Category:

A funny thing happened.

12/11/2013

I keep a sharp eye on the school calendar as the school has implemented a policy that ALL recruitment visits, be they college or military, are to be listed online at least 2 weeks prior to the visit.

A couple of weeks ago, on a whim, I double checked the calendar and there was a Naval Academy presentation that got added to the calendar a mere 5 minutes before it was to begin!

I make it a point to be on campus for any military presence and I could not be there on 5 minutes notice.

I contacted the school right away and the councilor and the the principal got back to me to explain that it was an oversight and not an intentional action that would have prevented me from being there for the presentation.

Do I believe them?
*********************************************

Here is a great video that I just watched.

I like the idea that children can be solicited to go to a college and if they change their minds during the course of that commitment - they can move on.

Not so with the military.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kcz7NFrPUg0

Pertinent Cartoon!

1 Comment

My Part Time Job

11/21/2013

2 Comments

I no longer protest in front of the school each morning. I no longer pester the principal and councilor and school board about policy changes. I accept that I got the most egregious actions changed at this school district.

However, I still go and sit and "monitor" the military recruiters when they come soliciting.

That is my part time job. I like it. I have to go less and less as time goes on. This is my 4th year of being a "monitor" and each year fewer and fewer military recruiters opt to travel to this small rural school district. Go figure.

I still have strong feelings that children should not be solicited for any future endeavors that they cannot get out of, if they change their mind. I mean, you and I likely have the option of looking for another job, or car or spouse. The military does not give children that option.

I plan on being the "monitor" for years to come. It does not take too much of my time, and as a friend told me, "You may be saving many lives here and around the world." I had to think about that and I admit she may be right.

I would totally suggest that anyone who wishes to save lives, go be a "monitor" at your local public school. Thank you.

2 Comments

Read this article.

4/2/2013

0 Comments

This is what military recruiters do not tell you.

Read this article written by soldier.

0 Comments

One person

1/27/2013

0 Comments

Me, myself and I are really just a total sum of one.
As they saying goes, "One person can make a difference."
Yes.
Yes they can.
That one person was me.
That one person could just as easily be you too.
Really.
Give it a try.

Here I am - one person - protesting in front of a school district that has less than 500 children.

I protested every school day for 6 months.

The district had an open-door policy for armed forces recruiters to woo 7th-12th graders when I began to ask for change.

Change did not come quickly nor did all the changes I asked for come to fruition.

Change DID happen.

See that picture?

One person.

One.

0 Comments

Get a job.

11/2/2012

0 Comments

How does military training translate into the real job market?
Here is Jon Stewart's take on it.

Turns out, not so much....

0 Comments

Tell the truth.

10/25/2012

0 Comments

Yesterday was the first day of this school year that a military recruiter was scheduled at the small rural school my kid attends.

I go to the school every time a military recruiter is scheduled and sit in the same room they are in, so I can listen to what they tell children.

Yesterday, when I signed it, I noticed that there were 3, yes THREE Navy recruiters who signed in right before me.

There is a place in the login book to state your reason for visiting.

Their reason was, get this... "Navy Awareness."

WTF

Is their job called Navy Awareness, or is it called, Navy Recruiter.

Geez.

I signed in as usual as - Military Monitor.
I was truthful.

This is the kind of area that armed forces recruiters like.

The Navy recruiter who is the regular guy, is being sent elsewhere and there is a new recruiter on the block.

The new guy had been briefed about me, no doubt about that.

He gave me such a glaring stink-eye!

Ha.

Stink-eye don't scare me, buddy.

I walked over and stuck out my hand and introduced myself and
MADE HIM SHAKE MY HAND.
ha ha!
I looked him right in his stink-eye glare and smiled.

He kept up his pouty resentful attitude, and I did not care.

Maybe next time I should login and my purpose will be
Military Predator Awareness Monitor.

0 Comments

Ch Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes....

9/13/2012

0 Comments

Change can happen in many ways.

Last year my "scoreboard" protest sign was very effective
in getting my point across.

I have not carried a sign so far this year.

There appears to be some residual waves of change with the school district.

They will not allow military recruiters to place "holds" on calendar dates to recruit children at the school.
They will have to actually confirm a week ahead that they will be at the school and THEN the district will put their recruiting day on the calendar.
That makes sense.
Duh.

Just a little reminder of a not-so-warm welcome for me last year.

Here is something kind of interesting:
On the School District's calendar there are 5 - yes count them FIVE - colleges scheduled to show up in the next month or so.

FIVE.
Last YEAR it was maybe - and a BIG maybe - 2 colleges showed up.

I went through the visitor log book VERY carefully to verify my information.

So how very very interesting to see SO MANY at the very beginning of the year and NO military recruiters yet.

OK - so not all the scheduled colleges are what I would call, uh, top tier, or even tier-worthy colleges... but it amuses me to see how MANY there are on the calendar.

Maybe a kid from a small poverty ridden rural school district will actually see some more post secondary educational opportunities presented to them at their own school.

Imagine that.

Keep in mind that one person can effect change.

It could be you.

I will only "honk" for college recruiters.
I am funny that way...

0 Comments

College won't do this to a person.

9/4/2012

1 Comment

The writer of the letter below sent it to me after we published the story last week about veterans in the prison system. We exchanged a couple of emails and she granted me permission to post her letter here, with identifying details expunged. I've changed her name in the opening sentence:

My name is Margaret. I am the wife of an Active Duty Soldier. My husband has served 4 tours in Iraq beginning during the invasion of the war. When he returned from the initial invasion he was changed forever, I don't think we realize just how much until later on.

