From USATODAY.com
Yes, it's a wonderful land we live in - with liberty and justice for all. Of course that doesn't stop some simpletons from enjoying those virtues without accepting the responsibility for the notion that they just may sometimes need defending.
NEW YORK — The Marines didn't have to recruit Greg McCullough. He signed a promise to enlist last year, while he was still in high school. But now McCullough has had second thoughts, and he's talking to a different kind of recruiter.
Jim Murphy is a "counter-recruiter," one of a small but growing number of opponents of the Iraq war who say they want to compete with military recruiters for the hearts and minds of young people.
Murphy says high school graduates don't need to join the military to learn a skill, pay for college, see the world or learn discipline.
Yes, you see, it's all about the me me me with these idiots. It doesn't even occur to them that someone might have a sense of duty, or comprehend and display a sense of sacrifice for something greater than themselves. That concept is alien to them. The military has fostered and grown more good men and women than any of these idiots have. And after they finish with their agenda, do you think for a minute that they'll be there - helping whatever individual they dissuade from the military to get a job, an education, learn discipline, or see the world? Of course not.
They take no more responsibility for the consequence of their actions, than they do for the actions themselves. In this case, they are likely no better than pure fear mongers, I'd bet.
Counter-recruiters formed a national network at meetings in Philadelphia in the summers of 2003 and 2004. They range from Vietnam War veterans, such as Murphy, to high school students trained to talk to their peers about enlistment.
The American Friends Service Committee, one of several peace groups opposed to what it calls "militarization of youth," has prepared a brochure titled Do You Know Enough to Enlist? In a tip of the hat to the opposition, it's deliberately designed to look like a military recruiting brochure.
Heavens no, we can't militarize the youth, like every other successful tribe, culture or nation has, to some extent, done for all of time. No! Life would be so much better if the young just sat on their butts all day, drank wine, smoked pot, took a few classes and knocked one another up in their free time. See, because that would be cool. I mean, if it's what they really wanted to do, anyway.
There are no great social values or deep moral underpinnings to these movements - just the pathetic self-absorbed softness of sorry mis-thinking individuals. And they constitute the price we have to pay for freedom in this great Republic - for our trouble we get to hump them around like an extra pack on the back on a ten mile full-gear hike.
In the San Francisco area, members of a group called the Raging Grannies dress up in flamboyant old-lady attire (big hats, long, flowered dresses) and visit high schools. They offer a selection of political buttons and make their pitch while students are choosing. Sometimes the Grannies sing peace songs and dance.
"When you kick up your heels, it gets their attention," says Ruth Robertson, a 52-year-old Granny.
Hey, Granny - wanna get my attention? Kick up your heels and drop dead. Don't get me wrong, you have every right to do what you're doing. Just as I have the right to tell you how pathetic you really are. The only difference between us is that I know and appreciate the fact that these rights we're exercising are most often protected and defended by the very people who don't think like you do and those you don't reach.
All I observe is a bunch of sad cases desperately trying to pull someone else down into the soulless wallow with you - no matter how much you've succeeded in deluding yourself about your grand mission.
Individuals like the above should automatically qualify for a two week all expense paid vacation in the totalitarian sink hole of our choosing. Maybe when they came back, they'd at least understand just a bit of what freedom and liberty is really all about. Hint - it doesn't come without responsibility.
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