OK, first yesterday… We checked out a bunch of farmland, and then visited Ryan and Corrie and Eurrrrgh who arrived in his late seventies Trans-Am as old Guns'n'Roses was playing on the porch speakers. We had supper in Belleville — I'd forgotten how weird it is to have literally everyone in a restaurant staring at you. Which reminds me — the Zip-up Zombie hoodies are in stock, at least partially (XL only), and as I write this there are seven left. The design really turned out nice, and we made this cool logo for the front:
Now there's a piece of news that I wanted to know if it's true, or if it's some sort of “April Fools” type story. Anyway, in the Casco Bay Weekly they have an article entitled “Enlist or else” with a photo of these two guys:
Some kids say they were verbally abused by recruiters, who called them "fucking bums" and "worthless kids" when they refused to join up. They say recruiters offered them rides from school, work or home to discuss their future plans at recruiting offices... It's typical for kids nearing high school graduation to get phone calls from the military promising money, great benefits and travel..."They told me I would be a fucking bum if I didn't join the Army," the Portland teen said. "After I took their verbal abuse, they sent me out in the January cold with no ride home." Woods said he tried to get out of enlisting over the phone, but was told he'd have to come down to the recruitment office to do so, face to face. A recruiter picked him up at his house, drove him to the South Portland office and demanded a reason for changing his mind.
This seems really weird to me… Does the US military really do this to kids, and more importantly, why would they want these kids to join? I'm not at all suggesting that these kids are incompetant, but if they don't want to be in the army, they're not going to be good soldiers. Here it's actually really hard work to get into the military and you have to really want it… It's no wonder the US has one of the lowest grade militaries in the world if this is how it's staffing itself!
Someone please tell me that article is just an odd joke…?
Update: Dozens of people have messaged me confirming that they had identical experiences to those described in the article… Goddamn is America a weird place! Seriously, it really disturbs me that the military machine there is so hungry for cannon fodder. It really puts the new Army video game into a much more propagandist and indoctrinatorial context!
