Share this with every teen you know. Share this with every parent you know. I’m not going to try to summarize this article because it must be read in full, and you won’t be able to stop reading, once you start. Here’s the first section — and think of this as a mere teaser — the calm before the storm:
By SUSAN PAYNTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
For mom Marcia Cobb and her teenage son Axel, the white letters USMC on their caller ID soon spelled, “Don’t answer the phone!”
Marine recruiters began a relentless barrage of calls to Axel as soon as the mellow, compliant Sedro-Woolley High School grad had cut his 17th birthday cake. And soon it was nearly impossible to get the seekers of a few good men off the line.
With early and late calls ringing in their ears, Marcia tried using call blocking. And that’s when she learned her first hard lesson. You can’t block calls from the government, her server said. So, after pleas to “Please stop calling” went unanswered, the family’s “do not answer” order ensued.
But warnings and liquid crystal lettering can fade. …
You won’t believe what happens next, and then after that. Keep reading … Sorry to leave you in suspense, but you’ll see why I couldn’t excerpt it. Let us know what you think. Don’t read the comments until you’ve read the story.
What are we turning into here?
How much outrage do we need to put up with?
Who do we send this newspaper info to?
Give us guidance as to where to raise holy hell Susan…I’m in!
ASally, I am still in a state of shock. I’d opened that article before I took a little nap (with my cat Bear), and only read it a few minutes ago.
I cannot believe that this happened to this sweet young man. And the use of sleep deprivation and denial of food. The KIDNAPPING, for chrissakes.
What do we do?!!! For starters, I think the very best thing we can do is spread this article EVERYWHERE.
I’m glad Susan Paynter got the story because 1) she’s a heck of a writer, and 2) she has a solid reputation in the news business.
Am I the only one who read this and thought “Oh wonderful, we’re back to the good old days of press gangs.” ? I guess this is what Bush meant when he said no draft. Technically, I suppose having armed gangs of recruiters trying to get you drunk or sleep-deprived enough to sign something without being aware of what it says and then keep you away from civilians for long enough to get you trained and over to Iraq isn’t a draft.
Of course, it is pretty much what the War of 1812 was all about. I wonder if Bush wants a repeat of that? I think we Canadians burned the White House to the ground last time. I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to persuade us to engage in a repeat performance.
Just so. Impressment of seamen on the high seas was one of the ostensible causes of the War of 1812. Lots of other reasons, including the fact that the U.S. was trying for a land grab in Canada. (But as I recall it was the Brits, not the Canadians, who burned Washington.)
It’s one thing when it’s a foreign government hijacking your people, quite another when it’s your own.
Perhaps we could start issuing letters of marque for coastal shipping, as well?
1812 started because of British warships boarding American merchantmen and impressing their crew. The American government at the time decided that they’d expand a little to the north. The occupants of Canada at the time (who were British citizens) decided that they didn’t like this, and there was quite a lot of fighting. The burning of the White House was indeed done by a British unit, but most of the British units stationed in Canada at the time (some 5000 troops total, according to Wikipedia) were made up primarily of Canadians.
Strictly speaking, though, you’re right – since there was no Canada until 1864, they were all British troops. And they were definitely commanded by British officers.
Well, yeah. The causes were a little more complex than that. And it wasn’t all Brit soldiers. The Welsh 41st Regiment of Foot was involved, and I think a couple of other Welsh and Scots regiments. They would tell you they weren’t British troops.
It was the Welsh who occupied Eastport, Maine, then part of Massachusetts, for four years after the end of the war. News traveled more slowly in those days.
I was thinking – didn’t we study something about “impressment” in high school history class?
Hmmm. Google takes me to Bartleby, and this excerpt:
Maybe this,
is what Bush means by No Child Left Behind.
Kidnapping!! This is even worse than the recent story about the kid who was told he’d be arrested if he didn’t sign up. Are they going to start dragooning males the way the British did for their Navy? Oh, wait, dragooning IS kidnapping.
I have a 21 year old son. A year ago we went together to pick up a pizza at a restaurant that turned out to be next door to an Army recruiting center. Two uniformed guys were standing outside smoking as my son went in and out. They tried, though not all that hard, to get him into conversation. There was no harm done and we left while the pizza was still hot, but even then my whole body went on alert as I watched them. I felt like a mother sparrow whose baby was being circled by two hawks.
