well ain't this a surprise...
*...you meant to tell me black folks have become reluctant to join the military and fight petro-wars?
is it just that they see the shameful and shabby way that america uses it's soldiers , exposing them not only to bullets , rpg's , ied's ,and the psychological damage that comes with the guilt of taking part in shooting down or blowing up 100,000 men , women , the elderly and children, who were never any threat to the Us?
or is it also the thought of a lifetime of potentially incurable illness brought on from exposure to the dust from 4,000,000 pounds of depleted uranium munitions fired in iraq ?
could the reluctance to enlist have anything to do with how the Us sends people into combat , and then dumps the wounded and ruined gi's into va hospitals where care and treatment are more like third world than first ?
whatever the reasons , i do not blame any of my ethnic group , or any other ethnic group for NOT enlisting in the military to be used as oil-whores fighting oil-wars making energy companies and corporate defense contractors richer.
one can understand that times are hard economically and that black unemployment rates are, as usual , twice that of whites in america , but TIMES ARE ALWAYS HARD FOR US FINANCIALLY --- EVEN WHEN TIMES ARE "GOOD", BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT IS ALWAYS TWICE THAT OF WHITES... america is ALWAYS trying to entice black youth to serve a country that seems so reluctant to in turn , serve them .
soon after this war in iraq began ,i was at a local mall where i encountered a young man who remembered me from ten years ago when he and his sister were participants in an afterschool program at which i served as staff member .
he had grown so tall that i had to look up to talk to him now and was happy to see that he had avoided the drugs and prison traps that catch hold of and ruin so many of our young people .
i remember him and his sister as nice kids and i was glad to see that cedrick was gainfully employed , working there at the mall as a security guard ... but unfortunately , my smile was quickly faded by that pessimistic sinking feeling in my stomach's pit when he revealed that he had enlisted in the army --"for the benefits"--and the opportunity at something more than minimum wage, "dead end job" as a rentacop ---in order to meet their quotas , it seems recruiters are staking out the malls as well as the highschools now...
perhaps if cedrick and his sister had attended school in the suburbs with adequate books and learning materials ...perhaps if they had a school building that was not 100 years old and falling down --with roofing that gushed water inside classrooms at every heavy cloudburst and downpour -- with desks so old that some had been manufactured with holes cut in them to hold inkwells --or if young cedrick and those like him, had attended school in a building minus the everpresent rats and roaches ---WITH actual playground equipment for the children instead of a plastic milkcrate with the bottom cut out , nailed by kids to a tree serving as a basketball court--- maybe if cedrick and the kids like him had been properly served up a simple chance at a better future by the nation he was now preparing to go to war for ---perhaps with a chance equal to that given to so many of the suburban kids in this country, it's possible that cedrick and many of those like him would have opted NOT to serve in the Us military as canon fodder for a nation that so obviously did not give a damm about properly serving them...
america , until you treat us right and recognize that "i once slaved for you body and soul and made you a pile of black gold -- off the sweat of my labor you stole " ---that profits from 300 years of the atlantic slave trade financed the euro-american industrial revolution --that the economic foundations of today's euro-american wealth and technological superiority are based upon genocide , theft and enslavement against afrikans and american indians--- meaning for black people here , 250 years of economic robbery at gunpoint under chattel slavery and another 100 years of economic robbery at gunpoint and the lynchmob's rope under american jim-crow/ apartheid...admit that your great wealth and prosperity today are significantly the fruits of stolen labor ,on stolen land--- until you stop cheating , killing and murdering people today throughout the world simply because they live atop natural resources that feed your machines, it is my sincere hope that not one person -- of any color-- step forward to defend this rotten order of the status quo...we human beings can certainly do better than this present state of affairs...
US Army worried as blacks refuse to enlist disproportionately as always
By: TOM PHILPOTT North County Times on: 05.03.2005 [14:56 ] (569 reads)
US Army worried as blacks refuse to enlist disproportionately as always
The Army's wartime recruiting challenge is aggravated by a sharp drop in black enlistments in the last four years, which internal Army and Defense Department polls trace to an unpopular war in Iraq and concerns among blacks with Bush administration policies.
The Army strains to meet recruiting goals in part because black volunteers have fallen 41 percent ---- from 23.5 percent of recruits in fiscal 2000 down steadily to 13.9 percent in the first four months of fiscal 2005.
"It's alarming, said Maj. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, commanding general of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Ky. and one of the Army's most senior black officers, No single factor explains the drop, Rochelle added, but clearly the propensity of black youth to enlist is impacted by the war and increasingly by views of parents, teachers, coaches, clergy and other "influencers.
