Demonstrators gathered Friday in front of a military recruiting station at Hollywood Blvd. and La Brea Ave. to protest against the higher concentration of military recruitment centers across the country in areas where low-income families live.

“We have the power to change with actions like this,” said Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose son, Jesus, was killed in Iraq. “It doesn’t matter that ten people go by, but if one of them listens and understands, we are making a change,” he said.

“But if we stay at home, watching the football game or the soap opera, drinking a beer, we are doing nothing to contribute to this country and our children will be the next victims of militarism and the racial system,” said del Solar.

The protest started at 3 p.m. just a few blocks away from Hollywood High School, in one of several nationwide rallies commemorating the Iraq Moratorium Day every third Friday of the month. Some of the demonstrators wore orange jumpsuits in solidarity with the prisoners of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay detention camps.

“We are at Hollywood Blvd. near La Brea, where a very elegant military recruitment center is located,” said Don White, 70, a retired Los Angeles Unified School District teacher. “What we are asking is stop lying to our youth, stop telling them they are going for a noble cause. Tell them the truth, that they putting their lives on the line for corporate America.”

“We must stop this war. We are at the fifth anniversary of a war that has taken nearly 4,000 young American lives, countless hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and it’s all based on lies and deception,” added White.

Friday’s protest was also organized in conjunction with the organization, Code Pink: Women for Peace, to shut down the Marines Recruiting Center in Berkeley. The Berkeley City Council passed two motions on Jan. 29 that have been labeled unpatriotic by some: the first motion gave Code Pink demonstrators a reserved parking spot in front of the recruiting center and the second one had the city clerk write a letter to the U.S. Marine Corps to inform them that they were “not welcome” in Berkeley.

Since the motions were approved, many legislators have called to withhold state and federal funds and introducing legislation such as the “Semper Fi Act,” which would reduce federal funding for public school lunches.

“Code Pink has a huge campaign in Berkeley…which is basically clarifying the truth about policies of recruitment: the lies that are used to recruit our youth, and let people know that you can opt out. You don’t have to be pursued for military recruitments,” said Sarah Kloecker, 23, a Code Pink-LA organizer.

According to the article, “No Poor Child Left Unrecruited,” written by CSUN Chicano studies professor Rosa Furumoto, these recruiting programs are located in schools serving mainly low-income colored students. Sixty-one percent of LAUSD high schools have a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps unit on campus.

“Some of these stations are located right near high schools, or Boys and Girls clubs, primarily they are set in low-income neighborhood where kids don’t have the same opportunities? places where the youth traditionally do not necessarily have the same advantages that some other kids do,” said Kloecker, as she held a sign that read, “Don’t Enlist, Stay and Kiss.”

“This is part of the system and the governmental strategy,” said del Solar, 52. “The idea is to prevent youngsters from the working class…from having any chance of real progress in the U.S. The so-called American dream is interrupted by making public education more expensive.”

For Rudy Pisani, a 72-year-old Korean War veteran, protesting in front of a recruiting center is necessary because it serves as a counterbalance against the promises recruiters make to young kids.

“In the end there are thousands of veterans who return from Iraq or Afghanistan and are homeless,” he said. “The services for veterans are awful. I have to pay for medicine when I visit the doctor. As a veteran, I shouldn’t be paying. It’s repugnant that thousands of veterans like me who go to medical centers have to pay for our medicine.”

Although some of the people at the protest acknowledged that they are bothered when they are called anti-American or unpatriotic, they said they do not let those comments bring down their spirits.

“It’s frustrating because the reason that we are doing this is because we are patriotic. I love my country, that’s why I want to see it get back to the state where it deserves,” said Kloecker. “People get a little bit mixed up?we support the troops so much that we want them to come home. The best way to support your troops is to say you want them back home safe.”

“I think protests do make a difference because all these people that are driving by are saying to themselves, ‘Damn, those people are right,’ said Jeri Deitrick, 56, who was wearing an orange jumpsuit and a black hood over her head in allusion to the numerous people imprisoned and tortured at centers such as the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. “Or maybe they are thinking we are not right, but anyhow, whatever they are thinking, they are thinking, instead of just going home, cooking your TV dinner, eating and sitting in front of the TV and listening to all those lies,”

Aside from protesting against the recruiting centers, demonstrators also chanted and marched from La Brea Ave. to Highland Ave. to show their solidarity for the countless people who have been tortured for their alleged connection with terrorist organizations. Deitrick marched along other demonstrators wearing orange jumpsuits, black hoods and shackles, as many people driving by honked to show their support.

For Maria Guardado, a torture victim from El Salvador who attended the event, organizing rallies and being a social activist is fundamental. “Four different bones in my body were fractured, I was raped and even electro-shocked. It was a miracle I survived. I believe I did in order to tell my story,” she said.

Guardado, who has scars that remind her about torture everyday, has worked with peasant organizations and unions in El Salvador and was a member of the National Democratic Union (UDN in Spanish). She currently works with the Washington-based group, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International.

“Through this type of organization, things can change. We can free ourselves of the colonialism and imperialism of the United States,” Guardado added, while she held a “Stop Torture” sign. “I am here to bring an end to torture.”

While some of the protestors consider that the people and their disinterest are largely responsible for the country’s current situation, they were also optimistic because people will eventually find out the truth about the war in Iraq.

“The dynamic that we had in the Vietnam period was a draft and a lot of the young men and women were just being drafted into the military, so there was a lot of activism on the campuses,” concluded White. “Today, with no draft and an all-volunteer military, we don’t have that dynamic. But we do have a growing consciousness among young people that this country’s reputation around the world and this country’s resources, it’s all being squandered in a war that was based in lies and deception…I think what more patriotic thing is there than to be the conscience of your country?”

“I think youngsters are less compromised today because we don’t have a real draft,” said del Solar. “They are being harassed with military recruitment in high schools but they are not being forced to join the army like it happened during Vietnam. That’s why there’s some apathy…A story in 2003 about a dead soldier in Iraq was a scandal. Today, those stories are buried in newspapers and unfortunately people learn to live with that reality and are not surprised anymore.”

Del Solar, from Guerrero Azteca Project, was joined by demonstrators from ANSWER-LA, Coalition for World Peace, Code Pink-LA a
nd World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime.

Additional reporting by Cindy Von Quednow.