Activists engage with Army Experience Center
Youth of America shoot at human targets in a simulated mission to protect a humanitarian convoy from attack by "bad guys." This is just one of many cool learning tools at the tax-payer funded, $12 million experimental Army Experience Center in the Franklin Mills Mall in Northeast Philadelphia. Look for one in your community soon.
At 11:30 AM on Monday, February 16th, around 30 peace and anti-war activists from New York to Washington DC, collected in the food court at the Franklin Mills Mall in Northeast Philadelphia. They pasted pre-printed signs on their chests that said: WAR IS NOT A GAME. At noon, they walked 100 yards to the Army Experience Center and took up positions inside the $12 million experimental Army recruitment store that takes up 14,000 square feet of mall space with 80 video game stations and three shooting simulators, where kids can have fun as a gunner on an apache, a blackhawk or a humvee.
VFP members from the Philadelphia chapter, from the Bucks County area and from the Lehigh Valley chapter were involved in the action, as were members of the Granny Peace Brigade, the Military Project in New York and some members from World Can't Wait. It was a diverse coalition of people all united in opposition to an expensive commercial store using very expensive interactive computer technology and violent video games to seduce young people into joining the Army at a time of economic difficulty, as an unnecessary war in Iraq continues and the war in Afghanistan is being escalated into a classic quagmire. The experimental Center -- if successful, planned for malls throughout America -- seems a vital nexus in a culture of Militarism.
Once the activists were inside the Center, Mall Cops arrived from all directions, some on those cool two-wheel electronic scooters. About a dozen members of the group took up freeze postures inside the Center, while some did so outside in the open mall area near the Dave & Buster's entrance. The Mall Cops were very intent on preventing photographs from being taken, since that seemed to be some kind of crime against the Mall. (Maybe cameras would steal the Mall's soul.) Anyone with a camera out was threatened with removal. Eventually, two large cops from the Philadelphia Civil Affairs police unit arrived on the scene. These two African American officers spent time in a circle of activists very calmly and civilly addressing all sorts of questions having to do with the rights of activists who opposed the Army Experience Center. It all boiled down to the fact the Center was a paying tenant in a private commercial property, which in their world meant that the Center and the Mall could dictate to us what we could and could not do. The fact the Center was paid for by taxpayers like us and failed to present a balanced view of information vital to the young people it was seducing was, naturally, irrelevant to the Private Property Rule. We were on the edge of civil disobedience. One of the activists asked the ranking cop how this situation was any different than those people who sat-in in a privately-owned lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in the 1960s. He paused for a moment, then kind of smiled. "You aren't being discriminated against," he said. "Oh, yes, but we are," was the reply. That was as far as the discussion went. But it seems enough of a point was made that the officer's mind turned to figuring out a diplomatic solution to the situation.
All the activists eventually left the Center rather than face arrest, since it was decided this was not a day for arrests. Several of us made a demand for a veterans' table to present an alternative view to young people in the vicinity of the Center. An agreement was made that four members of the activist group would go into the Center with the civil affairs officers and read a press release to the director of the center, Al Flood, a retired lieutenant colonel who had been a helicopter pilot in the Gulf War. Flood very cordially listened to the press release from Veterans For Peace Chapter 31, the Brandywine Peace Community and the Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern (LEPOCO). The release is copied below.
Bob Smith from the Brandywine Peace Community told Flood that we were glad he cordially listened to the reading of the release. Flood said he would contact his superior and suggested we contact the Mall about leasing space in the Mall, which would give us the right to speak our minds. Smith told Flood that, unless an agreement on a tabling option could be arranged, "we will be back." Flood said, "Fine. It's a free country."
See what the Army Center describes on its website as "the latest in technology interactivity and gaming. ... an experience only the Army can provide." To witness it, go to: http://www.thearmyexperience.com/
From: Veterans For Peace Chapter 31, Brandywine Peace Community, Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern (LEPOCO) Date: Monday, February 16, 2009 Contact: John Grant, Veterans For Peace; 610-832-7028; 610-564-7628 Balancing The Army Experience Center
As tax-paying citizens and veterans who have consistently opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq and who believe Afghanistan is becoming a classic quagmire for our young soldiers, we are disturbed by the Army Experience Center at the Franklin Mills Mall. Many of us know and work with returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. We know what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is, how insidious it can be and how soldiers obtain it. We know of the pain and emotional struggle soldiers who have been wounded or maimed in these war zones go through. We know what it means to be the point of the spear in wars that politicians and most citizens only see media glimpses of and understand only as controversial national policy that really doesn t affect them.
We understand the cultural climate young people live in these days where they are overwhelmed by all manner of electronic media saturated with artificiality and fantasy whether it be TV, movies or ever-more sophisticated computer games. As should be clear to anyone who has witnessed it, the Army Experience Center is intended to take advantage of our youth s psychological immersion in this incredible media and computer game culture to seduce them into the military, especially during this time of severe economic dislocation and anxiety about the future.
Because we fully recognize the Army Experience Center s seductive power for our young people and because we know the costs of war, we are convinced that it cries out for an alternative view, something not purely devoted to seducing youth into the Army, something that offers a balance and some discussion as to what, beyond all the dazzle and bang, joining the Army might actually mean for the young person s future.
Reports put the cost for this Center at $12 million. We might facetiously ask whether the Army is designing an equally expensive and slick Veterans Experience Center in which a person can hit touch screens to locate across the country where all the wounded and maimed soldiers try to regain the lives they ve permanently lost and, in many cases, where they have to struggle to get the medical help they need and the education they deserve. Where is the slick computer game that a kid can play to walk through the challenges faced by a returning soldier suffering from PTSD as he or she confronts one mundane challenge after another until it all piles up and there is an explosion Where is the real information beyond the sexy pyrotechnics
The idea of a PTSD video game is, of course, absurd. But what we would like to see and what we are requesting of the Army is that they agree we have the right as citizens and tax-payers to set up a modest table in one corner of the Army Experience Center or just outside the door under a sign that says WAR IS NOT A GAME, at which a young person could talk with a veteran about some of these matters, receive some of our materials and raise any questions he or she might have in order to get some balance to the slickness of the Army Experience Center.
We want young people coming to the "army experience center" to receive the entire picture and understand the full consequences of war and their enlistment in the Army. We want them able to make clear, informed choices as to their futures based on all the evidence. Our tabling here at the center, with alternate literature and information, would be setup and maintained in a non-confrontational manner respectful of the young people visiting the center and the Army.