Imagine waking up with the plight of our military on your heart. Your young people, your nieces and nephews ( kind of sounds like the name of deer, doesn't it?), your children and grandchildren, they have a patriotism that is to be honored, whether it is to resist the so called "war efforts" or to lay their lives down because of it. One should not taint the other but I remember the real fall out from Viet Nam oh too well and how well those were treated who made it home, how many so called M.I.A.'s found it difficult to call themselves American after what they were asked to do there, so they just stayed there, never bothering to come home, a reverse AWOL of sorts. I remember how those protesting the war in the first place went to Canada. They were seen as traitors, chicken shits but it took a brave soul to leave your life, your family behind in order to protest the war, to do what all Americans are promised (at least on paper where everything these days looks like something it ain't) and that is to give voice to your dissent. I woke with this on my heart.
So I did what I used to do every day or night upon waking and that was to turn on the television. Usually I opt for C-SPAN but I turned to channel 5 news, shocked that it was on at 3 am. They showed a funeral of a young man from my area who died in a copter crash in Iraq a month ago. He has been on my mind as his death has been in our news papers for the past few days. He had a beautiful young wife and two beautiful children, tons of friends who loved him and a mama who could be a friend of mine. He was a whopping 30-years-old. It was for them he served. He felt our freedoms were in jeopardy as long as others were deprived of freedom. So he served us, served our country in the way he felt was important. He went beyond the need to be called an honorable man by us. In my heart I thank Marine 1st Lt. Dustin Shumney and all others overseas. As I sat there feeling my heart being pierced by the sting of war "No Child Left Behind" was mentioned. My life force left temporarily when I heard...
They are telling all high schools that recruitment for the military must be allowed or federal funding will be cut in those schools. This No Child Left Behind deal is turning into the back door draft John Kerry warned us about. In every high school in California there are posters promising our kids better education for a minimum of service. Meanwhile teachers who point out the truth are having their jobs threatened in a state where we are already terribly short of teachers. The teachers are telling students that freedom begins here at home but I guess that is a bad bad message that the message to bring an underterminable freedom to other countries means something; whereas our freedom is that bad bad thing.
No Child Left Behind--Back Door Draft?
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