The injustice of mass incarceration and trying to demilitarize out country

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News of the Peace and Social Justice Centerof South West Kansas

From the WichitaPeace and Freedom Party;

 

The mass incarceration of people in Kansasand the constant militarization of this city and country are issues that thePeace and Social Justice Center of South West Kansas decided to focus on thiscoming year.
Issues were hammered out at this year’s board meeting and retreat, lastSaturday. One issue that held almost everyone’s interest was massincarceration. That one ties into other related issues the board is dealingwith such as police brutality, recent police shootings of unarmed young peopleand poverty issues.
The UShas more of its citizens locked behind bars than any other country in theworld. The majority of those inmates are minorities—non-whites. Membersdiscussed this issue being in the news a lot recently.
For example CNN;

“This comesat a time when soaring costs of prisons are wreaking havoc on federal, stateand local budgets, as schools, libraries, parks and social programs areslashed. When I graduated from the Universityof California at Los Angeles in 1983, my state spent more onhigher education than prisons, a lot more. That equation is now reversed. Moneythat could have gone into reducing skyrocketing tuition and cuts to educationhas instead gone to prisons and inmates.”
The board decided that some issues, such as Women’s rights and environmentalproblems are being address by other groups in the area. It was decided to workwith these other groups rather than duplicate their efforts."

Many board members took an interest in inequality due to the actions ofGovernor Sam Brownback, the Koch brothers, David and Charles and other peopleand groups promoting inequality to the state of Kansas.
Another category the board will use is the constant militarization of oursociety. The board already has an Opt-out program to let high school studentsknow they can refuse to let the military have all their personal information.The military uses the information to push military recruitment.
This year BoardMember Steve Otto ended up attending a school assembly at Mead Middle Schooland said “it was the most jingoistic crap I ever saw.” All classes were let outfor this event fist hour.
This event was put on mostly by the “cadets” from the “leadership Class,” whichis nothing more than an indoctrination class for the US military and our perpetual wars.Otto and some other board members would like to challenge having those“leadership” classes with out giving the students a right to opt out of them.
The center’s members also want to deal with Latin American issues. Thisincludes peace groups past efforts to shut down the SOA(Schoolsof the America’s,a school teaching Latin American Leaders who to Torture and assassinationspolitical dissidents). The board also wants to keep an eye on Iran in case the US makes military moves againstthat country.


The board is hoping to have an active year and addressing a lot of issues, bothinternational and local. The boars also want to reach out and involve moreyoung people. This will also be a priority.