| Objective | | | What to Do on April 16 | | | How to Help Organize | | | Legal Information |
|
|
"O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it..."
-- Mark Twain, The War Prayer
To have a! country wide walk out and local nonviolent demonstrations of students in high schools and colleges in protest of war, specifically war in Iraq, and promoting non violent alternatives, on Wednesday, April 16, at 10 A.M. in each time zone - that means it will be a rolling walkout that will start on the east coast and roll over the United states as clocks hit ten.
We want to show our administration and our entire Nation that our generation is not going to sit idly and watch as our peers are sent off to war to take the lives of innocent Iraqi bystanders.
We should not continue the war campaign against Iraq, especially without the support of many nations around the world. There are other nonviolent alternatives to war and we demand that our government, elected by the people and for the people, look at those alternatives and use its powers to act nonviolently to solve this conflict.
This is a student driven and student oriented nonviolent walk out; we ask you all to spread th! e word . As a generation full of many different people, with different upbringings and interests, we have to come together and show that we do not want this war.
(Anyone who is not comfortable leaving class can stay - this is a call to you, not a demand. Teachers are encouraged to continue classes as normal to support the students who do not take part in the walk out. We are not trying to make a statement about school by walking out: we want to show that we will not let day-to-day activities continue as if there were not a war going on and to convey to our nation that many youth are united against this war.)
US out of Iraq Now! for the sake of the Iraqi people and American Soldiers!
The Peace movement needs us now more than ever This is a time to stand together to say that we still do not believe in this war. There are diplomatic ways of ending the Iraq conflict without the continuation of this war. We as the Youth of this Nation demand that our government take a step back and look at these solutions. We did not exhaust every means of problem solving between the US and Iraq before this war began. April 16th is a day to take to remind everyone here in the States that even though the war is not being fought on our ground it still is happening and people American and Iraqi are dying.
If you are a student who supports the war but does not feel comfortable walking out, to support the people around the country who are walking out wear a white arm band on the 16th to school, this does not break any school rules and will show your support.
Please e-mail us at walkout2003@yahoo.com with the name of your school and the town or city it is in, if people at your school are participating in a walkout or other protests on April 16th. We would like to map out the schools who are participating. We would also like to know about any conflicts you've had with your school or people within concerning the walkout on that date. Thank you for all your help and support.
Please e-mail us any stories, pictures, etc., from your school or town concerning the walkout; we would like to post them on our website. (You can be kept anonymous if you choose.)
If a walkout is planned at your sc! hool or other schools in your town now is a good time to start alerting local media to your course of action, ie why you are walking out, where you will go, etc. Local papers might me quite interested.
Last updated: 7 April 2003