Table of Contents

Table of Contents (links)

SECTION 1
Title 1 Tom Hastings

Section 2
Starbase info
Please contact us
if you or your group
want to endorse
this or speak at the rally.

Email: no2starbase@mail.com

Details:
http://PPSequity.org

SECTION 3
The Wordsmith Collection
Active Resources,
Activism,
News,
Alternatives,
Human Rights,
Issues,
Peace Portal
activeresource.org/ alternativenewsresource.org computerresource.org environmental resource internationalpeaceresources.org peaceresource.com peaceresource.org www.readingresources.org/ thewordsmithcollection.org unionresource.org writingresource.org writingresources.org

Whitefeather Peace Community Portal

Please join us for our Roundtables, with presentations

by professors, activists, and organizers for peace.  We usually 

have a vegetarian potluck at 6 followed by the Roundtable. Please

join our discussion. In the meantime, on Monday, March 8th...

RALLY AGAINST STARBASE MILITARY RECRUITMENT IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Monday March 8th - 6:00 pm
BESC Building 501 North Dixon
(2 blocks from the east end of Broadway Bridge)
News Conference at 6:00 pm followed by rally/Board meeting inside at 6:30pm

At their regular March 8 meeting, the PPS Board of Education is scheduled to vote on a $320,000 revenue contract for STARBASE, a 25 hour "educational" program funded out of the Department of Defense recruitment budget. Elementary school students in the Starbase program get 25 hours of so-called science, math and technology instruction at local military bases. Portland Public Schools has participated in STARBASE since 1993.

OPPOSITION GROWS
A growing number of Portland parents and community members strongly oppose the Starbase program. Communities Against Starbase Education (CASE) urges the Board to vote down this contract. Please join us at this rally to expose and oppose the STARBASE program that is a recruitment tool for the military that heavily targets low income youth and violates PPS policies. After some of us will go inside to testify at the Board meeting.

Safety
Military bases are not designed for children, they are not playgrounds or classrooms.
Military bases, including our local Armory, store toxic materials and jet fuels. We are a country at war, military bases are not safe places for civilians, especially children, during wartime.

STARBASE targets Black, Brown and poor youth
Of the 18 schools now participating in this program all but four are Title 1 schools. All but three have high percentages of minority students, and all but four have high poverty rates.

Violence
Violence is an ongoing problem in our public schools and culture at large. Exposing our young children to exciting, high tech, high powered, weapons will not help in our struggle to move toward a more tolerant and peaceful society.

Violation of PPS Policies
PPS has a zero tolerance for weapons and recently suspended a third grader for bringing a four inch plastic gun to school. Sending children to a military base clearly violates that policy and sends a hypocritical message to our students.

The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Trans people violates the PPS non-discrimination policy that says "there will be no discrimination of individuals...based on sexual orientation in any educational programs..."

Endorsed by: Communities Against Starbase in Education, Jobs with Justice, Whitefeather Peace House, Students United for Nonviolence, and the Oregon Peace Institute

Please contact us if you or your group wants to endorse this or if you would like to speak at the rally.

Email: no2starbase@mail.com

Details:
http://PPSequity.org
Follow us on Twitter at No2Starbase
Join us on Facebook: CASE
Communities for Alternatives to Starbase Education

BACKGROUND
PPS Non-discrimination policy
"Portland Public Schools recognizes the diversity and worth of all individuals and groups and their roles in society. It is the policy of the Portland Public School Board that there will be no discrimination or harassment of individuals or groups on the grounds of age, color, creed, disability, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation in any educational programs, activities or employment."

PPS Weapons Policy
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/directives-c/pol-reg/3/40/014_P.pdf
No person except a Peace Officer shall have or enable another to have a
weapon [or replica of a weapon] on district property

Military's statement on school recruiting

According to the US Military Army Recruiting Command Handbook on school recruiting:

" School recruiting is critical to both short term and long-term recruiting success. Remember, first to contact, first to contract... that doesn't just mean seniors or grad; it means having the Army perceived as a positive career choice as soon as young people begin to think about the future. If you wait until they're seniors, it's probably too late." Page 3
www.usarec.army.mil/im/formpub/REC_PUBS/p350_13.pdf

--
Yours for a nonviolent future,
Tom H. Hastings
Director, PeaceVoice Program,
Oregon Peace Institute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.peacevoice.info/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
member,
Whitefeather Peace Community
3315 N Russet Portland OR 97217
503 327 8250
peace education notification list sign-up:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/peacejusticeportland
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
faculty
PSU Conflict Resolution MA/MS Program
724 SW Harrison Neuberger 221
Portland OR 97201
503 725 9173
fax 503 725 9174
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://hastingsnonviolence.blogspot.com/

Pastors for Peace and Tom...

Whitefeather Peace Community
was founded in Portland, Oregon in 2005 in the spirit of nonviolence,
in the spirit of Dorothy Day, in the spirit of Larry Cloud Morgan—Whitefeather of the Ojibwe—and
in the spirit of resistance to war, militarism and injustice. We are a vegetarian, non-smoking, alcohol-
free activist community. When possible, we open our doors and offer overnight hospitality to traveling
nonviolent resisters. We offer Roundtables in the Catholic Worker tradition—a meal followed by focused discussion. We help organize nonviolent resistance to war, injustice and militarism.
We are hoping for your involvement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPCOMING EVENTS

Our Roundtables for this term will be on WEDNESDAY evenings, with our potluck meal starting at 6:00 pm. We apologize for changing the meeting date so often (and the time occasionally), but must adjust to school schedules.

All events shown below are held at Whitefeather House unless otherwise indicated. We are in North Portland, Oregon at 3315 North Russet Street, which is one mile west of I-5 and one block north of North Lombard, behind Sterling Savings Bank.