Officer recruiting is hit too. The number of blacks enrolled in the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps program is down 36 percent since 2001.Ý
The Marine Corps also reports a drop in black recruits but their recruit racial data is now suspect because of a government policy, effective Jan. 1, 2003, that allows recruits and all new federal workers to decline to identify their race. The Army has found a way to continue to track accurately its racial data, said S. Douglas Smith, spokesman for the recruiting command.
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat whose New York City district includes Harlem, said he isn't too surprised by the Army recruiting data.
"I have not found a black person in support of this war in my district, he said. "The fact that every member of the Congressional Black Caucus ---- emotionally, politically and vigorously ---- opposes this war is an indication of what black folks think throughout this country.
Results of the Defense Department's own Youth and Influencer Polls, conducted last May, affirm that administration policies and the Iraq war have lowered the propensity of black youth to enlist, particularly in the Army and Marine Corps, the ground forces taking most of the casualties.
Black youth unemployment remains above 10 percent, higher than for Latinos and double that of whites. Blacks also tend to view military pay as more attractive than do other racial groups. In years past, such factors enticed a disproportionate number of black youth to see opportunity in the Army. In some years since the draft ended in 1973, the percentage of blacks among Army volunteers approached 30 percent.
In fiscal 2000, blacks still represented almost a quarter of Army recruits. That percentage fell to 22.7 in 2001, 19.9 in 2002, 16.4 in 2003, 15.9 in 2004, and now to 13.9 percent through four months of fiscal 2005. No such decline has been seen among Latino or white recruits. Indeed their percentages among Army recruits grew during the first Bush administration.
Because blacks are 14 percent of all recruit-age youth, their recruiting numbers remain "acceptable, said Rochelle, proportional to blacks in society. But the steep drop in black recruits overall does hurt plans "to grow the Army, he conceded.
Another Army-directed poll, called the U.S. Military Image Study, is posted on a Defense Contracting Command Web site, likely by mistake. Based on interviews with 3,236 youth ages 16 to 24, this study says, "Recruiting an all-volunteer Army in times of war is increasingly difficult.''
Fear of being killed or injured was the top reason to avoid service for 26 percent of youth in 2004, almost double the 14 percent reported in 2000.
Poll data also show that more black parents, particularly mothers, worry that their children could be killed or injured in the war.
"If we were able to tell the Army story in a very balanced way to more young blacks, as well as to their influencers, then clearly the numbers would grow, said Rochelle. "I'm convinced of that.
is it just that they see the shameful and shabby way that america uses it's soldiers , exposing them not only to bullets , rpg's , ied's ,and the psychological damage that comes with the guilt of taking part in shooting down or blowing up 100,000 men , women , the elderly and children, who were never any threat to the Us?
or is it also the thought of a lifetime of potentially incurable illness brought on from exposure to the dust from 4,000,000 pounds of depleted uranium munitions fired in iraq ?
could the reluctance to enlist have anything to do with how the Us sends people into combat , and then dumps the wounded and ruined gi's into va hospitals where care and treatment are more like third world than first ?
whatever the reasons , i do not blame any of my ethnic group , or any other ethnic group for NOT enlisting in the military to be used as oil-whores fighting oil-wars making energy companies and corporate defense contractors richer.
one can understand that times are hard economically and that black unemployment rates are, as usual , twice that of whites in america , but TIMES ARE ALWAYS HARD FOR US FINANCIALLY --- EVEN WHEN TIMES ARE "GOOD", BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT IS ALWAYS TWICE THAT OF WHITES... america is ALWAYS trying to entice black youth to serve a country that seems so reluctant to in turn , serve them .
soon after this war in iraq began ,i was at a local mall where i encountered a young man who remembered me from ten years ago when he and his sister were participants in an afterschool program at which i served as staff member .
he had grown so tall that i had to look up to talk to him now and was happy to see that he had avoided the drugs and prison traps that catch hold of and ruin so many of our young people .
i remember him and his sister as nice kids and i was glad to see that cedrick was gainfully employed , working there at the mall as a security guard ... but unfortunately , my smile was quickly faded by that pessimistic sinking feeling in my stomach's pit when he revealed that he had enlisted in the army --"for the benefits"--and the opportunity at something more than minimum wage, "dead end job" as a rentacop ---in order to meet their quotas , it seems recruiters are staking out the malls as well as the highschools now...
