Yesterday SusanHu posted an article about a young man named Axil Cobb, who was essentially stalked and then kidnapped by the USMC. Fortunately for Axil, his mother had the resources and wherewithal to get him back. Link
Ever Jandres was/is not so fortunate.
As I noted on the aforementioned thread, Axil’s situation was similar to that of Ever Jandres, whose plight had made the news (both in print and on the web) back in mid-May. Ever Jandres’ story.
Wondering what had become of Ever (especially in light of the positive outcome of Ms. Cobb’s protest on behalf of her son), I did a web search and could not find anything past the initial report of Ever’s induction. So, I emailed Ms. Phillips (she and her husband are working to free Ever) and got the following response:
We not only have no understanding on how this assessment was made (certainly not by medical history) i.e. their say so. This official response also completely ignores any of the other glaring issues of recruitment aggression and outright prevarication to the family and the recruit.
We continue to work through Congressman Berman.
Sincerely, Abbie Phillips
I can’t help but see the racism and the classism in the differing outcomes. Many people have commented recently about the “young white middle-class woman in danger” news stories — to the effect that people (non-white, working- or poverty-class, older, etc) go missing everyday in the US, usually without much fanfare from the press.
Mr. Jandres is Latino, and to many people’s way of thinking, did not have any better “prospects” than those “offered ” to him by the Army. Hence the lack of press follow-up — and Ever’s continued plight.
Even though I’m an ex-pat living in Australia, I’m still registered to vote in California. And I will be writing my congressional representatives. If you are in a position to add your voice to this matter, I hope you will do so as well.
pax, keres
(my appologies for any spelling/grammer mistakes – I’m dyslexic)