JawsBlog

Update–Welcome Daou Report visitors

Wow…my post from earlier today on this subject , which was a hastily put together composition of some thoughts on my mind has elicited quite a response (15 comments!) I’d like to take the oppertunity in this post to respond to the variety of comments I received…I begin below the fold

Firsts off, let me start by saying that I’m ineligible for military service for Medical reasons. I’ve got a condition which prevents me from enlisting or partaking in ROTC or OCS. So please leave that line of argujment behind.

Second, when I used the term “the Left” in my original post, please understand that I was not refering to anyone who identifies themself as being left-of-center on the political spectrum. Rather, I was referring more towards the noisy fringe of the Left. Okay?

Third–I guess it’s worth noting that my HS experiences with recruiters took place pre-9/11 (I graduated in 2000), and I’m sure things have changed with regards to recruiting since then.

That being said, I agree with the commenter who said that military recruiters should be held to a higher standard. I would expect nothing less from a member of the Military–they are supposed to be role models, and should be fully forthright and upfront with perspective recruits rather than using tactics reminiscent of (stereotypical) used cars salesmen. They need to tell them what they’ll most likely be getting themselves into (depending on the branch of service).

Should the military be allowed into schools? Personally–I think so. No, schools are not Federal property (my mistake in the earlier post), but they are a public institution and they are the recipients of Federal funding and programming and in that sense, should admit Military recruiters. Second, I think that if a school is going to let representatives from different Colleges/Universities come to visit and “recruit”–then the military should be given the same oppertunity.

Regarding obtaining student information–more often than not, the gov’t is able to get student information one way or another (from standardized tests, FASFA forms, DMV records among other methods). So do schools need to be bothered with turning over information–probably not. If anything, I can forsee a lot of districts using this requirement as a cover for their failure to do other more important things (less I digress…that’s another subject).

So what about recruiters calling houses–personally, having received too many of those calls, I’m not a fan of ‘em. They called when I was away at college, and even though my parents would say I’m not interested, they’d keep calling. The calls didn’t stop for me until I politely told a recruiter that I’m medically ineligible for service, and when they asked why, I was upfront and told them, and that was the last time any service called. (Granted, I still on occasion get mail from the Army, but I usually just pitch it).

If the military is going to insist on calling I think that they should be required to cease calling if/when you request it–on the first time. I’m sure the various services can share a “do not call” list…ooh, that’s a good idea…a “do not call” list–that way you can opt out of receiving phone calls!

Finally, for those of you who are parents, who expressed worries–I’m familiar with the phenomena, and I understand that attitude and feeling and there’s nothing wrong with it.

If any of the original commenters would like to reply further and/or add anything, please feel free to! (In fact I encourage it–I like comments!)