<p>I was just talking to my mother about this a couple minutes ago. I am a community activist and do lots of volunteering, she often gets on my case about how much I do and how I should just say no.
I actually enjoy much of it, but she showed me just how hard it is for her to say no. She is selling her condo and has been interviewing real estate agents all week, while she had already decided on an agent and had told her so, another resident of the building, wouldn’t take no for an answer and insisted on viewing the property.
If my mother a 65 year old woman who has plenty of practice saying no to people and being quite firm about it, could not keep somebody else who was bound and determined to get into her condo, out, how hard is it going to be for a military recruiter who beleives in his job, whose livelihood is on the line and who is getting pressured from all sides since recruitment is way below expectations, to get a signature from some kid who is wet behind the ears, who beleives that war is like a video game and who doesn’t realize that if he gets killed before he serves his time his family doesn’t even get his signing bonus.
We don’t even allow 18 year olds to drink alcohol, I remember when they lowered the voting age to 18, but we allow 17 yr olds to be pressured to make the decision to pick up a weapon and kill another?
That is what war and the military is about- bottom line- killing.
Do we really want a military that is so desperate that they have to coerce recruits?
They recently had to take a day off nationwide to retrain recruiters because so many were stepping over boundary lines- that isn’t just a figment of some journalists imagination</p>
<p>“that isn’t just a figment of some journalists imagination”</p>
<p>yeah…right…News reporters have been flocking to my school in california called Valencia High…they say there is racism but its just not true. A couple of racist African American families (who have sued in the past at their jr. high school) gathered together to promote these lies and i dont see how this is any different.</p>
<p>You know with what is going on in the military these days…why would anyone want their son or daughter going into the military? We just had a situation here in NY where a soldier killed his commanding officers and the military would not declare the cause of death until just recently. Said there was an Iraqi induced explosion…not at all. From within…and the military has been hard-pressed to justify the reasons why this type of tragedy could occur. I think some of the enlisted men there are questioning why…</p>
<p>The relentless media negativity continues to take its toll…our troops do hear what you say. So if you want to claim to support them, well, try supporting them.
<a href=“http://media.nationalreview.com/066369.asp[/url]”>http://media.nationalreview.com/066369.asp</a></p>
<p>Best way to support is to work to bring them home. Today. They did the job. Got rid of Saddam. Found all the weapons of mass destruction. Secured the oil fields. Mission accomplished. Declare victory. Bring 'em home. Hold a tickertape parade.</p>
<p>The troops need to hear that I don’t want them where they are (and most of the soldiers I’ve met who’ve returned agree with me, though that is wholly irrelevant.)</p>
<p>As for the recruiters: if they make oral declarations as part of their practices that they have no intention of ensuring are kept, prosecute them under the RICO statutes.</p>
<p>That is absolute bullpucky. Supporting them means wanting them employed in a necessary, well justified, and well-planned operation. It does not mean a blind adherence to flag-waving nationalism to be falsely conflated with patriotism. </p>
<p>I’m sure that the leadership of every nation that has sent its troops to war has mouthed similar sentiments about now that we’re at war, it’s our duty to support our troops without dissent.</p>
<p>I suppose that by this line of thinking, the leadership of every country that has ever sent its troops to war was right.</p>
<p>Captain Guenther has received your message…loud and clear.</p>
<p>Sad to see the tone in this topic. Don’t know how to respond so I’ll just say I agree with TheDad and magoo09.</p>
<p>It wonder which one of my contentions Capt. Guenther would disagree with. Or perhaps he thinks America is immune from any of forces that have marked the history of other countries…I do see a lot of contentions that boil down to an American exceptionalism.</p>
<p>This is definitely off topic…we are not discussing ppl being blind to a countrys wrongdoings or doings for that matter but whether or not it is OK for recruiters to be in schools not whether or not our children should be forced to join.</p>
<p>this is why I don’t subscribe to organized religion.
I don’t just beleive what ever I am supposed to believe. I am not made that way.</p>
<p>I don’t mind if you beleive but don’t bring it to my door.</p>
<p>Actually, TBS, this is the Parents Cafe and there’s not a strict requirement of posts rigidly adhering to a narrow range of discussion. One topic flows out of another, okay?</p>
<p>okay? Well you did not answer the preceding question with a valid enough argument is all im saying</p>
<p>To me the two topics are inextricable, because they relate to the public’s difficulties in discerning the truth about government’s statements and actions. We think that military recruitment in high schools is about their looking at a list of names, and instead we find out it means infiltrating sports teams and looking for vulnerable students. We think that the government wants to protect us from terrorism, and we find out that the plans to invade Iraq were made far earlier than we thought. </p>
<p>Btw, emeraldkity, neither the Unitarians nor the Episcopalians require their adherents to subscribe to a specific set of beliefs. Re organized religion, my thinking is, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.</p>
<p>I think the discussion of having recruiters in schools needs to include discussion of the pressure tactics used by some recruiters.
If recruiters were in schools at planned events like colleges are, and if the career counselor/college advisor at the school is present to help answer questions, then I do not have a problem with military recruiters.
What I do have a problem with is when recruiters are harrasing students in between classes, when they treat them like their life only will have a positive outcome if they join the military, and when they tell students about things that they have no control over.
Sports recruiters have very strict guidelines re contacting students- I would like to see recruiters limited to something along those lines at least until they graduate high school.</p>
<p>EmeraldK and AParent nail it.</p>
<p>“What I do have a problem with is when recruiters are harrasing students in between classes, when they treat them like their life only will have a positive outcome if they join the military, and when they tell students about things that they have no control over.”</p>
<p>I have plenty of recruiters at my school and they conducted themselves pretty well Id say…what makes you think they are harassing?</p>
<p>We hope that our kids can keep an open mind to all things, including religion, politics, and national service. A limitation of any one of these things will eventually lead to something that is not as nice. </p>
<p>A military recruiter should be allowed to do what he is paid to do, just as Credit Card people can SPAM our mailboxes and airwaves.</p>
<p>As for higher education: Just a bigger and more expensive trade school.
And you don’t need to go to a formal school to make money and a living.</p>
<p>I didn’t say they always harrass- however the Army target enlistment is down by half- recruiters are reacting to that by getting much more aggressive in some areas with potential recruits.
Some areas were having so much problems that nationwide all recruiters had to take a day off to go over again what is allowed and what is not recently.
I can get on the do not call list- I don’t get phone calls from telemarketers unfortunately there is not a do not call list for the military.
College coaches are restricted to waiting until athletes call them, what is wrong with just making material available to students who want to pick it up and contact the military without making names and phone nnumbers available of all students without the opportunitiy to opt out?</p>
<p>May I remind everyone that military recruiters are soldiers; They are doing their duty, have an obligation to our country and are under orders. May be we should go back to the draft and lottery system and thereby eliminate the recruiter-recruitment problem.</p>