16 August 2005

Unfinished Refinished #1

Here's a post from June that I never finished... Until now.

Have a look at this nonsense!

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Nancy Carroll didn't know schools were giving military recruiters her family's contact information until a recruiter called her 17-year-old granddaughter.

That didn't sit well with Carroll, who believes recruiters unfairly target minority students. So she joined activists across the country who are urging families to notify schools that they don't want their children's contact information given out.

"People of color who go into the military are put on the front line," said the 67-year-old Carroll, who is black.

A provision of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts to provide military recruiters with student phone numbers and addresses or risk losing millions in federal education funding. Parents or students 18 and over can "opt out" by submitting a written request to keep the information private.

But critics say schools do not always convey that message. In New Mexico, the American Civil Liberties Union chapter sued the Albuquerque Public School District last month, charging it does not adequately inform parents of the opt-out provision.

Some critics oppose the federal law on privacy grounds, but others say it provides an unfair opportunity for the military to sway young minds -- especially in economically depressed communities.

The solution to this nonsense? Deny federal funding to any school district that refuses to cooperate with recruitment efforts, and deny federal funds to any individual who protests it. If people want to do their best to stab the military in the back, they can deal with the consequences.

The military protects the very freedoms these people supposedly cherish. In no way does the military "unfairly target minorities". This statement...

"People of color who go into the military are put on the front line," said the 67-year-old Carroll, who is black.

... is so completely ridiculous, it's nearly comical. For one thing, the woman who made the statement obviously doesn't watch the news or understand anything about warfare; if she did, she'd know that the current wars don't have front lines. Second, I've been either in the military or working closely with the military for years. I currently know two black Marines, one's a cook/drill instructor, one's an aviation mechanic. I've known plenty of minorities who have gotten commissioned; in fact, I've probably seen a higher number of minorities commissioned than is representative of their portion of the American population. It's ignorant, and patently untrue.

In addition, anyone who has any knowledge whatsoever of the military knows that they promote based on merit. The military is, and has for many years and in many incarnations (Roman, British, et cetera) been a very strong meritocracy. If someone wants an opportunity, and they start off being dumb as a brick, they aren't going to be assigned to a nuclear submarine, plain and simple. If an individual, white, black, hispanic, Asian, starts off at the bottom of the pile (infantry, cook, mortars, clerical), they can prove themself to be dedicated and able to learn, and they'll be promoted.

If there's any institution in the United States's that isn't racist, it's the military. If people want to do whatever they can to be an impediment to military recruiting, that's their right - and the federal government has the right to deny those people federal funding to things like schools. It's a two way street: if you receive federal funding, then you get to follow federal guidelines. If you don't want to follow federal guidelines and help the federal government, then you don't get federal funds. Government money, which is to say taxpayer money, is not just some handout that people get to have without consequences... Or at least, it shouldn't be.

Some military recruiters are persistent, but for the most part recruiters are less of a nuisance than spam E-Mails, or telemarketers, or Jehovah's Witnesses. (Not that Jehovah's Witnesses are a "nuisance" per se, but in general people would rather not be visited by them.) If you can't deal with them, then move to Canada like all the other hippies.

Thus saith the Fly.

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