military recruiters.
As a result, the Wichita school board in July 2005 added another form
in student enrollment packets allowing parents to opt out of having their
information sent to military recruiters.
"It takes a different type of person to look at the big picture and
create change," Santry said. "Louis, for whatever reason, sees there are more
people in the world than him, and he's concerned about how they are
being treated."
His work has not gone unnoticed by school and district administrators.
"I think he's very passionate about his causes," said West principal
Lori Doyle. "I can see him in a leadership position in 10 years."
It's about what's right
Goseland said he plans to study at Wichita State University and wants
to become a history teacher.
But he'll keep crusading.
His activism not about teen angst, he said. It's about doing what's
right.
"If growing up means sitting around and being complacent, then I guess
I won't grow up," Goseland said. "I don't think I cause trouble.
"You might call me a snot, but you need to look at the kids who are
right there along with me. I don't do it for the sake of issues. Nothing can
be done by myself."
Reach Icess Fernandez at 316-268-6544 or ifernandez@wichitaeagle.com.
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