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Moms tell recruiters: ‘Leave My Child Alone!’
People's Weekly World ^ | 06-30-05 | Tim Wheeler

Posted on 07/02/2005 6:08:14 AM PDT by Alia

WASHINGTON — Megan Watson, leader of Mainstream Moms, is so angry at military recruiters for invading schools to sign up unwary youth for combat in Iraq that she and her group launched an online movement, “LeaveMyChildAlone.org.”

“They offer these trinkets to lure our children to enlist,” Watson said in a phone interview from her home in Bolinas, Calif. “This is very aggressive, demographic targeting to have conversations with our kids that should not be happening.”

All branches of the military are falling short of recruiting goals as parents say, in effect, “Hell no! My kids won’t go!” Watson blasted the aggressive recruiting drive as a backdoor draft conducted by the Pentagon because the American people reject a return to military conscription. “I’ve heard it called an economic draft,” she said. “They know where to find kids who don’t think they have a lot of options. They are playing on our children’s lack of hope about college and their future.”
...
Watson shares these views. “I do utterly oppose our occupation of Iraq,” she said. “We are spending $4 billion every month on this war. People are seeing the cost not only in dead and wounded but also in their own communities. Libraries forced to close. No National Guard to fight forest fires. They can’t find $8.5 billion of the funds we sent to Iraq. And they want to squeeze it out of Medicaid funding for senior citizens. It’s just outrageous
...
Joining the effort are a dozen peace and justice groups including the Ella Baker Center, ACORN, Code Pink, Peace Action, American Friends Service Committee, Latinos for Peace and Veterans for Peace.

(Excerpt) Read more at pww.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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To: Alia
My eldest, with two years of college already, went in soon after 17th birthday..

Sounds like this prodigy should have been working on a cure for cancer.

How did he get 2 years of college before age 17?

161 posted on 07/03/2005 1:04:20 PM PDT by evad (No action to secure borders, No action on judges... NO MONEY!)
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To: Tax-chick
"Maybe her son will decide to escape a life of unwashed, whiny leftism by joining the Army! At least he'd meet some straight women with skills!

Unless he joins the Marines, in which case he'd meet women with superb skills, but uh...probably a bit too domineering for him. They'd break poor little bobby's back.

Go Marines

162 posted on 07/03/2005 1:07:58 PM PDT by Windsong (FighterPilot)
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To: OneWorldTory
Its the sensible decision for their future, and I'd make it for the same reasons I wouldn't allow him to join art school on my dollar. A waste of his future.

I guess that goes double for English majors, History Majors, Political Sci, etc etc who went to Law School, MBA, or Business and are now pulling six figures.

Sharp as an orange you are.

163 posted on 07/03/2005 1:11:20 PM PDT by Windsong (FighterPilot)
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To: Windsong

LOL! I'm sure women Marines are a handful :-).


164 posted on 07/03/2005 1:14:03 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("I am saying that the government's complicity is dishonest and disingenuous." ~NCSteve)
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To: TheOtherOne

Sounds like the broad needs a hobby.


165 posted on 07/03/2005 1:15:32 PM PDT by Xenalyte (Bring it, boyeeeees, 'cause after we're done, Skynyrd will still suck.)
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To: Alia

I bet she brazenly breastfed her son in public too. ;)


166 posted on 07/03/2005 1:16:18 PM PDT by Xenalyte (Bring it, boyeeeees, 'cause after we're done, Skynyrd will still suck.)
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To: AGreatPer
Suggestion: Did you or your son try to speak to the commanding officer of that particular recruiting office? That's what you should be doing. Nearly all the recruiters I've met, lifelong, have been wonderful and professional.

Bribes? How are these bribes? These aren't bribes. Are they marketing teases? Yes. Any different from any schools, colleges, corporations?

It sounds to me as tho your son is having a hard time making a decision: soccer, or college scholarship money. I'll bet that the recruiters are picking up on that wafflezone, and going for it.

My own two cents? Please help your son to make a firm decision -- one that he is perfectly comfortable with. From what little you've shared in post, sounds to me like your son's passion is soccer; but not necessarily college via the "conditions" of scholarship. Am I wrong?

Faulting recruiters as making his "life more difficult" here, is not apt to solve, IMHO, your son's decision in this matter. If he's going to go on to college and with the conditions of his scholarship, he needs to be at peace about this. If he's not at peace with the terms, then he's psychically wide open to all kinds of invitations.

He may be giving the green light to recruiters. And you might not be picking up on that.

Very best to you and your son in this decision-making process.