I’ve got to say, however, that I also was aware of how young the soldiers were. I was aware of the extreme pressure they were probably under to make their enlistment quota.
I thought the situation sucked for all of us.
The most direct and responsive route will be your congressional rep. Either that or send to the House/Senate Armed Services committes. After the last incident with Army Recruiters, they may start to listen.
Forgot these:
Senate Armed Services [Members]
House Armed Services [Members]
Good idea. My Senators are not on the committee. My Congress member is on leave from the committee, whatever that means.
excellent – Rick Larsen is my rep, he’s on the committee, and this all happened in his district
he ought to sit up and take notice
That is sickening on so many levels, I almost don’t know where to begin. The high-level targeting, the apparent in-depth background knowledge, the selection of a young man from a single-parent family, the waiting until he was alone…
It’s criminal. I don’t know if they’ve broken any laws per se, but it is criminal.
Something must be done.
Like I mentioned to Sally Cat, we shoudl all spread this story. Would it be alright to send it around in full, or does that cross copyright rules?
I usually just send links around to my network of non-blog folks to avoid copyright issues. Can I borrow part of your intro for my email?
Go for it. We need to get this out. I’m sending it to all my mailing lists.
I don’t practice criminal law but laws may have been broken. But getting the local DA to cooperate and look into it and/or prosecute, that’s another story.
Best thing is probably to send around the link and choice quotes from it. Though I’m definitely not a lawyer, I don’t see how that could be construed as not falling under fair use rights – you’re taking small excerpts (relatively speaking), you’re using them for non-commercial purposes, and you’re directing people to a place where they can obtain the complete work.
This is unbelievable! I knew these recruiters were going to extremes to bag more warm bodies for the military, but they’re engaging in all-out CRIMINAL behavior!!
I have 2 boys, 9 and 11, and this scares the &!@$&! outta me more than anything else I’ve read in a looooong time.
Parents have to always be on the lookout to protect their kids from various predators; now the predators are our own MILITARY?!?
Good God, pretty soon they’ll just be breaking down our doors and yanking the boys from their beds…
</rant over>
I wish you were ranting. You’re speaking the truth. I’m extremely upset about this.
Alex was flat-out stalked (as well as kidnapped–no pun intended).
I strongly encourage all parents, relatives, and concerned citizens to disseminate the following “Leavemychildalone.org’s” opt-out link:
http://tinyurl.com/e38d2
It’s no panacea, but it’s a start.
From what I’ve read, high schools are intimidated about losing NCLB funding, and are balancing their school district’s budgets off the backs (and lives) of gullible kids (and of low income parents, as was evidenced in said article).
This is more than disgusting.
This story was on NPR this afternoon. There was an interview with a man from a group called College Not Combat (www.collegenotcombat.org). I missed the story, so as soon as I got home, I looked up their website. Sadly the story wasn’t there, so I did a google search and eventually found it. I was going to post a diary on it this evening. Thanks for frontpaging it!
I am appalled. There was another story not too long ago about a moderately mentally challenged man in IIRC California who found himself in boot camp. He had no idea what he was doing there and had been tricked into signing the papers and then take a “vacation” in Arizona. It, too, was a bizarre story.
One of the points that the commentator had on the radio, though, was that this might well be the beginning of the end for the pro-war faction. That they are so desparate that they are literally kidnapping people is proof that they are at the end of their rope. If enough people refuse to go to an illegal war and more and more parents refuse to allow their children to die, maybe they will figure out how to get out of Iraq sooner, rather than later.
had two years mandatory public service, we would not have a passive public allow us to launch preemptive wars on a pack of lies.
We would not feel the need to abduct children and send them into a meat grinder.
Something to think about.
Was contacted repeatedly as soon as she turned 16. the recruiter (a woman) harrassed her constantly and was increasingly rude to my daughter. This was 4 to 5 years ago and she was living with her father at the time so there was no one to censor phone calls.
The recruiter tried to make her feel unpatriotic and worse as my daughter continued to say she was not interested and in fact had very firm plans for college.
She (my daughter) has always been very strong and capable, but I fear for those youngsters who are not able to resist the pressure.
Often money is offered as a sign up incentive. That surely must lure many into something they would not otherwise do.
Doonesbury did a story over a week or two recently about the teenage daughter being courted by a military recruiter. It was low key and humorous, but got the point across that recruiters will do whatever to meet their quotas. The recruitment effort ended when the girl pointed out the military’s dismal record on sexual harassment.
