Troubled by military recruiting at Los Angeles high schools, activists are seeking equal access to students on campus to provide what they say is unvarnished information about the armed forces and information about nonmilitary careers.
The Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools, a Southern California group of educators, volunteers and veterans dedicated to promoting nonviolent alternatives to military service, is taking the proposal to the Los Angeles Board of Education, saying it is vital that students have the truth about military enlistment. That “truth,” however, is subjective: Some view the group’s literature as controversial itself. [...]
Under a pilot proposal, which United Teachers Los Angeles endorsed in April, peace group volunteers would visit 10 to 15 high schools per week and set up a table where they would offer information about enlistment, career alternatives and opting not to have their personal information shared with the military.
UTLA is a rather radical left teachers’ union, with a stranglehold on LAUSD. Half of LAUSD graduates are functionally illiterate but UTLA would rather fight charter schools and home schooling than actually, you know, teach.
Currently, the group sets up a table at most of the district’s dozen high schools about once a semester, distributing “Addicted to War” comic books, holding a poll in which students vote on how the government ought to spend its budget, and bringing in veterans to talk to students about their military experiences. [...]
The group does not mince words — a brochure on the table aimed at young women considering joining the military features the testimony of a woman who said she was raped while serving in the Navy, and says women in the armed forces are more likely to be sexually assaulted compared with women in the general population.
Women are more likely to be raped on a college campus than compared with women in the general population.
Are there groups showing up on high school campuses discouraging women from attending college?
Pingback by a-foton » Counter-recruiters [Darleen Click] on 6/9 @ 8:31 am #
[...] Ed Brill wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptLos Angeles Troubled by military recruiting at Los Angeles high schools, activists are seeking equal access to students on campus to provide what they say is unvarnished information about the armed forces and information about nonmilitary careers. The Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools, a Southern California group of educators, volunteers and veterans dedicated to promoting nonviolent alternatives to military service, is taking the proposal to the … [visit site to read more] [...]
Comment by alppuccino on 6/9 @ 8:34 am #
Will they be giving equal time and show the scene from “Rambo” where the peacenik is hanged by his wrists and a big Burmese pig is chewing on his footless ankles? The ankles have the tastiest meat. So tender. You could cut it with a fork.
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 8:36 am #
And people wonder why some are content to live in fly-over country, and minimize the risk of being exposed to asshattery?
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 8:37 am #
Wow. That is fucking keeeee-razy. It pisses me off.
I have immense respect for the armed forces. For a long time, the military was the only game in town where a man from the wrong side of the tracks could do something for his country and get some respect, better himself, and get a good career and a fine education. Especially in post WWII, they were the bridge to middle class prosperity. A whole generation of engineers, doctors, lawyers, scientists were created by the military (people from all races, religions, creeds, etc.)
The military desegregated long before the fuckers at public schools did (and the military had to show up to lend assistance when they finally did desegregate, irony of ironies). How dare they act as if they are morally superior. Fuck them where they breathe.
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 8:44 am #
Amen, Lisa.
But I am a godbothering rube that clings to his guns and religion, so you better check your bona fides.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 8:45 am #
#5: Plus, a good 60% of my people are in the military. They generally signed up in high school or right after college. The recruiters are not whisking people away. They sit down and talk to the kid and they talk to their parents. And it is a long process. They really want you to be sure that this is what you want to do and are prepared for.
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 8:49 am #
This “my people” thing …
The asshats that push these ideas have no understanding that their freedom to push such asshattery was won with the business end of the military.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 8:54 am #
I love living in blue country with cranks and pinkos, but sometimes they are so out to lunch.
I was on the bus this morning going to catch my train and some self-important fool gets on with some ugly-assed eco-friendly looking burlap clothing that smelled funny (surely some indiginous Amazonian tribe of naked motherfuckers lovingly hand wove the whole get-up). She has a bunch of bags that say “live green” and have cars with a red circle and line through them. She proceeds to pull out her iPhone and squawk loudly to her secretary about her important appointments for the day – making sure she differentiates herself as a privledged person riding the bus because she is “living green” not because she has to like the rest of the proles on the bus.
