The “Bring Joe Home!” campaign, an effort to increase awareness in the community of the missing members who are serving in Iraq, was launched in the Capitol Rotunda Thursday morning.
Joe Lindstrom, the Madisonian around whom the campaign focuses, enlisted in the National Guard to help pay for his rising tuition costs at the University of Wisconsin. He was called up last July and as of January, he is serving in Iraq due to his contractual obligation, according to his best friend, Ald. Austin King, District 8.
“It’s been a difficult thing personally to have a best friend get called to a war that I marched against with him,” King said. “He’s one of the most amazing people Madison has had grace its streets in many years, and we miss him.”
According to Ben Manski, “Bring Joe Home!” coordinator, the campaign is working to make the war and the occupation in Iraq a part of the daily lives of the members of Joe’s community. The campaign wishes all Joe’s and Jane’s to come home as soon as possible, he added.
“We are hoping to build momentum so people take responsibility for those who are missing in their community,” Manski said. “The American people should know how many people are in Iraq under duress.”
King said it is important for people to know the reason why people like Joe have enlisted. Joe’s story, enlisting because he needed money for college, is not a unique one, King added. Manski said increasing tuition costs force many Wisconsinites to either go into debt or enlist.
“The cost of education has risen so much that some are risking their lives to get it,” Manski said. “That is why Joe is in Iraq.”
Because of Joe’s situation, the campaign relates the rising costs of tuition to the war in Iraq. Manski said UW is no longer affordable, and because of this, it is no longer a voluntary war. To combat this effect, the campaign will pressure the government and Legislature to lower UW’s tuition.
Ashok Kumar, the chair of Associated Students of Madison’s Academic Affairs Committee, said he agrees many students are forced to choose risking their lives for the war to pay for college.
“The state is starving the university dry of funds,” Kumar said. “If a UW student gives $2 to the UW system, the state gives $1 and it’s getting worse. Take 10 percent out of the military budget, and we could send everyone in the country to school for free.”
According to Kumar, anyone in Joe’s situation who is trying to pay for college does not have a choice. Kumar pointed out when he walks through University Square, he sees a recruitment office, not a financial aid office.
In the past four years, tuition at UW has increased 25 to 30 times the rate of inflation, according to Manski. Kumar said he questions who is looking out for UW, because Gov. Jim Doyle and Chancellor John Wiley are not.
King pointed out the opportunities for students in other states, such as former Georgia Sen. Zell Miller’s HOPE Scholarship and Grant, which allows students with a B average to go to any public or private college or university in Georgia for free.
