Peace activists stage war games at Lakefair

author : Necashaw R. Montgomery

by Necashaw R. Montgomery

Amid the crowded streets of Lakefair last week, military recruitment officers wandered the grounds in search of potential enlistees while counter-recruitment volunteers set up a booth next to Traditions loaded with facts about the war, alternative solutions to enlistment, and a carnival style war game, called Collateral Damage.

The military's recruitment tactics are well maintained and thrive on a culture of oblivious civilians; recruiters target impoverished areas, giving promises of college education and financial support; they assist in the development of video games. They sit in career centers at schools, waiting for strays to wander in, and thanks to Sec.9528 of The No Child Left Behind Act, they are permitted to request students' personal information from any school that receives federal funding. However, the most elusive tactic succeeds by eluding reality and glorifying war with entertainment.

Unsuspecting youth are at the mercy of media and films that mythologize war and depict military life as a wash of triumphs over simplistic bad guys. For children, video games teach them to not only tolerate war but also to value and respect its existence. Couple this acceptance with a parade of patriotism and honor, and these children, interested in entertainment, become tomorrow's casualties on the battlefield. If people are aware of the facts about recruitment tactics and war, they'll be more conscious of what they accept. Chance Kroll, Kim Chaplin, Jean Eberhardt and many other community members designed Collateral Damage with this exact concern in mind.

In the game, the player is given eight regular nerf balls, to represent each year of a recruit's mandatory enlistment in the military, and then each ball is thrown like a grenade at a 7 x 4 ft image of a city filled with schools, hospitals, religious centers, and other buildings. If a structure is hit, the player is given a fact, denoting lives taken and the affect it has had on the community. At the end, the player is given a total death count for their eight years in the service.

The effect this game had on most players was obvious to those working the booth. It effectively narrowed the perspective on military actions and brought to light the true burden of being a soldier at the mercy of war. Chance explains, "Kids went in there expecting it to be a game where they blow up stuff and get points. Then they would throw the ball, and I would be like 'oh you just blew up a hospital or you just blew up a church, a worship center for the community, and now that is gone. And there was a wedding going on so you just destroyed three generations of family that were joining together, and they're gone; they're dead.? The kids [approximately aged 10-12] would laugh a little at first, and then they were conflicted?they weren't used to being asked to actually think about the consequences of a war. They were used to seeing things explode and [then] cheering."

The Game was developed as a positive response to the Military vessel Old Man IV that docked at Percival Landing for the week of Lakefair. The fifty-one year old barge travels frequently as a representation of naval success and longevity. It is also a prime opportunity to inspire young minds to join the military. Community members could not prevent the vessel from docking during Lakefair, so they focused their energy on creating awareness about the alternatives to joining the military. Collateral damage did exactly that. It showed that if people can readjust their understanding of the military and war, alternatives will become salient.

In closing, volunteer Christen Love shared a story of a high school boy that planned to enlist after graduation. The boy lined up to play the game and was given the instructions and eight balls, yet before he threw the first ball he hesitated and gave the balls back to her. After some discussion, he revealed that he didn't want to take any lives and he left the booth with books on alternatives to enlistment. Young people like this high school boy are exactly who counter recruiters are trying to reach.

If you are interested in supporting counter-recruitment or would like to know more about alternatives to enlistment, and visit any one of these websites:

www.afsc.org/itsmylife, http://ivaw.org/, http://www.myspace.com/armyofnonebook

http://www.couragetoresist.org/