Sigh. My people. They make me crazy sometimes but I love em.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 6/9 @ 8:55 am #
Lisa,
Truman’s executive order is even more impressive when you consider that he signed it a few months before the general election in ‘48. It was as nice a shot in the chops at the Dixiecrats as Ike’s sending the 101st into Little Rock or his AG Brownell’s drafting of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The one Lyndon “improved upon” in 1964 after having successfully watered down the ‘57 act.
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 8:55 am #
Personally I like the people that spend $60 for an Inspi(red) tshirt. They do not deserve to keep their money.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 8:59 am #
JD: HA! Or the “I am African” stuff. Um, no Gweneth, you are not African. Neither are you, Elijah my dear.
Comment by Roboc on 6/9 @ 9:04 am #
There are some who’ve forgotten why we have a military. It’s not to promote war; it’s to be prepared for peace.-Ronald Reagan
It’s too bad the military has to pay the price in reputation and blood for what the politicians are responsible.
Comment by Jim in KC on 6/9 @ 9:13 am #
Identity politics strikes again! In the military, you’re free to earn as much respect as you’re capable of as an individual. You can be sure the LA Teacher’s Union doesn’t want guys like Johnny Rodgriquez from East LA finding out that they’re equals with Paul Bourgeois from Boston or Kevin Freeman from Atlanta and shit. Throws a monkey wrench into things.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:13 am #
#7: Exactly. My dad was a lifelong Democrat, and he was generally very accepting that he fought in three wars to preserve people’s right to be cranks. But this would have pissed him off.
#9: Truman was aweseome in that he did what was unpopular (and what probably made him kind of nervous) – but he did what was right.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:17 am #
#13: Yep. You can advance in the military or use the GI bill to further your education. And you owe no one because you worked your ass off served your country for it.
And the military creates such stellar individuals. I work in academia and I can ALWAYS spot the military boys and girls. They are the ones who say “please” and “thank you.
Comment by alppuccino on 6/9 @ 9:19 am #
Women are more likely to be raped on a college campus than compared with women in the general population.
If you’re raped in college, it’s the rapist’s fault. If you’re raped in the military, it’s your fault for joining up. Geez Darleen, it was right there in the newsletter.
Comment by mojo on 6/9 @ 9:23 am #
Yeah, you guys go in there and tell the students that one of their very few routes out of the gang-infested ‘hood is a no-no because it’s too “violent”.
That’ll fly.
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 9:23 am #
Lisa – All that please and thank you business is just a thin and flimsy veneer covering up their bloodlust, and desire to oppress people.
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 9:26 am #
Lisa- who are your people?
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:28 am #
#19: Right. They are smiling because they are picturing taking pictures of you naked with some female officer pointing and laughing at your weiner.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:28 am #
Woops I meant #18 in the last post. My people mean my family.
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 9:30 am #
She has a bunch of bags that say “live green†and have cars with a red circle and line through them. She proceeds to pull out her iPhone and squawk loudly to her secretary about her important appointments for the day – making sure she differentiates herself as a privledged person riding the bus because she is “living green†not because she has to like the rest of the proles on the bus.
Sigh. My people. They make me crazy sometimes but I love em.
So this woman on the bus was a family member?
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 9:35 am #
Lisa – Now why do you have to go and drag my wiener into this?
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:35 am #
Oh I thought you meant when I said “60% of my people are in the military”
Comment by Harry Cox, President W.A.N.G. on 6/9 @ 9:36 am #
They are smiling because they are picturing taking pictures of you naked with some female officer pointing and laughing at your weiner.
It’s just this type of flippant comment that perpetuates the stereotype of laughable wieners. All wieners are worthy of your respect, be they short, stubby, crooked, wrinkly, freckly, skinny, etc. etc.
Please cease and desist.
Harry Cox
President
W.A.N.G.
Wieners Are Nice Group
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:38 am #
#22: By her I meant my fellow city-dwelling liberals.
#23: Ha!
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:38 am #
#25: LMAO!!!
