All last week the Oakland Hills were filled with Marines and low flying helicopters shook the glass windows of Castlemont High in the city's flatlands. The elite U.S. troops, invited to hold week-long "Operation Urban Warrior" exercises by Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, explained the training was "to handle a breakdown in law and order" and prepare for "increased civil chaos and confrontations with enemy fighters in an urban setting." An Army strategist told local media that the other purpose of the exercises -- soon to be replicated in other American cities -- was to "recondition our populace again, so that a soldier practicing for a war is seen as a regular and good thing."

Students at Castlemont High, situated not far from the former headquarters of the Black Panther Party at the eastern edge of Oakland's flatlands, weren't entirely convinced, judging from short essays they wrote for Pacific News Service's YO! (Youth Outlook) about the program. Several endorsed the exercises as a way to prevent "breakdown" and "chaos" that could be triggered by Y2K, the Millenium Bug. Most felt the Marines were there to intimidate them. PNS editor Joshua Parr runs two weekly writing workshops at Castlemont attended on average by 20 students.

OAKLAND, CA. -- The Marines, who do they really think they are? Bring tons of weapons, M1A1 Tanks, polluting our air! Bullets going off all day every day until their training is over. The Marines are supposed to fight for us, not against us. To help make a better tomorrow.

The Marines are no longer our friends, but our enemies. They need to stop telling us lies -- like about how the enemy is supposed to come over and take over Oakland. In reality, the U.S. is too well protected to let an enemy come to our land... They think we're ignorant about their technology, they think we're dumb. That's why they don't tell us the truth about why they're here. They're here to control us...they want to make us weak.

If we wanted to protest for someone, like Mumia (Abu Jamal, the death-row prisoner) to be free, and if they wanted that person to stay behind bars, then they would already let us know that we can't do it.

They're trying to intimidate us in every way possible. Basically, they're saying that we don't live by the Ten Commandments, or the Constitution, and that they can take a law and re-write it. That's all they're saying.

-Starkesha Royston

I think that the Marines need to go somewhere else rather than making all that noise over here, because nothing gonna happen in the Year 2000.

-Antonio Zamora

I think the Marines should be here because I had heard a lot of people talking about doing hella stuff -- like getting into steal and take things out, like if life do not matter.

-Fernando Gonzalez

What the Marines are doing is practicing on a porvish (sic) city like Oakland. Since there are a lot of cities with high crime and poverty all over the world, they chose Oakland. In a sense, the Marines seem to be preparing to fight their own citizens rather than defend them.

The good thing is that they are not doing nuclear testing to pollute the environment. That's my thought.

-Edgar Alvarez

I think there are many problems with this country, primarily with the Marines that are here supposedly to protect us. The only thing they are doing is building more jails instead of schools and educational centers for those of us who need help. We should all be united and support one another in order to have more education in this country and not jails, which don't serve the community at all. (translated from Spanish)

-Veronica Pena

I think that the Marines are making Oakland look worse because people might think that they pick Oakland because of what many people talks nowadays about Oakland. The Marines' attack will make people go crazy, like thinking that... the city is in danger.

I know and I understand that the Marines are doing their jobs, but the captain should think it over two times and ask what the population in the city thinks, then decide what to do.

These Marines are risking too many people's lives.

-Araceli Santillan