JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 28, Numbers 3 & 4, 2008 Page: 435
391-836, [2] p. : ill. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Susan Searls Giroux
black men and young while men to fight and kill in brutal solidarity.
Yet when they come back home th[ey] can't hardly live on the same
block together....(275-76)
What lessons are we to learn from this? Tragically, once again, our
unilateral decision to go to war in Iraq, to expand the theatre of war
beyond Afghanistan, has greatly diminished our standing in the world
community. And our military presence in these regions, and the scores of
civilians dead as a result of our presence, has not rid the world of terrorist
organizations, but rather increased their recruitment efforts. The Geneva
Conventions have been dismissed as quaint, and the Constitutionally
guaranteed rights of citizens have been repeatedly violated with impu-
nity. And we still do not have our house in order. Not only has the gap
between the wealthy and the increasingly racialized poor become a
vast canyon, but they have been rendered a disposable population, like
the victims of Hurricane Katrina, like the millions rotting in the
nation's jails and prisons-all disproportionately men and women of
color.
The collateral damage of the wars abroad and at home has been all too
obvious. In the wave of national and international protest before the Iraq
War began in 2003, children in Seattle and other cities marched with
banners aloft demanding "Books not Bombs." Now, six years into a war
with no end yet in sight, the nation's public schools, bankrupt where not
broken, are dealing with unprecedented homelessness, poverty, and
malnutrition among youth.6 In confronting educational impoverishment
of our time, King's words suggest that we must not only demand better
schools as a matter of national priority, but become students of our own
history, press our elected representatives to learn from it as well, and act
thoughtfully and collectively:
There comes a time when one must take the position that it is neither
safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because his con-
science tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for
all people of good will to come with a massive act ofconscience and
say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "We ain't goin' study
war no more." This is the challenge facing modern man (1968
[1991], 277).435
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Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (U.S.). JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 28, Numbers 3 & 4, 2008, periodical, 2008; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc268404/m1/47/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .