Those students who wish to ‘opt out’ of the military scrutinizing personal information for recruiting reasons must also ‘opt out’ of all other legitimate prospective employers seeking the same information. The military is saying to students: you either become marketable to the U.S. Military or you are marketable to none.
A 2006 U.S. Supreme court upheld the federal government’s ability to use funding as a means of forcing equal access for military recruiters and ROTC on campuses – despite the fact that the military contracts ‘workers’ under a type of contract that no business or corporation would ever legally be allowed to use, and despite the fact that the military uses recruiters to misrepresent, defraud, lie, and ‘fool’ youth, and most especially poor youth, into signing these contracts, and despite the fact that these ‘workers’, once signed to these contracts, are now contractually obligated to policies and controls that would never be legal for any other entity operating a legitimate business inside the U.S..
Why is the military having to resort to such bullying to recruit new cannon fodder? Could it be that America is waking up? That the youth of America understands what these recruiters are doing, and what it’s all for? Could it be that the nationwide protests at recruiting offices are having an effect on people and that the people are listening? There is no other explanation.
The fact is that military enlistment numbers are down and resistance numbers are up. As the military lashes out in retribution while youth, students, and others resist America’s killing machine, we can expect more and more of these punitive and arrogant attempts to control and silence the people, but we will not allow ourselves to be discouraged by this bullying, rather we know that this will encourage MORE courageous resistance across the U.S. .
Cheryl Abraham is a member of the Steering Committee of the Seattle chapter of World Can’t Wait.