167 posted on 07/03/2005 3:40:49 PM PDT by Alia
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To: Xenalyte
well, uh.. yeah that kinda goes RIGHT into describing the culture of Bolinas, CA. It ain't brazen, in their own books, Xenalyte: It's bodily "freedom" from repressive regimes! It's a political statement (by action) from the coastline cultural habitat of the Amazonian frame of feminist mindset. And of course, being "anti-military" is part of the militant liberal mindset and "international action" set of behaviors.

Oh heck, we used to call it holding one's breath until they turned.... And that's why "blue" is the perfect color on the charts for representing liberals. I mean, really, what color would you depict for its twin-set behavior of anal retentiveness?

168 posted on 07/03/2005 3:45:03 PM PDT by Alia
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To: evad
Nah. My eldest had wanted life-long to serve our country. Of course, my eldest is also perfectly versed in Marxist linguistics and methodologies, thanks to the area we lived in.

How. Eldest began college at age 12. Tested at beyond highschool levels. How. After brawling with SF Bay Area ideology through education early on, I homeschooled. And at a time, when persecution by the school districts was hidious. Let's just say, my eldest got first-hand training in dealing with combative forces. Eldest wanted to fight cultural cancer(s). :) And continues to do so.

169 posted on 07/03/2005 3:51:32 PM PDT by Alia
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To: doug from upland

You are right, Doug. But liberals can only revise the past in order to accommodate their "be here now" ideology. Put another way? This "crackpot and her pals" would be happily speaking German as long as they got as many freebies as possible. Same then, same now. That others were getting killed? As long as she got her "wants" tended to, what else matters?


170 posted on 07/03/2005 3:54:33 PM PDT by Alia
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To: porkchops 4 mahound
Better to resist on "conservative" principles and leave these students to only these so-called institutions of higher, (VERY debatable imo), learning, (indoctrination into the PCverse).

It would be their choice and they would approach the centers of higher education for information, not the other way around. Sad to see you have such hope in the youth of our country that you believe they would all buy into the lies they are told in college

171 posted on 07/03/2005 4:19:19 PM PDT by billbears (Deo Vindice)
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To: Alia
“They offer these trinkets to lure our children to enlist,” Watson said in a phone interview from her home in Bolinas, Calif. “This is very aggressive, demographic targeting to have conversations with our kids that should not be happening.”

Those trinkets are $50,000 enlistment bonuses, college educations, all medical, dental and optical services and proceedures paid as well as no-cost prescriptions.
$250,000 life insurance for $16.00 per month. Eligibility for home loans. Free health and fitness facilities.
Food, clothing a roof over their heads and a monthly salary. In addition to learning invaluable skills taught nowhere else.

Call it "welfare" and the Liberals are all over it, call it "Military Service" and they say it's deplorable, go figure.

172 posted on 07/03/2005 4:19:48 PM PDT by Laurita (We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART?)
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To: Alia

Oh, I forgot the investment opportunites and retirement plan.


173 posted on 07/03/2005 4:22:27 PM PDT by Laurita (We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART?)
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To: Laurita
I, personally, have NEVER heard of a $50K enlistment bonus. Furthermore, in re the medical, dental, etc.: It can't just happen on a whim. Military person can't usually just say "Oh Yeah, I need braces". If there is an emergency related to JOB PERFORMANCE -- it gets done. I don't understand the "breast improvements" for females. Have no idea where that relates to "military performance". Maybe in the intel and counter intel ops? Yep, military uniforms are paid for (mostly); all personal matters are not. The pay is low. Yep, $250K for life insurance for $16.00 a month -- and the vast majority of soldiers/marines come home just fine. Lots of civilians pay for insurance policies they never need to use.

Yes, they do learn valuable skills; the first being obedience to orders; not self-rule and feelings. That's the hardest to break in civilians when they enter the military. You have to actually... PERFORM the job you are told TO DO. No civil rights lawyers or tort lawyers going to be able to "defend" your civilian right to be disobedient to superiors. Be abusive to your "underlings" and you end up in big trouble.

It ain't welfare. It means having your "personal life" on hold; something civilians *think* they know of; but they don't. They do when they put in 60-hour-workweeks; but in the civilian sector there's usually perks that go with those long workweeks. This is not true for military. You get the job done no matter how long it takes you. Civilians would not do this.

Call it "welfare" and the Liberals are all over it, call it "Military Service" and they say it's deplorable, go figure.

Yes, you are so right here. How many homeless, on subsistance (fed/state) go in to fight an opponent army with your death foremost in their target and goal?

174 posted on 07/03/2005 5:52:50 PM PDT by Alia
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To: RedBeaconNY

What a beautiful, enlightening post you've written. Yours represents my hopes for all youths -- that they know self-reliance, and faith-with-actions in all they do. That they never lose courage.


