Vlasits, George

Name: George Vlasits
Department: Social Studies
Education: four years at Leigh High University, Graduate school at North Carolina University
Previous Jobs: Steel Mill for twelve years, Anti-war café for three years
Hobbies: playing golf, reading, playing baseball with his thirteen-year-old son
Extracurricular activities: SGR, and recycling committee
Came to Blair in: 1991

George Vlasits has settled down to teaching. After going to jail five or six times, and being the first draft resistor in North Carolina, Vlasits was a protestor for civil rights. He is now protesting the war against Iraq.

However Vlasits has no real position on wars in general. He believes that a person has to evaluate each situation, he says that the U.S. gets involved in the wrong types of battles. "Any war the U.S. is in I am opposed [to], the wars we are getting involved in are empire," Vlasits says.

For example Vlasits does not believe in going to war with Iraq, because such action would destabilize the Middle East. He believes a war would cause more and more people to see the U.S. as arrogant and evil. Vlasits also said, the U.S. could not fight a war on terrorism because terrorism is not just one person, but a concept.

Vlasits was a pro-advocate for civil rights in the 60s.Vlasits was greatly influenced by his father's philosophy on equality. "My father told me that an injury to any person is an injury to everyone," Vlasits says.

Vlasits believes that there can never be a peaceful society without justice and equality. An idea that Vlasits went to jail for and Vlasits do so again for what he believes in. "Jail is not a nice place, but if I believed it was necessary I would go again," Vlasits says.

Vlasits believes that the current generation he is teaching now is slowly beginning to awaken. Particularly young people that are protesting for universal rights, "Young people are getting more and more activated," Vlasits says.

Vlasits taught once before right out of college, but only because teaching was the only thing he could do to use his love of history. Although he was not really motivated before, he came back to teaching a second time because, "I could share my experiences with young people."

Vlasits now teaches because he has knowledge and experiences that can make him a better history teacher. Vlasits wants to teach at least one lesson to his son or students, and that is to make your voice heard. " You need to stand up for what you believe in," Vlasits says which must be an idea he has lived his whole life by.