Yes I saw that also and I do love Doonesbury, and it is online now so even to my paper does not carry it anymore I can still see it….
He also has done many strips about The roman emperor pres. we have, which is very amusing.
This is what we should to –
stop the war.
Bring them all home. Now.
More:
A third Marine has been accused of providing liquor to the recruiting office.
I’m new here, but just wanted to say this scares me to death. I’m so sad about what is happening right now in our country…sigh.
Sue, welcome! So glad you’re here. It is scary 🙁
The Marines should be ashamed.
But above all, the story shows the power of the determined love and protection of a mother and sister for a young man. That must be what is meant by ‘family values.’ 😉
Yes, it is what it should mean.
This is beyond frightening.
I have 3 boys who are, or will soon be, draft age and this issue is the single most important one for me personally.
I learned early in this past school year about the connection between NCLB and military recruiters in the high schools, and I have been like a flea in the school principal’s armpit ever since.
My 17 year old son is editor of his school newspaper and has been lobbying the advisor to let him do a story on recruiting and print a form 9528 opt-out form in the first issue next fall. Most parents are completely oblivious to the fact that NCLB assures almost unfettered access to student information, as well as increased recruiting activities in the school.
The chin up contest is something that they used at our high school this year, in a slightly different form. They challenged the boys in the cafeteria to see how many push-ups they could do. Of course, playing to teenage boys’ vanity and physical prowess works wonders at that age, especially if they are in a group setting or if there are girls present. It’s all so sneaky and psychologically manipulative.
I’ve heard of parents holding counter-recruiting efforts where they stand next to the recruiters holding pictures of wounded American soldiers. I like that idea and hope that I have the nerve to organize something similar in our high school.
I feel like I’ve asked you this same question before…is it only junior and senior years that the recruiters are allowed to harass kids at home via NCLB, or from 9th grade onward?
In other words, do we need to start making parents aware at the middle school level, so they’ve already opted out the summer before starting high school?
It’s supposed to be just at the 11th and 12th grade level, but who knows if they are following that or not. Schools are required, unless you sign an opt-out form, to provide contact info for jrs and srs.
Who knows how long this blasted “war on terror” is going to last. Best to arm middle school parents with the information they’ll need before jr year.
I’d send an opt-out form home with all the sophomores at the end of the school year, already filled out with their name and just ready for a signature. This should be easy enough to do, what with them being required to be able to provide recruiters with contact information already and programs like Word having mail-merge capability.
Barring that I’d put it in the PTA newsletter and send it to all the kids.
I wonder if the parents at Seattle’s Garfield High PTSA have thought of this. They’re one of the highest-profile organizations that I know of to oppose the recruiting madness.
That seems like a rational approach, until you realize that schools are reluctant to risk federal funding by encouraging people to, essentially, buck the system.
Some schools are making it difficult for students who do sign an opt-out form by saying it applies to any publicizing of the student’s name i.e. in the school newspaper, for academic or other achievements, and to college recruiters.
Parents can write the school and specifically demand that their child’s records do not fall into the military’s hands, but don’t look to the school to tell you that.
I don’t think they can. They hinder this rotten little move, and they can get their funding yanked. It’s dwindling as it is.
Truth is, the military has been falling short of their recruitment goals for a few years now, and they and Congress were concerned about it. Nothing like the present, but this is one reason the Solomon Amendment passed in 1996 that forces colleges and universities to open up their campuses to military recruiters or lose their funding. (This links to an association, but the language is taken straight out of the Congressional Record.) Many of them openly refused the recruiters access to campuses–many site the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy as a reason of refusal. But no matter now.
So the Members thought hey–what’s good for colleges will be good high schools too. Many high schools also turned away military recruiters. Not anymore. They tucked the military recruitment provision (high school division) in the No Child’s Behind Left law w/o anyone noticing. Don’t have the legislative history on that, but of course it was done quietly. I wonder if this was done b/c they knew then that they were short–and they knew then that they were going to Iraq.
Also, I’d suggest folks visit EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Inforation Center, on student privacy rights. Definitely worth a read.
And in case you missed it, here’s a story from the NYT that was also run on Common Dreams.
The recruiters have seen the enemy, and they are parents.
Actually, according to EPIC, then-Rep. David Vitter, now Senator, offered the amendment re: military recruitment in high schools.
