Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels September 20, 2004 Open schools, open house for recruiters sales ploys By Stuart O'Neill Peace House With yet another summer come and gone, students throughout the Valley are starting a new school year. For many of you, decisions about your future will take center stage in the coming months. Thoughts of life beyond high school will begin to set in as the school year progresses. Military recruiters are also gearing up for another school year. With exaggerated promises of money for college, job training and adventurous travel, military recruiters will be giving lectures in your classrooms, tabling with information in your cafeterias and stocking career centers in your schools with slick brochures. They may also start calling your homes. Or sending you things in the mail. A lot. Under provisions of the "No Child Left Behind Act," President Bush's 2002 education law, public high schools are required to provide military recruiters with access to your personal contact information or they risk losing much needed federal funding. Only if you choose to "opt out," will your personal information be kept private. Thankfully, schools are also required to inform you and your parents about your right to "opt out." You may have to search through your registration packet to find it. The Pentagon spends more than $2.5 billion a year developing outreach in the form of slick brochures, commercials, video games and personal visits to schools. They promise up to $50,000 for college. Yet 57 percent of enlisted soldiers receive no money at all (GI Rights Hotline). They promise job training and skills to build your future. Yet less than 15 percent of discharged soldiers report using their learned skills in civilian life (CCCO). Military recruiters are salespeople. Their job is to "sell" you on enlistment. To keep their jobs and advance their careers, most recruiters must sign up a specific number of people each month. They stress the benefits of the military, not the problems. On the top of the lists of problems not mentioned by recruiters is how long you are required to serve. Upon enlistment, the military regards you as part of the Individual Ready Reserve, and therefore subject to call-up, for eight years from the date of your arrival at basic training, even if you only signed up for two. Other problems include: 75 percent of Black and 67 percent of Latinos in the military reported experiencing racially offensive behavior (Veterans of America); 90 percent of women in the military reported being sexually harassed. (Department of Defense); more than 50,000 unemployed veterans are on the waiting list for the military's "retraining" program and 1/3 of all homeless people in America are veterans (Veterans Administration and Army Times). "The reason to have a military is to be prepared to fight and win wars ... it's not a jobs program," said former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. When you enlist in the military, you become a GI. This stands for Government Issue; same as your boots or your rifle. You will lose many of the rights and privileges you enjoy in civilian life. And as the current vice president so clearly articulated, the military exists to wage war. This purpose guides everything else. If you are seeking options for your future, there are alternatives to the military. Counselors and career center advisers can help you find grants and scholarships for college. Job training programs are available in our community. The GI Rights Hotline fields 30,000 calls a year from service members seeking to get out of the military. Physical and sexual abuse, racism and broken promises are some of the reasons GI's call for help. There is a growing national network of veterans, students and activists working to highlight alternatives to military enlistment. If you want more information about this work, contact Peace House in Ashland. Stuart O'Neill is a Program Assistant for Peace House, a non-profit peace and justice organization based in Ashland DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams