Tabby is the social media intern for On Earth Peace, meaning that she handles the posting, scheduling, communication, and data collection endeavors associated with OEP’s social media. “I also spend a good amount of time responding to people or directing people to the person who can best answer their questions,” Tabby explained. Though her work with OEP is seldom a highlighted piece itself, Tabby prides herself in being one of the go-to people when something needs to get spread far and wide. “My job is to make sure everyone at OEP has a spotlight if they want it!” As a recent graduate, Tabby looks forward to her daily work with OEP and the new adventures that she and her fellow interns might virtually embark on; “Interacting with all the other interns is my favorite part of my job!” Aside from OEP, Tabby also loves animals and is a big music junky! “Fun fact,” she furthered, “I also write a lot of poetry!”

Every exciting Facebook post, Twitter tweet, or Instagram picture means Tabby has been working her magic behind the scenes to make it a reality. Thank you, Tabby for all of your hard work keeping OEP strong and proud!

by Kharis Murphy, SRK Campaign Intern

Brief history of SRK 

The Stop Recruiting Kids Campaign (SRK) has been doing digital organizing since before it was cool. SRK organizes on Facebook, Twitter, and most recently on Instagram to protect kids from military recruitment and promote principles of Kingian nonviolence. The campaign is not anti-military but rather it is pro-child as kids are not able to judge the risks of military service. The Pentagon knows this and uses its massive resources to offer economic opportunity, personal development, and other skills to draw in thousands of young people to enlist. It is our goal to make sure that there are peaceful, nonviolent opportunities for kids, and to expose the violence of the US military’s recruitment of kids.

Past Memes: SRK Classic

SRK campaign has worked towards its goals by sharing petitions and classic memes. Using direct messaging and imagery, these memes have brought awareness to the reality behind the military recruiting of kids. The memes are powerful; they speak to the campaign’s goals of upholding principles of Kingian nonviolence by targeting systems rather than individuals.

Today the campaign still uses these memes because they are so poignant and impactful. However, we are also pushing to refresh the campaign’s social media presence through expanding and diversifying our meme collections. So far, we’ve focused our work on two sets of memes (follow our social media to see new sets as we release them)- one focuses on the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program, while the other responds to both the current crisis with Coronavirus and the way our culture glorifies military service while ignoring and devaluing other forms of service work.

April 2-4, 2020
Irvin Heishman and Melisa Leiter-Grandison, Co-Chairs

During the OEP Board Meetings held April 2-4, 2020 (via Zoom), On Earth Peace board, staff, and Anti-Racism Transformation Team met to receive committee updates, hear staff plans for implementing the organization’s strategic directions, continue to deepen our commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppression through caucusing, and announcing our decision to join the Supportive Communities Network.

2019 board meeting photo

In response to the separation that we are feeling from quarantine in the United States, some of our international staff interns have gathered to share their thoughts and experiences from their homes around the world. Here are some of the things the United States is missing, and some rays of hope in this strange and dark time.

My name is Catherine DeNunzio, I am a Junior at Temple University in Philadelphia. I grew up in Denver, Colorado and Lancaster County, briefly worked in Italy after high school, then began Undergrad at Bloomsburg University. Through all of those experiences as a child and adolescent I landed on my passion for connecting to people and exploring our diversity. I am now a Psychology major with a minor in Business Communications. My focus is community engagement, specifically in the non-profit sector. I am so excited to begin internship work as the newest Gender Justice Organizer for OEP. Policy issues specific to human rights have always been important to me, and I cannot wait to start conversations around gender justice in our community.