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The Few, the Proud, and Channel 10

By Ernest McCray

November 7, 2006

San Diego--How can our children even come close to creating a better world, a more peaceful world, if those who are dedicated to helping them become change-makers lack support?

I was interviewed recently by Channel 10 and I told them how the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice passes out leaflets to high school students, letting students know that Uncle Sam wants them—desperately. In fact, Uncle Sam is so desperate that more and more military recruiters are showing up at community and school events, touting “interactive” websites and slick pamphlets with exciting images that show students how they can join the “Few and the Proud” or become an “Army of One.” Military recruiters shoot the breeze with students at lunchtime.

So what did Channel 10 do? Well, with a deep tone of “objectivity,” they told the story pretty much from a military recruiting point of view.

Carol LeBeau opened the story with a statement about the military’s “aggressive outreach program,” offers of “more pay” and signing bonuses “up to $40,000,” along with “raising the age limit to 41.”

Then a recruiting sergeant, who just happened to sign up right out of high school, talked about how joining the armed forces “can really impact a person’s life for the better,” not to mention keep his butt out of Iraq if he makes his quota.

At this point, reporter Lee Ann Kim, in regards to the military “targeting high schools,” announced, “But peace organizations have a problem with that.” This made me think that they might then use one of my sound bites about how my friends and I were helping students grow as human beings, how we were contributing to the development of their ability to think critically, how we were nurturing ideas of peace in their fertile yet innocent minds.

They could have highlighted my thoughts about how important it is for our children to look at all that has gone into our troops being at war: the lies, the breaking of international laws governing wars.

But the few seconds of air time given to me featured how I share with young people that joining the military is like no other job, in that one can’t quit and walk away if one gets sick of the gig. I couldn’t believe that, of all I had to say, this is what they decided to play.

Then the good sergeant got the last word: “It’s a volunteer force. We don’t twist anybody’s arm.” However, you would have thought my house was the Pentagon with all the military mail we received when my kids were in school, letters encouraging them not to miss “opportunities of a lifetime.” That’s like arm-twisting to me. And making bold promises of financial bonuses and schooling, promises over which recruiters have absolutely no control, also sounds like arm-twisting to me.

But Carol LeBeau ended the show parroting the sergeant’s comment about our military being an all-volunteer force and then threw out a little editorial aside about how “all positions aren’t combat positions,” to which Ms. Kim said: “That’s right. They’re looking for skilled people, anyone who has ‘dental experience,’ to playing a tuba even.”

The military has billions of dollars to spend on their “aggressive outreach program” and KGTV gave them free air under the guise of a news report. Meanwhile, the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice practically has to beg for pennies to reach young people. Boy, that put an end to any pretense of “objectivity.”

So does this say that our society isn’t up to instilling in our children the kind of sensitivity and intelligence they’ll need to turn their battered world around? That we don’t really care if they are recruited to continue fanning the winds of an immoral, ill-begotten war?

Say it isn’t so.

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