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In a recent editorial for the
Internet news service Truthout, William Rivers Pitt argues that the administrative
and political similarities between the former Soviet Union and the United
States now are dangerously striking. “The old Soviet government,” says Pitts,
“lived in a bubble, free from the fear that they might be called on the
carpet for lying, getting a lot of people killed and putting the state in
mortal danger.” It was Soviet delusions of invincibility that led that nation
into the quagmire of Afghanistan. We all know where our delusions of power
and grandeur have gotten us. Yet the similarities between
the Soviet regime and our present administration do not extend only to
foreign policy. The stability of the Soviet state and the continuity of its
communist overlords depended on the state’s ability to control its citizens
by eliminating any notion of individual privacy rights. Tremendously liberal
investigative powers were granted to the KGB, or secret police, leaving
citizens at the mercy of an omnipresent overseer. Could the same thing happen
here? Perhaps not, though the warning signs should not be ignored. Tossing to the winds the
respected conservative mantra of non-intrusion into the private affairs of
citizens, the Bush administration and its Republican allies have urged that,
as part of the extension of the Patriot Act, the FBI be given free rein to
access anyone’s financial, medical, employment and library records without
the approval of a judge. Furthermore, persons targeted
for such an invasion of privacy would not be informed of this infringement,
nor would a bank, employer or library official be allowed to inform them that
they were under investigation. Backed primarily by
Republicans, including Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-1st), this bill sailed
through the House of Representatives last Thursday. The Senate has yet to
vote on it. Even more sinister is a
little-known provision of the highly touted No Child Left Behind Act. On October 9, 2002, then
Secretary of Education Rod Paige and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
sent to the Virginia Department of Education a letter indicating that, in
accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act, “military recruiters are
entitled to receive the names, addresses and telephone numbers of juniors and
seniors in high school.” This “student directory” would be used “specifically for armed services recruiting
purposes.” According to Jackie Bell of
the State Department of Education,
all Virginia schools, public or private, that receive federal funds must
comply with this request. Failure to do so would result in a loss of federal
funds. To date, the Department of
Defense has developed a national high school database that gives recruiters
access to students in 95% of the nation’s 22,000 secondary schools. In addition to names and
addresses, recruiters may also receive information about students from
yearbooks, honor roll statistics, graduation programs and sports activity
sheets listing the height and weight of team members. What most parents fail to
realize is that they can opt out of such intrusive shenanigans by signing a
form that all schools are compelled to send them. Even then, however, the
information about their children will remain in the database. The opt-out
form simply means that the student will not be contacted by the military. Citizen opposition to this
Soviet-style invasion of privacy appears to be mounting. Calling itself Main
Street Moms Operation Blue, a group representing mainstream moms and dads has
formed in San Diego and elsewhere to oppose the appearance of recruiters on
high school campuses. They are especially opposed to the recruitment of
minors and the fact that recruiters tend to target Latinos and blacks. Some
recruiters, they claim, have even been accused of sexual misconduct,
including sexual harassment and rape.
Most important is their
recommendation that opt out forms and the military recruitment clause of the
No Child Left Behind Act be posted on the websites of all local school
districts. While many school systems have already complied, a good number,
including the Williamsburg-James City schools, have not. In fact, if you go to the WJC
schools website and type “No Child Left Behind Act – military recruitment” in
their search field, you’re sent to links for Marine and Army recruiters.
“Contact a Marine Recruiter,” says one link.
Or, if you type “opt out of military recruitment,” you’re sent once
again to a link urging you to “join the US Army.” At the very least, our local
school system should post the same information about No Child Left Behind and
the opt-out option as is found on the not-so-user-friendly website of the
State Department of Education. As a result of the mucky mess
in Iraq and the upwardly spiraling death tolls associated with it, the
military services are having great difficulty meeting their recruitment
goals. Parents quite rightly have no interest in seeing their sons and
daughters play the role of cannon fodder in a war that should never have been
fought. That the Department of Defense
has been allowed by law to sneak behind the backs of parents to recruit their
offspring is as outrageous as the House-granted powers of the FBI to pillage
the privacy of any American citizen as part of their fishing expeditions for
alleged terrorists. Are these steps along the path
to becoming another single-party Soviet-style state? You better believe
it. |
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lewleadbeater.com Copyright 2002 All Rights Reserved
email: LWL@lewleadbeater.com |
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