Help broaden the horizons of Prince George’s County youth beyond those
presented by military recruiters
Our Peace & Justice Coalition, Prince George's County, invites the
community to help make sure all its young people understand
that today’s military is probably not their best ticket to a great
future. We have begun this campaign from a concern that military
recruiters can too easily sway our youth with half-truths, put forth
via manipulative, high-pressure approaches.
We know recruiters rank high on their target lists our many local youth
from minority groups and low-income families—the ones most prone to an
economic draft. We suspect that students who aren’t top scholars
or star athletes seldom hear much about other options for funding
college or career training. But it lies in our power to end this form
of discrimination!
Why our concern?
All over the country Uncle Sam’s recruiters are a constant
presence at schools, malls and public events. Often have they been
caught distortingthe truth about military life. They claim it teaches
skills that enlisteescan transfer to civilian jobs when in fact most
military jobs don’t. Theyhide the frequency of sexual harassment
and of racial discrimination inawarding combat vs. noncombat job
assignments. Recruiters tempt youth withpost-discharge educational and
health benefits for which rather few nowever actually qualify. Many
veterans of the Korean and Vietnamese wars areunaware that the GI
benefits they enjoyed do not exist for their children and
grandchildren.
Some have joined the Broader Horizons campaign who simply object
thatrecruiters paint an incomplete and deceptive picture about the
military. Others also protest that the war in Iraq, which drives such
unethicalefforts to boost enlistments, is unjustified-- having been
launched without international support before diplomacy failed, and
allowed to go onindefinitely at ever mounting costs in lives and
dollars. These campaign members fear new Prince George’s County
enlistees may face illegal orders
to mistreat Iraqi civilians or prisoners, and that experience in
this war may long traumatize those who survive it. Whatever their
mix of motives, all are welcome.
Our county campaign is part of a growing national
counter-recruitment movement. But let us be clear: that doesn’t
mean we aim to prevent any young persons from freely exploring military
career options. We do aim to help them become fully informed about all
their choices: to protect their privacy, to correct
misinformation they hear from recruiters, and to broaden their
horizons.
How we are working:
This campaign is two-pronged, with a positive as well as a
counter- side. Our goals are:
(1) to spread knowledge to local young people about non-military
alternatives to work and school, and
(2) to remove military recruiters' special privileges in access to high
school students. We can
use your help to:
-Gather and give out literature on alternative careers and
scholarships, find school and community events where our viewpoint is
welcome, and there present accurate accounts of military risks and a
fuller picture of other opportunities.
-Introduce and promote a proposal (
Click here for MS-Word Copy)
to the county school board that
it reform its procedures for giving military recruiters special access
to students. We want to see more publicity about students’ and parents’
rights to “opt out” to refuse the release of their personal
contact information in the directories which schools must send
recruiters, else lose certain federal funding by a provision of the No
Child Left Behind Act. We are asking for a clearer, simpler
process for using the opt-out form. Most
important, we call for equal access in the schools- meaning less
for recruiters and more for our activists and anyone else presenting
alternative career information.
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Want to get involved?
Will you join us? It will take many hands and voices, from
all over Prince George’s County, for this campaign to succeed.
For more details call 301-577-2350 or email
justpeacepg@earthlink.net.
Please help spread the word about this Broader Horizons
/Counter-Recruiting project among your friends and neighbors
and any PTA, student or other groups in your community.
To learn more about the nationwide counter-recruiting movement
visit :
