Information for Buddhist groups, Dharma centers, and BPF Chapters that would like to become more involved with this issue.

The Buddhist Peace Fellowship has four suggestions for your group. Please contact us if you have more ideas to add to this page, or if your group is currently involved in any of these areas:

1. Learn more about the courageous work of the historic peace churches (Church of the Brethren, Quakers, Mennonites).

2. Develop programs for young people to explore their beliefs about violence, nonviolence, war, and peace.

3. Invite veterans to speak to your group or center to help raise awareness of issues facing those in the military.

4. Get involved with Counter Recruitment efforts.

1. Learn more about the courageous work of the historic peace churches (Church of the Brethren, Quakers, Mennonites).

Study the experience of these churches and groups, and start up a conversation in your sangha or center about how Buddhists can take up this work.

A history of alternative service programs in the U.S. can be found on the webpage of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada.

2. Develop programs for young people to explore their beliefs about violence, nonviolence, war, and peace.

Members of several Dharma centers, and BPF chapters are talking about developing programs intended to help young people explore what they believe about war, the military, and the applications of nonviolence.

A couple of excellent models of similar kinds of programs already exist-- see Pace e Bene's "From Violence to Wholeness" curriculum and Fellowship of Reconciliation's Youth Peacemaker Training. If you are part of a Buddhist group that is working on a similar project, please let us know and we will list it on this web page.

BPF suggests that any dharma-based curriculum integrate the following elements:

• If based in Buddhist teachings, it is important to be clear that the program is open to young people from all spiritual and religious traditions, as well as those who may not identify as spiritual or religious.

• Young people should be supported in a process of open, compassionate inquiry rather than offered a fixed set of beliefs about war and nonviolence.

• The program should be culturally competent; that is, it should recognize the diverse backgrounds from which young people come in relation to race, ethnicity, economic class, ability, sexual orientation, etc.. It should also recognize the degree to which the Pentagon targets low-income communities of color for military recruitment.

You may also want to consider having your Dharma center serve as an alternative service site should a draft be reinstated. BPF is currently researching the requirements for such sites. We will post these on this page as we learn about them.

3. Invite veterans to speak to your group or center to help raise awareness of issues facing those in the military.

• Veterans for Peace is an excellent organization, founded in 1985, that can help connect you with vets who are willing to share their stories with young people.

• There are a number of Buddhist veterans who may be available for speaking. One of them is Claude Anshin Thomas, a veteran of the Vietnam War who has studied with Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh and was ordained by Roshi Bernie Glassman in 1995. Claude is the author of the book, “At Hell’s Gate.” To find out more about his speaking schedule or to bring him to your area, see the website of the Zaltho Foundation.

• View the film, Seekers  of the Truth, a 60-minute presentation of Veterans’ reflections on war, peace and forgiveness. Recorded at a  mindfulness retreat led by Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher and  peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, these spoken word offerings from  members of the Veterans’ Sangha bring the moral contradiction  of war into stark profile.

4. Get involved with Counter Recruitment efforts that support young people to learn the facts about military service and alternatives.

Counter Recruitment is what community members and activists call their efforts to dispel myths about the realities of military service and refute false information provided by military recruiters or advertising. Sometimes counter-recruiters are able to work in schools - alongside military recruiters - but most work in community groups or in public spaces due to lack of access to schools.

One book recently published on this topic is: An Army of None: An Activist's Guide to Combating Military Recruitment, published in 2007 by Seven Stories Press.

The American Friends Service Committee’s Youth and Militarism program has a well-developed Counter Recruitment component and a comprehensive directory of counter recruitment organizations in the U.S. We suggest you contact AFSC for more information if your group is interested in participating in counter recruitment and offering other counseling services to young people.

American Friends Service Committee
National Youth and Militarism Program

http://afsc.org/youthmil/default.htm
1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
phone: (215) 241-7176
e-mail: youthmil@afsc.org

The AFSC National Youth and Militarism Program works to reduce the impacts of war and military institutions on young people's lives. AFSC leads counter-recruitment trainings and workshops, conducts research, distributes literature, and supports grassroots educational and counter-recruitment organizing efforts.

Currently, the focus of AFSC’s work is to challenge the presence of military recruiters in the nation's high schools and to raise awareness among students and parents of military recruiters' unfettered access (recently granted in the No Child Left Behind Act) to student addresses and phone numbers.

AFSC is also considered a national resource on the expansion of military programs in high schools, such as the Junior Reserve Office Training Corps (JROTC) and the administration of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test.

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