The Military Infiltrating High Schools – An OUTRAGE!
The Military Infiltrating High Schools – An OUTRAGE!
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, my sister goes to a local public school in MI. I went to my parent’s house to visit with her the other day and found her crying in her bed. I did the obvious thing and said, “What wrong.
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reincarnation and déjà vu.
OK, so I was wrong. Tricky Dick Nixon is with us again and back in the White House. And these are the same kinds of tricks that provoked riots and got ROTC kicked off of college campuses in the 60s and 70s. Yes, we have all been here before ...
You're in Michigan, so it's more likely that people are smiling about this than they would be in, say, San Francisco. But that may depend on where in Michigan. If you can find a liberal news outlet with an investigative reporter whose attention you can get ...
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"What is the use of getting old? You learn something of men and things but never until too late to use it." - William H. Seward
O Ceallaigh's Felloffatruck Publications
Great Idea
I was thinking along those lines. I don't think that I alone have any power over this issue. But something needs to be said. So this all happened before in the 70's. I was not aware. I knew about the riots but I didn't know it was based on a similar sitation. I will look into that and see if I can draw some additional ideas. Thanks O'Cael.
Good luck with it
So this all happened before in the 70's.
Yep. The 1770s. Do a websearch (this might be biting the hand that feeds me, but too bad, I refuse to use the verb "to google") on "impressment". The wheel turns ...
The 1970s riots had many causes, all rooted in our protracted and ultimately unsuccessful involvement in Vietnam. The strategies of recruiters was only one factor in them - and probably a relatively small one. I actually think recruiters and recruiting were more victims than perpetrators.
Sympathy for the Devil. The recruiter has a quota to fill. In our time, for a President who has demonstrated all the intelligence and foresight of a garden gnome. And the recruiter has the wonderful example of Abu Ghraib to show that no one upstairs is paying attention to anything except the number of bodies coming through the door.
Captain Observation... Or Is It Obvious?
I think O'Kelly's pushing Revolution. I'm down with that.
Revolution?
I should hope it doesn't have to come to that.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. - "Salvor Hardin" (Isaac Asimov)
Interesting Quote
Considering how honored the violent revolutionaries of this country have been... many for no other reason than taking part in a revolution.
And, revolutions don't have to be violent, they just usually are.
And, you're the one who brought up the 1770s and the turning wheel.
Or, was that accidental? Which part? The references to revolution or getting caught? :P
ayup, ain't it?
Considering how honored the violent revolutionaries of this country have been
So you've been reading the history of Sam Adams too, have you? And maybe of John Adams, who successfully defended the British soldiers of the Boston Massacre when other lawyers refused for fear of losing their lives to Sam Adams's goons. Thus defusing violence and breeding support for the Colonists among liberals in England, including the House of Commons. Support that was one of the thin threads that sustained us when the shooting war did finally break out.
I still like the beer.
My intended point is that the use of questionable tactics by military recruiters, whose job it is to shanghai people into the armed forces so they can get shot for their country, has a long history. The more people fear that they might actually get shot, and the less they like the reason for taking the risk, the more questionable the tactics become. Our worst period for recruiting abuses, and our worst riots over them, were not in the Vietnam era but during the Civil War, especially in New York right after Gettysburg.
I do think it is up to us to spot abuses and get them stopped. The more reasonably the better. But see "garden gnome", above.
Thanks for the info
Thanks for the info. I will check into it and when/if I do find a solution I will be sure to post it. In the meantime, if anyone else knows about other schools having this problem currenlty please reply.
I dont know about Michigan,
But here the rule is that the Military, colleges, and job recruiters all get equal treatment. If you give something to one, you have to give it to all of them.
They bugged me back in the early 90s when I was in High School and even during my first year of college.
Later
Good point, I was framed ...
... but what I infer from Reality's post is that, in this instance, the military recruiters are taking liberties and being aggressive in ways no other recruiters would dream of doing - not even the recruiters for the professional (ooops, sorry, college) sports programs. Everybody gets a booth in the gym during Career Day. Not everybody gets to snoop around, like it sounds is going on here. If I tracked a girl like that, I'd get slapped and jailed. Maybe I should join the Army recruiting team ...
O' Cael is right
Yes, the point I was making was not that the military is going to the school to discuss the opportuinity to join the forces. They are going to high schools and deliberately pressuring kids into enlisting. Basically it's a bribe. They know that kids don't want to be in class or do homework so they are "offering" the option to skip. I don't feel that the high schoolers are being treated as the college students would. Yes, when I was in college we too had recruiters there, but there is a big difference between a 17 year old and a 20 year old.
If A High School Student
Thinks that signing away a minimum of three years of his/her life is worth one night of not doing homework then maybe being a grunt in the military is a good idea. S/he certainly couldn't be functional enough for much more than that.
Believe it or not, there are actually a whole lot of good reasons for joining the military. One in particular that I think is fantastic for a lot of people is that they will pay you to go to college, put you into Officer Candidate School, and let you enter as an officer.
But, this isn't about good reasons to join the military. It's about how you're an idiot for thinking that high school students are stupid enough to join the military to get out of homework.
good reasons to join the military
there are actually a whole lot of good reasons for joining the military.
I agree. And the military has benefited many who have not previously learned discipline and hence looked for excuses to duck homework, or anything else. Cue Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman. If those reasons were enough, there should be no need to daze and confuse potential recruits to get them to sign in.
But those reasons these days are obscured by body bags and a general distrust of the reasons why we're breeding body bags. (It's the distrust; more people die on our roads in two weeks than have died in Iraq since 2002, but we all - except me, and this is not my reason for it - still get in our cars every day.) Recruiting is down and the recruiters are resorting (so says Reality) to more aggressive tactics.
The world is full of "suckers", as P. T. Barnum once (is said to have) called them. But civilizations have rules to prevent Authority from taking unfair or abusive advantage of them. To me, that's a major part of the issue here.
Oh Yes
Shirley, there are potential issues. But, being duped to sign away three years to get out of one day of homework is not one of them. Far more likely a cause for sign-ups are the signing bonuses of up to $20k recruiters can offer. Or, the money for college. These things matter to high school students.
But, also to be taken into account is the environment. With a few exceptions high school students range between 13 and 18 years of age. Can a 13 year old sign up for the military? A 14 year old? 15? 16? Ok, you get the point. The recruiters aren't offering a damn thing except exposure to 3/4+ of the population in question.
The recruiters
become their "very best friends" until AFTER they sign the enlistment form and then they never hear from them again.....How sad!