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 9:39 am #
Not that I mind, it just tends to attract the gleeeeeees, Andy, and Avarosis, and a flock of gasping women the size of which would make Baracky jealous.
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 9:39 am #
Ah. You have a large collection of people, it seems.
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 9:40 am #
And someone always winds up with a mushroom bruise ;-)
Comment by Peter Fitzwell, President BUTTPAC on 6/9 @ 9:42 am #
You got it easy Harry.
Peter Fitzwell
President
BUTTPAC
Boys Underwear Testicle (affect) Testers
Comment by alppuccino on 6/9 @ 9:45 am #
Ah. You have a large collection of people, it seems.
MayBee? Needling?
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/9 @ 9:46 am #
Besides the teachers?
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:46 am #
#29: Yes. I collect them. I purchased a few on Amazon this morning.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 6/9 @ 9:47 am #
“#
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:13 am #
#9: Truman was aweseome in that he did what was unpopular (and what probably made him kind of nervous) – but he did what was right.”
And I can’t see any of today’s Democrats doing the right thing.
That’s the difference between a classical liberal and a “progressive”.
Comment by Jim in KC on 6/9 @ 9:47 am #
City-dwelling liberals? I had one try to outgun me from a stop light in her Prius the other day. As if. I guess the dual exhausts and the C on the 300C badge didn’t quite convey the hemi-ness she was fucking with.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:52 am #
#32: I assume there is a point…so I am playing along.
Comment by Raul GarcÃÂa on 6/9 @ 9:54 am #
Another place where recruiters don’t seem to be welcome is among college Young Republicans.
Comment by alppuccino on 6/9 @ 9:55 am #
#
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 9:52 am #
#32: I assume there is a point…so I am playing along.
Meow!
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 9:56 am #
alppu wants to see a girl fight.
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 9:57 am #
claw
clair
*hair pull hair pull*
claw
dress rip
Comment by SarahW on 6/9 @ 9:57 am #
Lisa, I commend your prudence staying away from Craigslist.
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 9:58 am #
claw
Comment by SarahW on 6/9 @ 9:58 am #
Now I want to know who burlap lady is having appointments with. I want to know about the burlap lady.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 10:00 am #
That was catty. And uncalled for. I apologize, maybee. But I denounce alpuccino for calling it. Somehow, it was sexist.
Comment by SarahW on 6/9 @ 10:00 am #
Ladies in Burlap
Never reaching the green,
Letters Ive written,
Can’t think of which Gleen
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 10:02 am #
Don’t ever apologize to me for being catty, Lisa.
No, I was just confused about the *my people* bit, and then when you answered I had nothing to go with. So I said something. And then I tore your gown, Crystal Carrington.
Comment by Jim in KC on 6/9 @ 10:03 am #
She probably needed a 9 iron instead of a wedge.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 10:04 am #
I also denounce #40, 41, and 43.
#44: She sounded like she was an attorney.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 10:08 am #
#47: Don’t ever apologize to me for being catty, Lisa.
Fine. And don’t boss me around. And don’t sass me either.
(Pushes you into pool, ruining your shoulder-padded Carolina Herrera day suit.)
Comment by SarahW on 6/9 @ 10:08 am #
What’s that behind the palm tree?? look outs , Maybees
Comment by Jeff G. on 6/9 @ 10:11 am #
Oh, Raul, I don’t think college Young Republicans would advocate banning recruiters. They may not join up in the numbers you’d like to see, but they don’t try to censure the pitch, either.
Maybe these anti-military folk should try THAT strategy. Could be that not having some aging Hippie tell you what to do with your life is a feature, not a bug.
Comment by great banana on 6/9 @ 10:14 am #
Another place where recruiters don’t seem to be welcome is among college Young Republicans.
Really? B/c when I was in the military as an officer, almost all were conservative republicans. Since to be an officer you usually have to be a college graduate, that would seem to belie your point. but of course, being a liberal, you know absolutely nothing about the military so you would not know that.
I don’t believe I ever met a liberal officer while I was in the Army. I’m sure there are some, but very few.
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 10:16 am #
Lolcatty just for me.
