Support the Troops?

I'd really like to know. My wife is a teacher at the high school level, heavily involved in the NCLB program (she works with special needs/non-standard students) and has never heard of this either. I don't like to throw around the term "urban legend".

This is kind of a moot point, military recruiters show up at every career day function at every public school anyway...

 

Never mind, found it myself.

But I don't see the difference, recruiters have always been high visibility at career day function. And as you would probably agree Skip, anyone with any awareness or conscience would avoid them.

But since there is:

a. no compulsory military service;
b. either the student or parent or both can opt out of sharing their information;
c. Congress and the Bush administration have failed to properly fund NCLB (even though it has been implemented);
d. all the information the recruiters would recieve would have to be furnished to selective service anyway (and therefore readily available to the DoD), and;
e. NCLB has been found on many fronts to be unconstitutional and will eventually be struck down as a whole;

the entire point is moot. W also wants us all to pray to Jesus, but that ain't happenin' either.

EDIT: And I'd just like to add in agreement with Kitty, if there isn't a grass roots organization set up to attend secondary school career day functions, specifically to show disadvantaged young people how to set up a business, even a web-based storefront, it is our DUTY to the youth of America and the future peace of the world to do it NOW.

 

The bottom line is that the people who are in the army are doing a job, they are being lied to and they are are pawns...are they responsible for their situations? Maybe. But "we the people" are ultimately resposible for the democracy which we call our own, and if the baby boomers hadnt been so worn out after the 60s, maybe they would have not been "asleep at the wheel" for the last 30 years (Bob Weir's words, not mine)
I think that the problem is the government, but who let it get that way??????? We need to take back our country and the long and short of the whole situation is that people have become complacent, comfortable, appathetic and scarred. So what now? Well, i guess things will have to get so bad, (which is where we are headed,) that people will be forced to do something about it because they are also suffering.

That is why people like us get so worked up; we see everyone's suffering and we realize that this is wrong. But many people are "out of sight, out of mind" kind of people, and changing yourself is hard enough, let alone changing others... there will come a day, mark my words. We the people, we will rise again. Give it some time, and keep on truckin.

I support my troops because there may actually be a time when we need their tactics and skills to defend our country. I am sorry that the people have let the government get so out of control that they are now abusing a precious resource...

 

Very well said.

 

I agree, your words ring true. I support the US troops, but I do not wish their presence (as I am sure most of them allso would agree on) on foreign soil. The problematics in the middle east can not be solved the way some politicians seem to believe (and the possible solutions that could be are far too long and numerous to be mentioned here). But, I wonder, what are your views on pulling the troops out of the countries they are currently in?

 

there are actually several. just had too much family stuff going on to hunt for the links. the american friends service committee leaps readily to mind.

 

here's a few, based on a quick google. i'll post what the anti-war center has when i cen get down there.

counter-recruitment resources:
http://www.counter-recruitment.org/website/
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2873

CO resources & information:
http://www.objector.org/

new hamshire afsc page with lots of great information:
http://www.afsc.org/newengland/nh/finalafscyouth/nochildunrecruited.html

information on the uprise counter-recruiting tour, published by NYC indymedia in october:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/or/2006/10/76847.html

american friends service committee:
http://www.afsc.org/

military alternatives:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2876

includes parent talking points and opt-out form:
http://www.afn.org/~vetpeace/workshopa.htm

american friends service committee military alternatives page:
http://www.afsc.org/youthmil/alternatives-to-the-military/default.htm

i'm having trouble finding a cohesive, centralized organization committed exclusively to counter-recruiting. the american friends service committee is the closest i can find. i'll ask at the peace center this afternoon & post what i find out.

 

What happened to the privacy of the student. I find this abhorrent and an invasion of the student and their parents' rights. Next they will sell that information to credit card companies...they probably already do. We are no longer considered individuals but a market share.

 

the peace center recommended this resource, in addition to the others i posted:

http://www.centeronconscience.org/index.shtml

 

I beg your pardon, Skip, but I happen to be a Gen X-er.

the problem isn't age or generations, it's dominant culture.

 

Quick reply. I agree with Skip. The generations that grew up after the late 60's-70's, rejected the idealism of the hippies.


A good example is what happened during Woodstock 1999. Was that Gen-X or Gen-Y? I don't know. But the festival was supposed to re-create the spirit of the original Woodstock 1969 spirit of love, peace, music.

Instead, what came out from that generation's feeble attempt to re-create the original spirit of Woodstock 1969 was a demon of rapes, violence, greed and mayhem. Everything that the original Woodstock spirit was not. : (

But I really think, this subject is fit for another thread. Thanks.

 

So, I guess, the sentiment of the pro-war, pro-military types, is that, never mind that kids like this one in Iraq or elsewhere in the future will have to die and suffer, never mind that 100,000 or eve a million lives are lost on both sides, due to military misadventures, led by stupid, corrupt leaders as long as young, poor, Americans will get that chance to go to college using the G.I. Bill, or that Bubba "Rambo" can get that $100,000+/yr. salary working as a mercenary for Halliburton.

And these pro-war crowd, the "war-freaks" still wonder why they can't win this Iraq war.

 

Seems to me that the US, yet again, have stumbled into a foreign nation where the cost will be greater than the gains. Korea or Vietnam anyone?

 

Ya Skip I agree, I'm thinking about joining the army and I have no illusions about it I'm a fucking merc, If I truly believed in the war I would do it for free, but I won't cuz I know it's bullshit and I need all your hard earned tax money so I can hang out playing soldier games like catching bullets. I'm serious man I've been working my ass off for 8 years with little to show for it I'm a fucking slave, my only concrete chance to have a decent life is join the army dodge some bullets and be able to afford college. God this country fucking blows ass, oh and I forgot to add be able to afford to get the fuck out of here.

"The problem was the NEXT generation, (Gen X) who were responsible for IGNORING & REJECTING everything the 60s stood for, and instead pursued their own selfish, reckless lifestyles that have taken, but not given anything back to this planet." -Skip
LOL,listen to yourself dude, your parents where saying the same thing about your generation LOL don't try to fight it, everybody does it eventually. Every civilization declines eventually too.

 

That is true. And a wise man once said that the US was the next Rome. So what you have to look forward to is orgies and vomitariums. Should be a blast...

 

Yeah but I'm not drinking the wine, and I'm not drinking the water from the aqueduct...

All that lead is what caused the first empire to fall.

 

That and the moral and social corruption...

 

It used to be 'Give Peace a Chance'. Now it's 'Give The Surge a Chance'.

.