There is one aspect of army recruiters’ presence on campus that I cannot abide, no matter how much I struggle to keep an open mind; the fact that they represent an organization that subsists on a poverty draft.
A poverty draft is the term for when no legal draft exists, but poor people are drawn into the military because they feel they have no choice. And here are recruiters on high school and community college campuses — the two places where people feel most vulnerable when the topic of education costs arises.
That recruiters target schools with large lower-income populations tells us there is no other way to convince people to join the army. Because, really, when you convince people to join the army because it offers a “way out” of your troubles, what happens to the values of patriotism, serving your country, protecting others, doing the right thing? Irrelevant. Do army recruiters drop by corporate events to deliver their pitches to businessmen in suits?
Our system is no longer based on values, but simply on need; poor people join the army because it looks like a way out. If you’re poor, you will receive little or no health care. You probably won’t be able to afford an education, unable to get higher-paying jobs and move upward on the social ladder. That seems unfair, but if you want to change it and you have no money, you probably would be unable to influence politics through unions or petitions because you lack those ever-crucial funds.
So if I were poor, I would have to be out of my mind not to take the easy way out and join the army. And hey, there’s a chance I wouldn’t even see any combat — especially since I’m a woman, and women aren’t technically allowed in combat. And as a woman, statistically, I would also earn less in any job I take, so why not join up? They’re being chivalrous. I’m good enough to join up, but too valuable and fragile to get shot. But the injured party here is the males. How does it feel to be expendable, guys?
Army recruiters are under incredible pressure to get a number of people hooked, and I suspect that they’re unhappy not just because they’re asked to do the impossible, but also to convince people who have their entire lives ahead of them to put themselves in danger. I think they’re unhappy because they know what they’re made to do is unjust.