Schools can offer opt-out forms, but I think in terms of actual practice, schools are leaned on to NOT tell parents that they can exercise this provision.
The PTSA is very active in limiting recruiting activity. I believe that at the moment recruiters are showing up the minimum amount required by law (once a month, although I could be wrong about this — see my comments elsewhere about my finely crafted Swiss cheese memory), and they are getting as much help as the school can give them without getting their funding cut off. Maybe more.
Granted Garfield is in a very blue city in a very blue enclave of a rather blue (at the moment) state, but I hope other schools can learn from them.
It’s the “Leave My Child Alone” campaign, in conjunction with Working Assets.
Go here to learn more: http://www.leavemychildalone.org/?mktcode=mmob
Here’s a similar story, from back in mid-May.
Neighbors of Ever Jandres of Encino, Calif., recently wrote a letter to U.S. Rep. Howard Berman charging recruitment malfeasance and asking him to look into the 24-year-old learning-disabled epileptic’s mysterious disappearance, Mark Crispin Miller reported online at News from Underground. A spokesman for Berman confirmed that the congressman is “very concerned” about the matter.
Jandres, who is Salvadoran and has a borderline low IQ, was apparently “befriended” by a local Army recruiter, who invited him to come with him to Arizona for three days to observe basic training. Five days later, his distraught mother (who speaks no English) got a phone call from her son, who told her, hysterically, that he was on a military base in South Carolina. He was now in the Army, he said, and wasn’t allowed to stay on the phone longer than a minute. Family members’ and friends’ attempts to get any information from the Army have been fruitless.
To read the whole article, go to: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0519-20.htm
I have to go help my granddaughter with her homework, but after story time I’m going to send this to Amy Goodman at Democracy Now, and the link to this diary. She’s been on stories like the fellow she had on Monday who left the service to go to Canada, and the seaman who was court-martialed for not showing up to ship troops to Iraq (sorry, I’m in a hurry and can’t remember the names — Pablo Morales?)
This is an outrage. An absolute outrage, and it needs to get all the play it can so people like General Patton’s great-niece, who was shilling for military recruiters today on MSNBC opposite Cindy Sheehan from Gold Star Mothers for Peace, when they say “When has the military been abusive?” we can say “right here.”
The seaman’s name was Pablo Peredes, the soldier’s name was Ryan Johnson, the military recruiter’s mom was Patty Patton-Bader and Cindy Sheehan’s organization is Gold Star Families for Peace (http://www.gsfp.org).
Other than that I guess I got everything right. Sheesh.
I submitted the story last night; we’ll see if DN! picks up on it.
By the way, you can see the video of Sheehan going after Patton-Bader at Dem Bloggers (http://www.dembloggers.com), another Scoop site by the looks of it. This is a great site and has already made its way into my bookmarks.
with harassment and abuse. I’d even throw in kidnapping.
This is beyond sick and desperate, it’s criminal.
Perhaps a restraining order can be issued against these creeps to keep them away from her child and from calling the house. Although I’d personally prefer to see them arrested and forced to face a trial for their criminal behavior.
You know, there was a time when I would have said, It’s hard to imagine that this is true.
Now? I just sit back and wonder what’s coming next.
I think the evil ones have gotten away with all these terrible things because people just can’t believe it. And until enough stories are printed and talked about, many will go on not believing it.
So, while I think this stuff is pretty horrifying, I’m glad that someone is finally putting it out there.
One thing that struck me after reading the article:
First the military coerced Axel by telling him to do it for his family. “You don’t want to be a burden to your mom,” they told him. “Be a man.” “Make your father proud.” Stand up for his family. Be a man.
Then, at the end when he was trying to get away from them they told him to stand up to his family. “They were telling me I needed to ‘be a man’ and stand up to my family,” Axel said.
It sounds like a damn cult.
And thank god people are finally putting it out there for everyone to see.
Wow… I agree with all the sentiments and comments on here. My thought after reading this (in addition to the shock and outrage) was.. what kind of pressure are these recruiting officers under? And where is that pressure coming from?
I’d like to see a recruiting officer, anonymously if need be, step up and discuss what their life is like. What kind of quotas they have to enforce. What their guidelines are (if any) on recruitment.. and why does the military need so many new people?
