Hummer Heads West... Guns a blazin'

On July 19, the Army will be taking their computer simulation, called the "Virtual Army Experience" to Duluth, for the Duluth Air Show. The exhibit allows children as young as 13 to practice firing a machine gun at life-sized images of people projected on a computer screen. Witnesses report that Army recruiters in Milwaukee weren't even asking for proof of age, so it's likely that children even younger than 13 were allowed to participate.

Yes, it's outrageous - but it can be stopped, and Peace Action has shown how. WNPJ can help support an effort by Minnesota and Wisconsin peace activists to keep the Army from providing Duluth-area twelve-year-olds with machine-gun practice. What do you think? Can we make it Peace 2, Army 0?

Contact the administrators of the Duluth Air Show at 218.628.9996 - to ask them to keep the ‘Virtual War Game’ out of the show – and then call Summerfest in Milwaukee at 414.273.2680 to thank them for their recent action!

Virtual War Game at Summerfest

This year's Milwaukee Summerfest (June 26-July 6) features a "Virtual Army Experience Exhibit" at the north end of the grounds. The tent contains a real Humvee mounted with 4 machine guns that interacts with a huge screen. The screen projects the virtual experience of traveling through a town. You can shoot the machine guns at people on the street as you pass through. The people are generic-looking - could be from anywhere. You must be at least 13 years old to enter the exhibit and identification is asked. They take down that information and it will likely be used for recruitment purposes. They also give away a free DVD video game of a similar virtual experience when you leave the tent.

Call the Summerfest office and demand that the exhibit be shut down now. 414-273-2690

Points to make:

• War games should NOT be presented as entertainment. War is NOT a game.
  
• Summerfest is meant to bring people together for a good time in peace, not to present opportunities to practice shooting people. The exhibit is totally inappropriate and offensive and should be removed immediately.

The person you talk with will fill out a form with your concerns and will ask for your name and phone number. You do not have to give your phone number but they will want your zip code.

Please act now. The more calls of complaint they receive the better. (Please remember to be pleasant to the person on the phone - the exhibit is not her fault.)