He began to drink, he was angry, he was depressed, he was forgetful, he was everything but the man he left. Less then 1 year later he was preparing to leave for his 2nd tour in Iraq. He had at this point received 2 DUI's and was a mess. He asked for help and was blown off. He was given pills, take these and get on a plane is what they wanted him to do.

He did take them.. He took them all at once. I found him in the bathroom laid in the floor. I was so lucky his battle buddy had stopped by, we were able to get him into a car and to the hospital down the street. When they pumped his stomach and finally got him alert he said I didn't want to die, I just wanted out. Out of his own head and the nightmare in it. He didn't even realize what he was doing to himself.

His Command showed up and did everything within their power to stomp him even further into the ground, people who had not even deployed before to know what he was going thru. People who could go to sleep at night without smelling dead bodies burning and hearing children scream as they were burned or shot to death. People who didn't see blood and body parts every time they closed their eyes were the ones making decisions for his care. They locked him away in a mental ward for 3 days. Then they released him.. Within a month he was on a plane to Iraq again.

This story just repeats with the deployments. During R&R on the 4th deployment I was going thru a file cabinet at home. He was not drinking (he stopped on his own after his 2nd tour he really wanted to try to fix himself). I was stooped down, I'm not sure if I moved the wrong way, but he blacked out and the next thing I know, he has me on the ground like I'm the bad guy.. I was bruised with a broken rib and he had no idea what had happened. I had him put in jail, not because I was upset with him, but because it was the ONLY way I could get his Command to help him.

When they arrested him I called right away to get him out and he spent less then 2
hours in jail. However, he was able to stay on the Rear and get help! I can remember times where he would be clearing the house at night when others slept. One time he was having a nightmare and I was terrified to wake him up. He grabbed me by my ankles and pulled me out of the bed onto the ground I assume he thought he was tieing up the bad guys?

He feels like he is floating in a fog when he is awake if he doesn't have his medications. When he is medicated he can't really function, but he at least can be in the house to watch tv with the kids or sit to have dinner with us. My husband was prepping to leave for his 5th tour this time to Afghanistan when a Dr finally stepped in and said I think you've had enough. His Command was unhappy with this so they put him in for a Medical Board and that's what we are in the middle of now.

My husband has not gone to a store to shop in years, he can't attend ball games with our children unless he can see the field from sitting in our vehicle, he can't go to dinner at a crowded place, he doesn't want people to come to our house to entertain, he doesn't speak to anyone but me.

I am married to my better half, my heart and at 32 years old he is broken. Physically and emotionally broken. He has adhesions on his lungs from the burn pits, he has had numerous invasive procedures on his back from wearing gear that has grinded his bone and discs away, he has no feeling in his left side most times from that putting pressure on his nerve, he has no memory of present events or short term memory, he has no empathy or emotion regarding anything. No conversation whether he is angry, mad or sad is anything but monotone.

He has sleep apnea so bad from breathing issues to the point he needs surgery, he has shin splints and hairline fractures in his feet and legs from deployments, the list just goes on and on... Everyday the Army breaks these boys and then they toss them out with nothing near the pay they are used to, yet so used up at 32.

The Dr doesn't know if he will ever be able to hold another job. If you say you need a mental health eval or you're sick you're shunned, called names and you just aren't allowed, yet they want to know why on average a Service member commits suicide 1 person every single day. One suicide is too many, 1 a day is a travesty.

Our children have suffered thru moves, deployments and now not having a Father, but now they have to worry about possibly not having health care or money to pay the bills at such a young age, because I will have to get us moved, find a job that can support us and then I have to be able to take care of my husband a special needs child, 2 other children all at the same time, because our Country broke my husband. Yet, who's there to advocate for them? There is no one, not here, anyways.

You go to the Army they send you to someone else who keeps passing you around, there is no integrated system at all to help these guys, to track them and know they will be taken care of.. It's such a heartbreak..

The point of my email was that I am so glad that people like yourself just put out the facts, it's happening there isn't anyone tracking it and people need to open their eyes and understand there are underlying causes for many of these men and they need help!

Thanks!

-Margaret

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/2012/08/i_am_married_to_my_better_half.html

1 Comment

School is out.

6/30/2012

0 Comments

School is out and I am not carrying my protest sign each school morning.

I miss seeing the nice people that I met over the 6 months that I walked my protest beat.

Am I done?

I have a few more things to get done at this school district - so, no, I am not done.

Kids at this small rural school district still need a policy that will not allow recruiters to directly ask for a student's contact information.

That is just wrong.

Even one of the very pro-miltary moms who spoke to me this last year agreed with me on that.

Stay tuned.
:)

0 Comments

A lovely morning for a protest

6/6/2012

0 Comments

This morning The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth joined me.
Boy! I did not feel alone at all with a whole group walking with me.

It was cloudy this morning - but not raining and I was able to get a quick photo of NNOMY and me on our protest beat.

0 Comments

<<Previous

A funny thing happened.

My Part Time Job

Read this article.

One person

Get a job.

Tell the truth.

This is the kind of area that armed forces recruiters like.

Ch Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes....

Just a little reminder of a not-so-warm welcome for me last year.

I will only "honk" for college recruiters.
I am funny that way...

College won't do this to a person.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/2012/08/i_am_married_to_my_better_half.html

School is out.

A lovely morning for a protest

Author

Archives

Categories

This is the kind of area that armed forces recruiters like.

Just a little reminder of a not-so-warm welcome for me last year.

I will only "honk" for college recruiters.I am funny that way...

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/2012/08/i_am_married_to_my_better_half.html

Author

Archives

Categories

I will only "honk" for college recruiters.
I am funny that way...