They sat in clumps of three or four in various postures on the mixed furniture. There was no obvious focus of attention, which pleased him immensely. The chatter tapered off quickly as he and the teacher entered to room. A few uncovered fluorescent lights glowed fitfully. He felt it was a perfect metaphor of the students waiting for them there.
The teacher made a perfunctory introduction as he moved to the approximate center of mass of the twenty or so students. The remnants of a desk offered him a relatively stable seat, as most of the kids offered some sort of greeting.
He smiled around at them, ignoring the few who persisted in whispered conversation. “What are we here for?”
One or two answered without hesitation, “This is the Peace Club.”
“Good,” he responded. “At least you know what is supposed to be going on here, so you’ll know if you are in the right place.” He grinned.
Turning to the student nearest him, a rather sturdy young man, he asked, “Tell me what you think we will be doing here. What is this Peace Club all about?”
And so it went, with a similar challenge presented to everyone. He pressed no one to actually answer, but most did say a few words, with the answers getting better organized as more spoke up. A few terse answers were better thought out than the others, but it was too soon to tag any stars. The sum total of their answers were mostly anti-war, anti-violence, progressive peace-nik stuff.
“We will do all of those things, and none of them.” He noted with satisfaction no one was apparently shaken by his words. “The worst thing we could do is organize and set an agenda. That would be so artificial we would be nothing more than one more cog in the machine. We would become the planned and provided opposition in a battle to make sure no one ever has any real peace.”
A few raised eyebrows, but this was still not so different than any politician had said.
“If you were hoping for rallies, demonstrations, marching, signs and banners, or more assertive actions, don’t look to me to guide you. Some of you will surely do those things, and I’ll be glad to teach you the savvy to make it effective, but that’s not our primary objective. Yes, we may even see some members of this group in detention, or perhaps arrested, as some of you could engage in acts of sabotage.”
He sat back, scanning the group again. “But that’s not the point of our meetings. I’m not a coach with a game plan, and inspiring speeches to get you all psyched for challenges. This won’t be the locker room, nor even a practice hall. We are not an extension of the Green movement, the Communists or Socialists, and certainly not capitalists. Not a single political party on this earth will have any to do with us.”
He stood, mocking some great and dynamic speakers. With excessive drama, he gestured and spoke with an affected voice. “Yes, boys and girls, we give birth today in this room to the movement which will change the world!”
To scattered chuckles and giggles he sat back down. With all seriousness, “I’m not here to be your leader.”
