E-mail
PrintIt drizzled as Saxon Brown and her friend Cat Coyne, both 16, glued slips of paper on playing cards Thursday. They were creating advertisements for the Youth March for Peace on Tuesday, which Brown, who just finished her sophomore year at Hickman High School, organized.
The march, directed at Columbians 25 and younger, is meant to empower youth, raise awareness for peace in Iraq and break the stereotype that young people are lazy, apathetic and unaware.
Brown described the event as a “unique expression of youth opposition” because, unlike so many events that are “made for the youth but not necessarily by us,” it is entirely youth-organized.
The march will begin at noon at Peace Park on the MU campus and go to the Army Recruiting Station on West Broadway. There, the marchers will sign a letter summarizing their intentions and their feelings about war, violence and military recruitment. They will return to the park to hear two speakers from the Missouri chapter of Military Families Speak Out, one from Iraq Veterans Against the War and two bands from Hickman, Carbon Brainchildand Thunder Clap Douglas and the Eight-Track Groove.
Brown singled out the recruiting office because“as a young person, I know that a lot of my friends and peers are targeted.” She said she and her friends “are potential troops.”
Brown said she likes “the idea of a larger, general push for peace” but is focusing this march on Iraq because it is the best way to get the most people involved. She first thought of having the march while at a peace rally last spring, after overhearing kids mentioning they felt alienated from the peace community. For this reason, she said, she planned a way to “provide a peace community for kids created by kids.”
So far about 15 students from Hickman, Rock Bridge High School and MU have helped organize the event.
Brown hopes to start a trend. “I don’t see how someone can live a fulfilling life unless they have helped other people,” she said.
Show Me the Errors 
Comments