Ohanian Comment: We need to protect our youth. Seattle is making an effort. They break up their student directories, giving parents the opportunity to opt out solely from the list that goes to military recruiters.
"People have to remember that Iraq is the size of California and Baghdad is the size of Los Angeles. If the news reported all the deaths in Los Angeles on a daily basis no one would ever go to Disneyland."
--Lt. Col. Patrick Nary, U.S. Army 6th Recruiting Brigade
I posted about this issue from a workshop at the SOA Watch. And it is essential to remember that compulsory attendance, originally a soft paternalism for poor children, is a police system we enable across our country that has made us far more accepting of authoritarian structures, of coerced activity, and, at least in my opinion, contributes, on a psychological level, to our inability to stay out of war.
As the 20th century saw the demise of the community structures that surrounded the new public schools, the police system created by compulsory attendance laws remains stronger than ever.
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