Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

October 24, 2005

Mark Those Calendars!

(Crossposted to Lifelike Pundits)

As if today's students aren't already overbooked between keggers, wet t-shirt contests, Phish concerts (and those pesky classes sandwiched inbetween), United for Peace and Justice wants to add to their overburdened schedules with their National "Not Your Soldier" Youth and Student Day of Action on November 17.

*Are military recruiters invading your schools and using promises of scholarships and career opportunities to convince your friends to join the military? (Military recruiters are invading? Help! Call in the military...oh, er, never mind.)
*Do you wish that job and college recruiters would replace the military ones? (I never thought I'd see the day when a leftist group espoused having an eeevil corporation recruiting our precious youth.)
*Are you tired of being trapped in JROTC programs? (Don't you have to be a willing participant? I wasn't aware that the ROTC set out traps in order to gain members.)
*Have you lost loved ones in this illegal and unjustifiable war? (Wasn't it the loved ones' choice to join the military in the first place?)
*Have you had enough of being used as a pawn in Bush’s games of war? (You can't be a pawn if you don't sign up. What do the anti-drug folks say? Just say NO.)

Here's what students can "do" to help the "cause":

1. Hold a demo/rally at a school or community recruiting station to declare a “Not Your Soldier� zone. (Classes? Fuhgeddaboutit!)
2.Offer solutions! Organize an “alternative� recruitment fair; invite college recruiters, local unions, job recruiters, activist organizations and others to table and show the alternatives to the military. (Again, colleges always have other alternatives at their job fairs. They never just invite the military.)
3. Demand a Meeting with your school administration to discuss your specific demands (if they don’t agree, organize a petition drive or demonstration to make sure they do!)(Oh, I like this one. Demand! Kids today are being taught that no one has the right to say no to them. And we wonder why recent college grads have a difficult time when they get into the real world and find out the hard way that not everything they want is going to be handed to them without question.)
4. Get creative! Organize a concert, open mic or party with music, poetry, theater and art against military recruitment! (Those liberal arts classes finally have an application in real life!)
5. Host a forum or debate on military recruitment! Invite community activists, teachers and parents to come listen to young people talk about their experiences, ideas and opinions on military recruitment, the poverty draft and the war! (Will the military be invited to this debate? If not, it's not much of a debate...)
6. Be visible! Set up a table, do sidewalk chalking, create a public graffiti wall, do a banner drop - let people know what young people really think about the war, military recruitment and the kind of future we want for our generation! (Yes, a future where our enemies can attack without fear of reprisal because the military was eradicated by a bunch of crunchy granolas.)

You know, the whole concept is ridiculous. To read this press release, you'd think that college campuses are the sole domain of military recruiters. What about schools like Yale, who are trying to ban them? If kids don't want to join the military, they don't have to, plain and simple. Just businesses offer employment alternatives, so does the military. Not your cup of tea? No problem.

Disclaimer: any citizen has the right to protest whatever he wants to. I'm not questioning that. I am questioning UPJ's contention that military recruiters are really such a danger. If the kids are as enlightened as our leftist professors try to make them, won't they turn down a military career anyway?

It's not about choice--it's about censoring views not held near and dear to the left.