175 posted on 07/03/2005 5:59:16 PM PDT by Alia
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To: billbears

The point is a level playing field.


176 posted on 07/03/2005 11:43:54 PM PDT by porkchops 4 mahound (Don't be silly. Do you really want the institutions of "higher" learning to be the only choice ?)
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To: MMcC
I agree with you, but to read some of the Aruba threads, you'd think that a 17/18 year old is a helpless baby who requires constant supervision.

I agree. I'm 31 years old with a 9 month old daughter and I feel like some baby boomers think I'm just a kid. When can I grow up too?

177 posted on 07/03/2005 11:57:18 PM PDT by talmand
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To: Alia
I, personally, have NEVER heard of a $50K enlistment bonus.
You haven't been paying attention. Part of the $28 bil for the military is going towards those bonuses and they are getting higher and higher.

Furthermore, in re the medical, dental, etc.: It can't just happen on a whim. Military person can't usually just say "Oh Yeah, I need braces". If there is an emergency related to JOB PERFORMANCE -- it gets done.
Talking out of your butt here. There are actually less restrictions on so-called "elective procedures" in the military than with a civillian insurance company, but do go on . . .

I don't understand the "breast improvements" for females. Have no idea where that relates to "military performance".
How else do you think military cosmetic surgeons are supposed to keep their skills up? Being a servicemember IS dangerous and we females can have our breasts blown off just as easily as a male can have his legs blown off. In addition, cancer is not an automatic out in the military, when we get sick, the Army doesn't just say, "Well, I'm sorry, your insurance only covers us removing the breast, not reconstructing the mess."

Yep, military uniforms are paid for (mostly); all personal matters are not.
What personal matters do you expect your boss in the civilian world to cover? Once you get out on your own (in both worlds) you actually have to buy your own tampax . . . poor baby.

The pay is low.
You got me there, except of course that with a college degree I was making $9 an hour in the civilian world and working 80 hour weeks, and now I work 40 hour weeks for twice that AND the aforementioned benefits you seem to believe are beneath the ". . . homeless, on subsistance (fed/state)."

Yep, $250K for life insurance for $16.00 a month -- and the vast majority of soldiers/marines come home just fine. Lots of civilians pay for insurance policies they never need to use.
Who needs all that pesky insurance, anyway? What do I care what happens to my family after I'm dead, right?

Yes, they do learn valuable skills; the first being obedience to orders; not self-rule and feelings.
We're all mindless zombies, we're all mindless zombies . . . that must be why we fall for the hypnotism of the recruiters, because we are so weak-minded to begin with.

That's the hardest to break in civilians when they enter the military. You have to actually... PERFORM the job you are told TO DO.
You said a mouthful, there. It's really a crying shame people aren't expected to perform their actual jobs anymore. No wonder there are so many people living on the streets, playing the lottery and relying on welfare . . . it was just too hard for them to "perform" in the workplace.

No civil rights lawyers or tort lawyers going to be able to "defend" your civilian right to be disobedient to superiors. Be abusive to your "underlings" and you end up in big trouble.
Now I'm confused, first you say I need some lawyer to defend my "right" to disobey orders, then you seem to say I shouldn't get in trouble for abusing my subordinates? In any case, see how long you keep your job in the civilian world (if you actually have one) by arguing with your boss over the duties you signed on the dotted line to do.

It ain't welfare. It means having your "personal life" on hold; something civilians *think* they know of; but they don't. They do when they put in 60-hour-workweeks; but in the civilian sector there's usually perks that go with those long workweeks. This is not true for military. You get the job done no matter how long it takes you. Civilians would not do this.
Damn shame, too. A lot of people could do with some pride in getting a job done ". . . no matter how long it takes . . ." As far as having my life on hold, the Army is my life. I AM living it. I AM enjoying it. For the record, I don't get a monthly brain-washing in order to continue doing my job and loving it. I wonder if you are really suggesting taking away the opportunity, nay, the RIGHT of every 18 year old man and woman in the United States to decide for themselves what career path they wish to take? Maybe if I want my kids to grow up to agree with my politics and what I want for them, I should just lock them away from any influence to the contrary? I'm sure someone will start an isolationist cult/colony/commune to protect my kids from any opinion other than mine, as long as they can lobby Congress for the funds . . .

Was that a rant?

178 posted on 07/04/2005 7:01:40 AM PDT by Laurita (We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART?)
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To: Laurita

lol. Thank you for serving.


179 posted on 07/04/2005 7:12:55 AM PDT by Alia
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To: Alia
Why do I get the feeling we're having a "heated-agreement?"

Happy Independence Day!

180 posted on 07/04/2005 7:18:54 AM PDT by Laurita (We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART?)
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