Maybe these anti-military folk should try THAT strategy. Could be that not having some aging Hippie tell you what to do with your life is a feature, not a bug.
ha!
Comment by ushie on 6/9 @ 10:16 am #
I don’t know which was more horrifying, the picture or the idea that someone got a froghead on a cat.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 6/9 @ 10:19 am #
“Marines smash through recruiting goals”
“That may be why the Marine Corps is smashing enlistment records, even as a long and unpopular war makes military service a hard sell.
In April, the Marines signed up 2,233 recruits, beating their monthly goal by 142 percent, a level that far exceeds any other military service. The Navy and the Air Force just met their April target of 2,905 sailors and 2,435 airmen, and the Army reached 101 percent of its goal with 5,681. ”
http://tinyurl.com/5u3nmy
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 10:19 am #
#52: They are saving us ignorants and unwashed minorities from being exposed to the military and being brainwashed into being used as cannon fodder.
I believe that most liberals are NOT like this. Maybe I am stupid, but I think they are like me. I may not agree with the commmander-in-cheif on his policies, but I don’t hate the military or think it is evil.
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 10:19 am #
Raul is a tool.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 10:20 am #
#53: You never met any of my family then. They are not exactly walking around in birkenstocks putting flowers in their fellow officers gun barrels, but they are liberal.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 10:21 am #
(some of them)
Comment by Thomass on 6/9 @ 10:30 am #
On the plus side, being exposed to these loosers would probably tip a few people over into joining the armed forces…
Hmmm, army? or code pink? Who has a better grasp on reality?
Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 10:31 am #
Besides, we all know that only uneducated rubes with no hope of gainful employment enlist. Kerry told us.
Comment by Enoch_Root - BONC also on 6/9 @ 10:40 am #
#59 – Lisa – Of course they are liberal. It is implied. I am curious what ‘The Man’ will convey when The Man is only half The Man he was when The Man was the real The Man?
Comment by Teacher's Pet on 6/9 @ 10:40 am #
It won’t make a bit of difference. The kids who are going into the military after HS are going to laugh at these idiots on campuses and enlist anyway. Most of my seniors know they’re going many months before school ends and they head off to basic–it’s not like they decide on June 5th to leave on June 6th.
And the kids who think that war is evil already think war is evil, so there’s no point being there just for them.
With that said, these guys are idiots.
Comment by SarahW on 6/9 @ 10:49 am #
Boy, wordpress is really hating on a link to an old PW thread.
Maybee, your lol has been around awhile. You remember “David”, who arrived at the lolgical conclusion that hats do no matter for toffee?
I have to skip the link to the old post, but he said:
What does external appearance has nothing to do with ANYTHING Maybee?
–snip—
Hats have nothing to do with internal motivation and internal beliefs.
Maybee I’m happy to discuss this further it the differences are not clear and you find it confusing, k
Comment by MarkJ on 6/9 @ 11:03 am #
N. O’Brain,
“In April, the Marines signed up 2,233 recruits, beating their monthly goal by 142 percent, a level that far exceeds any other military service. The Navy and the Air Force just met their April target of 2,905 sailors and 2,435 airmen, and the Army reached 101 percent of its goal with 5,681. â€Â
Yeah, right on. My Army son (10th Mountain Division), who enlisted in May 2007 for a three-year term, is ALREADY planning to reenlist as early as this fall.
By the way, I found this interesting item about LA:
http://cbs2.com/local/Murder.Homicide.Statistics.2.616910.html
I’m glad the murder rate is now “only” 400/year for an LA County population of approx. 10.4 million. If we average things out, that means LA County, with a population of less than half of Iraq’s, has suffered approximately 2200 murders. Most of the victims, I willing to bet, were “military-age” (16-45) minority males.
Also, California traffic deaths for 2003-2007 (LA County certainly contributes to the lion’s share of these):
http://cacrash.org/IDeaths.html
Comment by alppuccino on 6/9 @ 11:13 am #
#
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 9:57 am #
claw
clair
*hair pull hair pull*
claw
dress rip
Clair was just mindin’ her own biz. You know it’s on when the catfight is bringing in total bystanders out of the blue. SWEET!
