Damn you Rob Riggle!

So, the other night, dh and I were watching The Daily Show, and there was a hilarious segment with Rob Riggle about Code Pink protesting a Marine recruiting office that opened in Berkeley.

Ironically, this was the second time I had been exposed to people having a problem with military recruiting. The other time was a character in a novel I was reading by Tawni O’Dell, called Sister Mine. This was an issue that had previously flown under my liberal radar. Now, I had to give it attention.

Now, since the Daily Show segment was very funny, and the Code Pink women looked like idiots, and Rob Riggle was articulate and smart, my knee-jerk reaction was to side with him. But, there was a nagging voice inside me, asking, Is this OK? Or is it taking advantage of desperate young people, like pushing drugs on campus? So, I went a-researching.

First off, I have to discard anything I read about college campuses. The “kids” in college are really adults. If we can trust them to vote for our government representatives, then we need to also trust that they won’t be swayed by shiny pamphlets and cool uniforms. We have to believe that whatever values we instilled in them will come to the surface when they’re making these decisions about their future.

But, high school? I have a different opinion. In my searches, I found these articles, which illustrate a clause in the No Child Left Behind document, mandating that high schools release contact information about students for military recruitment purposes, and that the military has a database collected about our students’ information, for recruitment purposes. This is more than just housing an office or setting up a table on career day, this is an aggressive, all out organized effort to get kids to sign up for the military, sometimes making a commitment while they’re still minors through a delayed entry program (although this is not a legally binding commitment).

I am not in favor of this war. I’ve been opposed to it since it started, when it was unfashionable and unpatriotic to be against it. Now a lot of others have switched sides, so it’s not so alienating to hold this opinion. But, I am in favor of our military. Specifically, an all-volunteer military. I am grateful to our men and women in service for their unwavering commitment to keeping our country secure. I have no ill will towards our soldiers. If anything I feel guilty as an American for sending these people, who fight and defend upon command, to risk their lives for something that a lot of us believe have questionable ethics behind it. So, if I respect them for fighting an honest war, I respect them even more for fighting a questionable one. It’s not their fault for being there, it’s OUR fault for putting them there.

I also realize that to keep an all-volunteer military, we need to have volunteers to serve in it. We need to recruit members, people who have these admirable qualities and are willing to risk their lives for others. I understand that and respect it.

I felt I needed to say all that before I could move on to the real topic. See, this isn’t about my beliefs on the war of the military per se, this is a parenting blog, so things need to be viewed with parent-glasses on. How I feel about this war or the military as a citizen may not be the same as how I feel about them as a parent.

I’m not OK with the government having a database on my children for any purpose. I’m not OK with the military having contact information on my children for recruitment purposes. I’m not OK with military recruiters planning lunches with my kids because they fit a profile. I’m not OK with a non-legal binding contract (which my kids may feel obligated to hold to anyway), being signed when they’re seventeen. At 18, they’re released upon the world, and the world released upon them and if they engage in unsafe activities like using drugs, having promiscuous sex, reckless driving, or joining the Marines when we’re in a war, then that’s out of my control. Because while as a citizen, I appreciate the military and honor its members, as a mother, I don’t want my kid to join up. I guess I see that as akin to the priesthood. It’s an admirable career, one that demands respect and offers many opportunities that they might otherwise be denied, but please, oh please, not my son. The difference is, that the Vatican isn’t aggressively recruiting my son for the priesthood (not overtly anyway), whereas the military is using state-of-the art hard sell techniques.

So, while I’m perfectly fine with a military recruiting office being opened up anywhere, and I’m fine with people protesting it, and I’m fine with people making those protesters look like idiots on the most popular comedy show in America, I am not fine with the other things I found in my digging. Maybe you feel differently, and I’m OK with that, too. Thank you Rob Riggle.

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