MEDIA ADVISORY                CONTACT:   Peggy Ray or Michael Sundue

For Immediate Release                                  718-863-0052 718-822-9897

BRONX RESIDENTS OF ALL AGES SAY NO TO ENDLESS WAR

Bronx  residents young and old will gather at a military recruiting center on April 15 to call for a halt to the endless war promised by the Bush administration and for more sensible U.S. budget priorities.  The young want to stay out of the military; the old want Social Security protected, and everybody in between wants a better quality of life in the Bronx.

The rally -- organized by Bronx Action for Justice and Peace and Sistas and Brothas United -- will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the recruiting center located at Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse.

“I think sending us off to die is cutting off the future of this country,” said Cesar Tejado, a student who was contacted at home by military recruiters who had been given his phone number by his school. “Why are they trying to recruit me? I haven’t even finished high school yet.”

"The government should spend money on education and not on recruiting children out of failing schools," said rally organizer Mark Van Hollebeke, a Fordham graduate student.  He pointed out that in the present weak economy, students are even more vulnerable to false promises that enlistment will lead to a college education and job training.

"We want to expose the myths that lure our young men and women into military service," Van Hollebeke said, noting that many of the casualties in Iraq have been young people who entered the service because they lacked other opportunities.

Lyn Pyle, of Bronx Action, argued the money our government spends annually on the military doesn't provide real security.

"The government spent $369 billion on the military last year," she said. "That money could have been spent to give us better schools, health care, jobs, and housing.  It could have been spent to protect Social Security for people's retirement."  That's the kind of investment that would result in a safer city, she said.

Bronx Action was formed after September 11 by Bronxites who opposed a violent response to that tragedy. Sistas and Brothas United is a youth leadership program affiliated with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition. For more information about Bronx Action, see their web site www.bronxpeace.org. 

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