perhaps if cedrick and his sister had attended school in the suburbs with adequate books and learning materials ...perhaps if they had a school building that was not 100 years old and falling down --with roofing that gushed water inside classrooms at every heavy cloudburst and downpour -- with desks so old that some had been manufactured with holes cut in them to hold inkwells --or if young cedrick and those like him, had attended school in a building minus the everpresent rats and roaches ---WITH actual playground equipment for the children instead of a plastic milkcrate with the bottom cut out , nailed by kids to a tree serving as a basketball court--- maybe if cedrick and the kids like him had been properly served up a simple chance at a better future by the nation he was now preparing to go to war for ---perhaps with a chance equal to that given to so many of the suburban kids in this country, it's possible that cedrick and many of those like him would have opted NOT to serve in the Us military as canon fodder for a nation that so obviously did not give a damm about properly serving them...
america , until you treat us right and recognize that "i once slaved for you body and soul and made you a pile of black gold -- off the sweat of my labor you stole " ---that profits from 300 years of the atlantic slave trade financed the euro-american industrial revolution --that the economic foundations of today's euro-american wealth and technological superiority are based upon genocide , theft and enslavement against afrikans and american indians--- meaning for black people here , 250 years of economic robbery at gunpoint under chattel slavery and another 100 years of economic robbery at gunpoint and the lynchmob's rope under american jim-crow/ apartheid...admit that your great wealth and prosperity today are significantly the fruits of stolen labor ,on stolen land--- until you stop cheating , killing and murdering people today throughout the world simply because they live atop natural resources that feed your machines, it is my sincere hope that not one person -- of any color-- step forward to defend this rotten order of the status quo...we human beings can certainly do better than this present state of affairs...
US Army worried as blacks refuse to enlist disproportionately as always
By: TOM PHILPOTT North County Times on: 05.03.2005 [14:56 ] (569 reads)
US Army worried as blacks refuse to enlist disproportionately as always
The Army's wartime recruiting challenge is aggravated by a sharp drop in black enlistments in the last four years, which internal Army and Defense Department polls trace to an unpopular war in Iraq and concerns among blacks with Bush administration policies.
The Army strains to meet recruiting goals in part because black volunteers have fallen 41 percent ---- from 23.5 percent of recruits in fiscal 2000 down steadily to 13.9 percent in the first four months of fiscal 2005.
"It's alarming, said Maj. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, commanding general of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Ky. and one of the Army's most senior black officers, No single factor explains the drop, Rochelle added, but clearly the propensity of black youth to enlist is impacted by the war and increasingly by views of parents, teachers, coaches, clergy and other "influencers.
Officer recruiting is hit too. The number of blacks enrolled in the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps program is down 36 percent since 2001.Ý
The Marine Corps also reports a drop in black recruits but their recruit racial data is now suspect because of a government policy, effective Jan. 1, 2003, that allows recruits and all new federal workers to decline to identify their race. The Army has found a way to continue to track accurately its racial data, said S. Douglas Smith, spokesman for the recruiting command.
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat whose New York City district includes Harlem, said he isn't too surprised by the Army recruiting data.
"I have not found a black person in support of this war in my district, he said. "The fact that every member of the Congressional Black Caucus ---- emotionally, politically and vigorously ---- opposes this war is an indication of what black folks think throughout this country.
Results of the Defense Department's own Youth and Influencer Polls, conducted last May, affirm that administration policies and the Iraq war have lowered the propensity of black youth to enlist, particularly in the Army and Marine Corps, the ground forces taking most of the casualties.
Black youth unemployment remains above 10 percent, higher than for Latinos and double that of whites. Blacks also tend to view military pay as more attractive than do other racial groups. In years past, such factors enticed a disproportionate number of black youth to see opportunity in the Army. In some years since the draft ended in 1973, the percentage of blacks among Army volunteers approached 30 percent.
In fiscal 2000, blacks still represented almost a quarter of Army recruits. That percentage fell to 22.7 in 2001, 19.9 in 2002, 16.4 in 2003, 15.9 in 2004, and now to 13.9 percent through four months of fiscal 2005. No such decline has been seen among Latino or white recruits. Indeed their percentages among Army recruits grew during the first Bush administration.
Because blacks are 14 percent of all recruit-age youth, their recruiting numbers remain "acceptable, said Rochelle, proportional to blacks in society. But the steep drop in black recruits overall does hurt plans "to grow the Army, he conceded.
Another Army-directed poll, called the U.S. Military Image Study, is posted on a Defense Contracting Command Web site, likely by mistake. Based on interviews with 3,236 youth ages 16 to 24, this study says, "Recruiting an all-volunteer Army in times of war is increasingly difficult.''
Fear of being killed or injured was the top reason to avoid service for 26 percent of youth in 2004, almost double the 14 percent reported in 2000.
Poll data also show that more black parents, particularly mothers, worry that their children could be killed or injured in the war.
"If we were able to tell the Army story in a very balanced way to more young blacks, as well as to their influencers, then clearly the numbers would grow, said Rochelle. "I'm convinced of that.
posted by dsekou at 9:37 AM
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