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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Urbana High Students Discuss War, Alternatives |
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by Peter Miller and Sehvilla Mann
Email: peterm@shout.net, <anlyzstrlz (nospam) advancenet.net> (unverified!) |
19 Oct 2001
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Sixty-five high school students and other community members
met at the Urbana High School last night to discuss the "War
on Terrorism" and possible nonviolent alternatives to it. |
About sixty five high school students and other community members gathered
at Urbana High School on Thursday evening to discuss the U.S. “War on Terrorism” and to seek possible non-war alternatives to it.
UHS junior Miriam Larson moderated the discussion which began with anti-war
puppet shows and performances. A four-person panel discussed the war and
the history of Afghanistan, followed by a question-and-answer period and
discussions about what to do next.
Panelists included Mobin Shorish, a retired University of Illinois professor and Afghanistan native; Bill Taylor, a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War; and Helen and Cameron Satterthwaite, members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
Shorish was the first panelist to speak. He was born in Afghanistan, left in the early 1950s, and visited there in 1994. He spoke about the many wars that have been fought in Afghanistan during the last seventy years, including the U.S. backed anti-Soviet war of the 1980s. He described Afghanistan as being in ruins from these wars, its cities and civilian-government infrastructure destroyed. “ I am just trying to tell you a side of the story that you didn’t know before September 11th…although the U.S. Government knew it very well”, he said.
Taylor observed contradictions in the war message, e.g. that the U.S.
claims to help Afghan civilians by dropping a relatively small number food
packets on them while the bombing has prevented the United Nations from
distributing the much larger amounts of food needed to prevent
starvation. A reason for opposing the war is that the military-industrial
complex takes away money that should be spent on health care, social
services, and education, he said.
Taylor encouraged attendees to ask questions of people who are uncertain
about the attacks. "Who stands to gain and who stands to lose from the
conflict? Will the conflict achieve its desired result? Is it worth the
cost? Could the ends be achieved through less violent means? Does the
conflict tend to increase or decrease love and understanding? Do the
warring parties have a track record of being truthful and forthcoming in
providing information to the public?" Taylor asked.
The Satterthwaites also shared questions about war and violence, which they suggested might be useful to ask of oneself and others.
Those attending seemed to be seeking answers so they could form opinions about the war. Danielle McFarland, a sophomore at Urbana High, had hoped
for definitive answers from the forum but left disappointed. "I'm pretty
much neutral on whether we should be bombing," she said, noting that in
"liberal Urbana" people oppose war without understanding it. "It makes me
feel a need for education," she commented after the event.
Moderator Miriam Larson commented that she also is uncertain about whether
the bombing is appropriate, but that instinctively, she opposes it. "I
don't think we should have to be bombing, but I don't have a lot of facts
and statistics to back it up," she said. "I just feel compassion for the
people who are dying."
The principal of Urbana High, Dr. David De Weese, also attended the event and
participated in the discussions. In response to critics of the school's
curriculum who said that students aren't learning the lessons necessary to
understand current events, De Weese said that learning about American
freedoms is essential. "Our role is to deal with education and to focus on
the Bill of Rights," he said. "We should help students understand how the
bill of rights is being compromised, now. It may be the most important
thing we can do in this community."
Continue to visit the UCIMC website, listen to our News hour (Mondays, 5pm, on WEFT 90.1 FM), and read our newspaper the “Public I” for information on this and other anti-war events.
The Students for World Improvement (SWI), the UHS group which organized the discussion, meets Mondays at 3:15 p.m. at the Urbana High School.
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