When I was a lad (8 to 16) my parents would send me "up north" to Aunt Lee and Uncle Curt's place in Bayside, Ca.. Bayside was a little town about half way between Eureka and Arcata. This was rural country. I mean rural. People living on a few acres of land raising vegetables, corn, potatoes and berries. There were barns to play in and a "crick" running through the back yard (if you could brave the stinging nettles to get to it).
There were pumps to bring the water up from the crick and they burned their trash in a 55 gallon drum in the back yard. There were no street lights and nobody wanted them.
You had to cross the neighbors sheep pasture to go hiking in the Redwoods across the street.
Being a "city boy" this was my training ground for doing real chores. I could sleep in as late as I wanted, but I was always given something to do the next day. Mow the back section, weed the corn, paint the fence, roto-till the bean patch. When my project was done, I was free to go off on my own (Just remember, suppers at 4:30 and if your more than 15 minutes late...).
At that time, I thought most of the folk up there were ancient, you know in the 40's to 60's, but I loved talking to these "old farts", they were real people, They had jobs, plus they worked their little bit of land because they liked doing it, or they were retired and loved keeping busy. My Uncle Curt was around 70 when I stared going up there, had gone through 2 heart attacks and was still up at dawn (literally) and doing something around the place until Aunt Lee got breakfast cooked.
The reason I'm telling you about this childhood experience is last night I read an article that made me realize that this bit of heaven probably doesn't exist anymore.
Calif. towns challenge feds on military recruitingTwo towns nestled in the rugged coastline and the liberal politics of Northern California have fought the federal government by banning the U.S. military from recruiting minors within their city limits.
Arcata — a town known for taking a stand against the USA Patriot Act and repeatedly passing symbolic measures to impeach President George W. Bush — approved in November an ordinance that would limit Armed Forces recruiters' ability to contact people under 18. And so did nearby Eureka, the Humboldt County seat.
My G-d, the people I knew living there 40 years ago would die all over again if they knew what that area has become.
"We fully expected a challenge, and we got it," said David Meserve, 60, a builder of environmentally friendly homes and former Arcata City Council member who spearheaded the measure. "But more importantly, people are becoming aware there is a problem — and the problem is the recruiting of minors."
The problem is...they don't recruit minors. They offer them a job opportunity to consider when they become adults.
"You will find that establishing trust and credibility with students, even seventh- and eighth-graders, can positively impact your high school and post-secondary school recruiting effort," reads The Recruiter Handbook, published in 2008 by the United States Army Recruiting Command.
The push to reach the young makes sense. A 2007 Department of Defense study found that at 16 years old, more than 25 percent of students considered joining the Armed Forces. By the time they were 21, only 15 percent considered joining.
Gee, going into the Army when you're 16 and getting to play with guns, tanks and other things that go boom sounds great...but a most get older, they realize there are other opportunities available and maybe they don't want to join the military.
My boy was Army from when he was around 8 or 9. Not through my pushing...and
certainly not through his Mother's. He cut his hair short, wore camo and joined AFJROTC all on his own. I expected him to just enlist when he graduated, but he waited until he was 20.
So all those talks with recruiters, his paramilitary classes and his natural inclination to join where weighed out. I didn't know he had enlisted until the deal was done.
Meserve said he took up the fight one morning while sitting in a coffee shop and overhearing a National Guard recruiter giving three high school girls a hard sell. The sharply dressed young man bought them fancy coffee drinks and pitched the career opportunities, the scholarships, the camaraderie, while assuring them there was virtually no chance they would end up in a war zone, Meserve said.
This was in 2005, when members of the National Guard were regularly being sent to Iraq, he said.
"Hard Sell", I would guess that would be talking about all the positive aspects of the job. Like "We'll start you out mopping and cleaning, but soon you'll be on the fryer, then, you'll be running the grill and if you develop people skills working the register it's just a small step to Manager. From there you learn the knowledge to open your own franchise and then...Whoa...the money just rolls in".
The lawyer argues the ordinances prevent abuses without interfering with the federal government's ability to fill the ranks of the military. Anyone, independent of age, can still reach out to the military, he said, and recruiters are free to contact adults.
"If they don't contact minors, they can still meet their goals," Yamauchi said. "We believe there are limits to the federal power to recruit children."
They want to make this ordinance legal? Write it so that
NO COMPANY can contact minors for jobs. That means no advertising a position unless specifically stated that those under 18 need their parents written permission to apply for the job.
My son chose to join the Army. He had my full support to do so, when he finished High School, and he had his Mom that was dead set against it. He waited until he was sure that he was doing what he wanted in his own time, in spite of the years of "hard sell" by his recruiters.
I can't say it enough. I'm damn proud of him!
He's going to Korea at the end of the month and it scares the hell out of me. It's a tossup whether Korea or the Middle East is the most dangerous place to be right now, but my son is going to be in Korea, so that makes it the most dangerous to me.
To all those anti-military communist assholes that have taken over a part of the country I use to love,
FU!!
