Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 5 June 2003 — Page 17

The Muncie Times • June 5, 2003 • Page 17

WITNESS FOR JUSTICE MINORITIES INCREASE IN U.S.

MILITARY FORCES

Her Hopi name was White Bear Girl. But the U.S. Army knew her as Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa. Her 4-year-old son, Brandon, and 3-year-old daughter, Carla, knew her as mommy. She was one of the few Native American women in the military and the first to die in combat. In fact, she is the only American servicewoman to die in the Iraqi war. Yet hers is a story of which we have heard little. While the television screens have been full of pictures of Lori’s friend and roommate, Jessica Lynch, we have seen only a few still photos of Lori. Her home town of Tuba City, Ariz., is mainly Navajo, but sits on the edge of a Hopi reservation, where poverty is rampant, with more than half of the people there unemployed. Most of its inhabitants live in trailers or small homes, with only the very basic conveniences. Like many other Native American reservations, it is far from the public eye. The daughter of a Vietnam veteran and the granddaughter of a World

War II veteran, Lori was the commanding officer of her high school Junior ROTC unit. When her marriage ended in divorce, she joined the Army not only because of her interest in the military, but also to provide for her children. Like so many young people in this all-volunteer Army, Lori saw the military as one of the few avenues to financial stability or to higher education. Most of these young people are people of color or come from families of the poor. Indeed, African Americans form the largest ethnic group in today’s armed forces, followed by Native Americans. In the past generation the numbers of young people of color in the armed forces has increased greatly. In 1973 about 23 percent of the military were people of color. Today that number has grown to about 35 percent. Said The New York Times, “A survey of the American military’s endlessly compiled and analyzed demographics paints a picture of a fighting

force that is anything but a cross-section of America, with minorities overrepresented and the wealthy and the underclass essentially absent.” This is certainly true for young women of color. For instance, there are more black women in the military than white women, far out of their proportion to the general population. In the Army, 15 percent of the women are single parents. Shoshanna Johnson, the African American woman who was one of the POWs found after the fall of Baghdad, is one example of such young single mothers. Her family has said she wanted to become a ehef, but couldn’t afford the training and therefore entered the army to try to get it. What does it mean when there are single mothers serving, many of whom were enticed into the military by the promise of education and training as well as health care for their families and a steady income? What does it mean to our nation that our volunteer Army has few

Bernice Powell Jackson

wealthy enlistees but an overabundance of young people from working class families and reservists who needed additional income to support their families? What does it mean when people of color are disproportionately serving in the military and within the military disproportionately found in such units as combat and supply, while hardly at all in the pilots ranks? Every morning since the war began I found myself waking up with a knot in the pit of my stomach. A knot caused by the fear that we will be losing young men and women needlessly. Fear that there will be orphans on both sides whose lives will never be the same. So, I say a prayer

and work for an end to all war for all time. There must be a better way. It’s Lori’s way, the way celebrated at her funeral ceremony in Tuba City. It is the way of love. Bernice Powell Jackson is executive minister of the United Church of Christ's Justice & Witness Ministries, 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115-1110, phone 216-736-3700.

CREASY TO CHAIR EAST CENTRAL INDIANA’S SUPERINTENDENTS’ GROUP

Dr. Marlin B. Creasy, superintendent of the Muncie Community Schools, was recently elected chairperson for East Central Indiana District VI of the Indiana Association of Public School

Superintendents (IAPSS). Creasy will serve a 2-year term beginning in July. As district chairperson. Creasy will coordinate regional activities for the IAPSS. He

will also serve on the executive board of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents for the next 2 years. Creasy was the legislative committee

chairperson for the IAPSS during the recent session of the Indiana General Assembly. He will leave that position on June 30. Creasy is completing his fifth year as school

superintendent for the Muncie Community Schools.