Subject: how to speak to the whole campus? Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 18:23:10 -0600 Message-ID: <B14120EE5C432443B21102F7925DAD020235F39B@COKE.uwec.edu> From: "Hale, C. Kate" <HALECL@uwec.edu>
Colleagues,
I send this by way of follow-up to Zoltan's posting of his response to
the questions about the teach-in; this is also by way of noting how one
conservative faculty member characterized the teach-in.
How do we speak to the whole campus? (scan down to see the remark from
one of our campus colleagues, advisor to the College Republicans) How do
we help the community that surrounds the campus understand that to speak
of the history of US interventions, to speak of the economic
implications of war, to speak of the rise of fascism is NOT un-American?
If you want to see this article at the Leader-Tel web site, go to:
http://www.leadertelegram.com/story.asp?id=53432
In Solidarity,
Kate
Dept of English
3/14/2005 1:41:48 PM
Residents worry about Iraq war?s effects
Military parents, others voice concerns
Leader-Telegram Staff
Staff Photo by Steve Kinderman
People concerned about the war in Iraq marched from Owen Park to UW-Eau
Claire on Sunday for a teach-in about the effect the war has on the
United States.
Bethany Jacobson of Osseo never envisioned having a child who served in
the military.
She didn?t keep guns in the house. She thought her children would grow
up to be organic farmers or teachers.
Her hopes for the future began to change in 1999 when her son, then 19,
called from a military recruiter?s office in Milwaukee.
Jacobson?s son, Elijah, now 24, is a U.S. Marine reservist now serving
in Iraq ? living a long way from Wisconsin and a long way from
Jacobson?s original plan for him.
?I wish I could tell you at what turn in the road we did become a
military family because maybe then I could (teach) other families how
not to become military families,? she said.
Jacobson, fellow military parent Steve Wagener and Navy veteran Brad
Johnson led a panel on the effects of war on U.S. personnel at a
teach-in on the war in Iraq Sunday afternoon in UW-Eau Claire?s Davies
Center. Activities will run through Wednesday.
Bill Ogden, faculty advisor for the College Republicans and an
accounting and finance professor at the UW-Eau Claire, dismissed the
teach-in as something he wouldn?t be interested in attending because of
its anti-war bias.
The College Republicans were not asked to present at the teach-in.
Ogden, a veteran of the Vietnam War, maintains a conservative
perspective of war, but says there are negative aspects.
?That?s the nature of war,? he said.
Jacobson said she is concerned about the mental condition her son will
be in when he returns home next month. She said a recent conversation
with her son particularly troubled her, when he said, ?I just don?t know
how I?ll ever be the same.?
?I don?t know who?s coming home,? she said.
Wagener, of Eau Claire, shared similar concerns about the well being of
his son, Nick, who recently left his Army post in Iraq, and is supposed
to return home at the earliest by May.
However, Wagener?s primary concern was the order his son received in
November of 2003, which held him in the Army, and forced him to go to
Iraq, he said.
?That is how this war machine is being maintained today,? he said.
The conditions their children were placed in while in Iraq also
concerned Jacobson and Wagener.
Jacobson said her son endured weeks without showering, living only on
MREs ? the military?s ready to eat meals and living under a bridge in
what is referred to as the ?death triangle,? of Iraq.
?I don?t even know how I can actively convey or imagine what it must be
like for him day to day or minute to minute,? she said.
Wagener said his son eventually became fed up with his situation enough
to file papers to be a conscientious objector. The request was denied in
three months, he said. While the request was being processed, Wagener
said his son was forced into kitchen duty.
Johnson shared his concerns about the present war from his perspective
as a Navy veteran of the Gulf War.
?We?re all shareholders here,? he said, comparing the meeting to a
shareholders meeting of a corporation.
Johnson told audience members that they all had the responsibility of
standing up and being an active ?shareholder? in the direction that the
country is going in.
UW-Eau Claire junior Jeremy Behreandt said he came to the event to learn
more about what was happening in Iraq.
?I think it?s important to be informed about what?s going on in the war
especially since it?s lasted for two years now,? he said. ?I think it?s
really the first step to learn about (the war), but the next step is to
get involved.?
Sister Mary Frances Gebhard of Eau Claire said she wishes more people
understood the devastating impact the war has had on Iraq.
?I sat here thinking how can I listen to any more of it,? she said. ?My
heart is breaking.?
MacLaughlin can be reached at 833-9203, (800) 236-7077 or
susan.maclaughlin@ecpc.com.