Of course, he may just as well have been an evangelist preaching to a choir, because those assembled were already converts. The audience was composed of youth activists gathered for an anti-tobacco summit. This week, the University of Washington campus hosted one of the latest efforts in the fight against tobacco corporations. The event, The Truth Summit, was led and organized by youth from all over the country. It marked the launching point for a nationwide, youth-led-and-conceived anti-tobacco tour.

The summit kicked off on Friday night with the concert, held at the UW Hangar at Sand Point. Teens from all 50 states packed the hall to enjoy the show. Over the next two days, a series of "training tracks" and meetings were held on the UW campus, with the goal of creating advocacy agendas to "fight Big Tobacco's targeting of teens."

The summit concluded on Monday with a rally/protest march at Denny Field, followed by the initiation of the Truth Tour, an event aimed at carrying the organization's message to youth across the nation. A major part of the tour will be an activity labeled "Rip it Out," where teens will tear the tobacco ads out of popular youth magazines.

"I'm sick of being lied to," said 20-year-old Eric Moss of Michigan. "We're urging kids to rip ads out of magazines. We're saying, 'We see your lies." On the surface, these teens seemed no different from any other high school students in America. But as soon as they began to speak, their activist bent and the often very personal reasons for it became readily apparent. "I know people who've died from it - my grandfather died from it," said Khai Booker, 17.

These sentiments were reflected in an older face at the summit. Lyndon Haviland is the executive vice president of the American Legacy Foundation (ALF), the private, non-profit organization that started Truth and coordinates its activities. She lost three very close relatives to tobacco-related causes. The ALF created Truth in an effort to get the anti-tobacco message to youth.

"Most regular smokers start at 13," Haviland said. "As adults, we develop a method for teens to talk to other teens. We did the logistics for the conference and the kids gave us method and message. I saw the ALF as an opportunity to be involved, to do the right thing." A commonly voiced view at the summit was that young people are targets of advertising manipulation by tobacco corporations, something that they are now actively fighting against.

"I learned what the tobacco companies do," said Erik Mertens, 17, of the Tri-Cities. "They market to the young, the stupid, the black and the poor. The tobacco companies will go down. The rebel youth will take them down." Bobby Reamer of Spokane was equally as adamant as he emerged from his training session. "We're taking what they have and turning it against them," he said. "We're gonna start things back in Spokane."

Over the next six weeks, the tour will visit 27 major cities throughout the United States, making over 1,600 stops before arriving at the World Conference on Tobacco and Health.

By Bryan Averbuch
The Daily - 06/28/2000

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