Comment by MayBee on 6/9 @ 11:33 am #
SarahW- I have a really good memory and yet I don’t remember that. You’ve made my day.
Comment by alppuccino on 6/9 @ 11:44 am #
Now I want to know who burlap lady is having appointments with. I want to know about the burlap lady.
I believe she was on her way to see the used-radial-tire-shoe people to make sure they were ready for the big fall line show. Then it was off to a book-signing for her latest NYT Best Seller: I Make Pottery With My Poop. Busy busy.
Comment by Enoch_Root - BONC also on 6/9 @ 12:12 pm #
yes, followed by a trip down memory lane with that one guy she dated who turned out to be gay. She is now discussing how much it will cost him and his partner to rent her uterus. I mean, it’s her body they’re after. She holds the power in her vanginer.
Comment by Lisa on 6/9 @ 12:41 pm #
#67: Clair is my hairdresser. I keep her on standby for emergency weave repairs. When Maybee pulled my hair, an alarm sounded in West Baltimore and Clair was on the scene immediately…
#70: WTF, lol.
Comment by TmjUtah on 6/9 @ 8:38 pm #
I was a production recruiter (Marines) working out of San Mateo, California, on the peninsula south of San Francisco, from November to November 1988 -89.
I am not a sales type.
I am definitely not a bay area type.
The educators (and I use that title to indicate where they worked, not what they did) I dealt with were without exception anti-military, with our interactions ranging from cool compliance with the minimum access standards as published and agreed upon between the school district and the Services, and arbitrary attempts at exclusion or disruption of my permitted activities.
The article mentions that the enemy desires to visit ten to fifteen schools weekly. Under the then – existing arrangement with the schools, we were allowed access to the schools twice yearly for group presentations, to coincide with Career Day/Job Fair, and during the period where the schools conducted Pre – SAT or ACT practice tests; during this time we could offer the ASVAB to interested students. I could meet with individual students in the counseling conference room by appointment… but only did that once after seeing what the prospect was subjected to by the office personnel.
The median income between my three high schools was north of 200K; this was in 1988. I only put eleven men in the Marine Corps in my eleven months, but ten of them made it through boot and their first school.
I joke that when I was in high school I was taught by men who fought at Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, France, and Korea. When I recruited in the Bay Area the counselors I dealt with did their part by humping ammo down the Ho Chi Minh trail for the VC .
The experience wasn’t a total loss. I got to eat lunch with John Prine after he gigged at the Community College one fine spring afternoon. Still have the tape I bought from him, too. Met several of the Giants and ‘niners, and even did the color guard for the ‘niners disastrous meeting with Minneapolis post season ‘88. Stood five feet in front of Dionne Warwick singing the national anthem and just watched her lips move; it was LOUD down there.
Fine times. Except for the commies, of course. Whenever I smell urine, I think of the City By The Bay.
I’ll not be going back to the bay area. Especially ‘Frisco.
Comment by The Lost Dog on 6/10 @ 4:59 pm #
“Comment by JD on 6/9 @ 9:40 am #
And someone always winds up with a mushroom bruise ;-)”
Very insensitive, JD.
I LIVE in a mushroom bruise.
Comment by The Lost Dog on 6/10 @ 5:12 pm #
Hey, TmjUtah.
Do you refer to that time as “My year in Hell”?
God bless you, man. I can’t even imagine spending that much time in the Bay Area, much less as a military recruiter.
You are a better man than I, Gunga Din.
Comment by TmjUtah on 6/10 @ 10:02 pm #
TLD -
I did my best. It wasn’t good enough.
The best pizza on the planet was available at the Village Host on the west end of Broadway in Burlingame, about four blocks from our apartment. And I met The Ukrainian Barbers, too. They had a hole- in- the- wall two chair shop on the north edge of Redwood City which served as a social club for a lot of Russian/Sov emigres. I doubt I’ll ever make it to Times Square for a Millenium New Year, but I don’t have to. I have celebrated Victory Day with men who fought from Stalingrad to Berlin and lived to tell about it.
I may go back there someday. In the nose of a B52G with white ones in the bay.
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