And where exactly are all these borderline IQ, 17 yr old, non-English speaking, etc. soldiers going? Are they really going to Iraq? Are they working road blocks like the one where Giuliana Sgrena was shot?
As more time goes by where I live outside the United States and I read reports about what goes on inside the United States, I really honestly feel like I’m reading about some country I’ve never been to.. some country like the 1940’s Soviet Union or something. Sometimes I get a major shock because I realize hey holy crap that’s MY country.. and MY fellow Americans doing this to one another! It boggles my mind..
Pax
albeit under the authority of officers. All the actual work is done usually by NCOs, corporals and sergeants in the Marine Coprs, and equivalent ranks in the other branches
an ‘apathy discharge’? WTF is that?
dear hub is saying- ‘Oh well,NEVER MIND- sure – you get to walk if you get BORED?’
(mumble mumble-grrrrrrrrr)
Given the fact that the military continues to miss its recruiting goals by large margins, and also continues to make plans to continue these disastrous ventures overseas, I think its inevitable that a draft be instituted. Thus, I’ve applied to be a member of our local draft board. I figure, if there’s going to be a draft, I want democrats on the draft boards making decisions about deferments! If underprivileged kids must go to war, I want privileged republican kids going right along side them.
Just my .02 and a little bit of direct action.
I’d love for one of our talking heads to disrupt an interview on the Sunday Shows and bring this up, and pin down a Republican (or apologist, like say any Fox News shill) for their view on the topic.
Let the Republicans defend the natural consequence of their policies for a change. Or disavow it.
And they were worried about the condition Clinton (aka the Republican Congress) left the military in? Sheesh.
because they’re already saying it.
Today on MSNBC’s Connected Coast To Coast, Patty Patton-Bader, great-niece of General George S. Patton and the mother of a military recruiter, said that the recruiting incidents were the results of “a few bad apples” who shouldn’t besmirch the fine work military recruiters all across the country were doing. She said something to the effect of “We don’t get all up in arms about a few bad car salesmen or a few bad insurance brokers, why get upset about a few bad military recruiters?”
Ron Reagan’s answer was of course that a few bad insurancce salesmen weren’t getting anybody killed in Iraq as the result of a lie, which immediately turned into a three-way shouting match between Reagan, Patton-Bader and Reagan’s cohost.
Watch the video. It’s fascinating, and it’s great to see Cindy Sheehan of Gold Star Families for Peace rip into Patton-Bader.
Fucking fabulous!! Thank you for that video link. It is one of the most promising exchanges on this stupid fucking war I have ever seen thusfar. Cindy and Ron were calm and focused and spoke one clear sentence at a time. Reagans cohost and Patton-Bader spouted retorical statement after retorical statement and could barely breathe in responding to calm simple one sentence truthful statements from Reagan and Cindy. I feel America waking up some! It gives me hope.
“It’s not honorable to go and kill people who were no threat to the United States of America” – said by Cindy Sheehan who’s son died for George Bush’s imbecility.
although to be honest my favorite part was when Patton-Bader tried to tell Sheehan to “take some comfort in the fact that your son was over there doing what he wanted to do.”
“My son was not doing what he wanted to do,” she replied plainly and simply. “He wanted to be a chaplain’s aide. When he got in they told him his MOS was full and made him a humvee mechanic instead. They lied to him every step of the way.”
I don’t think that you could ask for a better spokesperson for getting us out of this mess at the moment than Cindy Sheehan.
I emailed Susan Paynter last night…she responded late, and indicated that she would post the leavemychildalone.org into in the article.
I haven’t seen it yet, but all one needs to do is plug in your zipcode, and opt-out your child, etc.
Pass the link around the internet, folks–@the top of the blogs & portals!
http://tinyurl.com/e38d2
Kids are vulnerable this summer, and most parents don’t have an iota of a clue about opt-out and FERPA (I certianly do, but who’s to say I’m “normal”)?
<g>
Pax~
Holly
Great! Did you tell Susan Paynter to stop by and see the reaction to her story?
Disgusting that people feel the need to protect their children from the institutions that are supposed to guarantee our safety.
The military has been tainted and broken. This administration and it’s braindead policies have done it.
We have already had one round of Army recruiting problems that got a lot of press and a one day stand down. What I am feeling is solid desperation. It seems to me that the whole family assessment that I had shoved down my throat two days ago is another symptom of how desperate they are to get boots on the ground for troop rotation.