By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Amsterdam News
Wednesday 23 February 2005
The military spends about $3 billion each year to convince young people that enlistment will give them college money, job training and an alternative to working at McDonald's.
In the wake of the growing conflict in Iraq, which has resulted in over a thousand U.S. casualties, the military has become more aggressive in scouting out high school students willing and able to serve.
In many New York City public schools that are predominantly Black and Latino, military recruiters are a heavy presence, promising young people financial security and a fulfilling career. Recruiters roam the halls, set up tables and even pull students out of class.
But in recent months, a group of teenagers and anti-war veterans have been canvassing the neighborhoods where the recruiters frequent, hoping to convince students to consider other options.
"We've heard everything up to and including having a desk in the guidance counselor's office," said Amy Wagner of Youth Activists-Youth Allies (YaYas), a group that focuses on counter-recruitment. "When the kid comes in to talk to the counselor about college, before the kid can get there, they've got somebody in their face saying, 'You want to go to college? How are you going to pay for college?"'
…
Besides speaking out in their own schools, the YaYas hold workshops for teenagers and make presentations to PTAs. They encourage students to post literature in the guidance office and set up counter-recruitment tables next to military recruiters. Most importantly, they want young people to make an informed choice, Wagner said.
For instance, most students don't know that:
- Two-thirds of recruits don't get any college money, according to the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors.
- Most people in the military do not have time to attend college while in the service.
- To qualify for college money recruits have to pay $100 per month for a year.
- The unemployment rate for veterans is three times higher than the national average.
- People who sign up with the Delayed Entry Program are told they can't change their minds, but getting out is as simple as writing a letter.
- The enlistment contract is for eight years.
- There are other ways to finance college, like federal financial aid, private scholarships, going to community college or joining AmeriCorps.
But educating youth is not just about these facts and figures, Wagner said. The war in Iraq makes their work much more urgent, she said.
"They're still telling people you can go to Germany, Japan, but the reality is the vast majority are going to Iraq," Wagner said. "You risk losing life and limb; you risk being a murderer." …
It is heartening to see young people resisting military recruitment at schools.
The pitch the recruiters use is, to put it tactfully, full of lies and misleading information. Back in the 60’s and 70’s it was the same. However, today, the military has become more and more aggressive in filling their maw with cannon fodder. They do present the military as the only option for many of our disadvantaged and disenfranchised youth. The empire needs bodies to throw into the melee, and doesn’t care where they come from.
With the president bush’s cloud cuckoo-land dreams of empire and conquest, recruitment in the military, in the reserves, and the National Guard as well, are down. So in order to fill their quotas military recruiters are becoming more and more aggressive and misleading. They take advantage of impressionable youth by presenting the military as the only viable option open to them.
Now, of course, with the right-wing regressives destroying the future of our children and grandchildren, this is becoming distressingly more true than not. Which serves their purposes well, on several levels.
It is becoming more and more obvious to those who can still think, the bushistas are intent on creating a two class society. By removing the taxes on unearned income, they are putting the entire burden on the workers of this country. With the downward pressure on wage income, the willful neglect and destruction of our public education system, and the shredding of the social safety nets, if nothing changes, in a couple of generations, they will have their two class society; the aristocracy and the serfs.
To see the majority of young people of this country openly flaunting their tolerance for others, and defying the military machine is indeed heartening. After all, they ARE our future.
No comments:
Post a Comment