Before You Enlist Video - http://beforeyouenlist.org
Researching Pop Culture and Militarism - https://nnomy.org/popcultureandmilitarism/
If you have been Harassed by a Military Recruiter - https://www.afsc.org/resource/military-recruiter-abuse-hotline
War: Turning now to Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson - Christian Science Monitor
WHAT IS IN THIS KIT? - https://nnomy.org/backtoschoolkit/
Click through to find out
Religion and militarism - https://nnomy.org/religionandmilitarism/
‘A Poison in the System’: Military Sexual Assault - New York Times
Change your Mind?
Talk to a Counselor at the GI Rights Hotline
Ask that your child's information is denied to Military Recruiters
And monitor that this request is honored.
Military Recruiters and Programs Target marginalized communities for recruits...
..and the high schools in those same communities

 Militarization of our Schools

The Pentagon is taking over our poorer public schools. This is the reality for disadvantaged youth.

 

What we can do

Corporate/conservative alliances threaten Democracy . Progressives have an important role to play.

 Why does NNOMY matter?

Most are blind or indifferent to the problem.
A few strive to protect our democracy.

Articles

California Selective Service Bill Set for Hearing in Sacramento April 9th


The “opt-out” provision in SB-1081 is deceptive and entrapment

March 10, 2024 / Edward Hasbrouck / Resistance News - A bill to automatically register draft-age applicants for California driver’s licenses with the Selective Service System (SSS) has been set for its first first hearing in Room 1200 of the State Capitol Annex “Swing Space” building, 1021 O St. in Sacramento (2 blocks south of the Capitol) in Sacramento at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, before the Senate Committee on Transportation. Only in-person testimony will be accepted, with no remote testimony or livestream, but written testimony can be submitted until April 1, 2024.

The hearing on April 9th will be only the first of several, if the bill moves forward, but will set the tone for debate on the bill.

Here’s what you can do:

  •  Testify in person at the hearing in Sacramento on April 9th. (Witnesses typically are allowed only 2-3 minutes each at the open mike at a hearing like this, but while you are in Sacramento you can visit your state Senator and Assembly representative to ask them to oppose SB-1081. If you have more than you can say in two minutes, you can submit a more detailed statement in advance, and summarize it in person, which calls more attention to your written submission.)

  • Organizations (including California and national organizations) and individuals can submit letters of opposition to SB-1081 by April 1st.

  • Californians can contact your state Senators and Assembly members (at their district offices if you can’t make it to Sacramento), to urge them to oppose SB-1081 or any similar bill in the Assembly. It’s especially important to contact members of the Senate and Assembly Transportation Committees.

Army recruiters tell deadly lies

Looking Back: Soldiers are put at risk of dying in combat, but did not really volunteer for the job they are doing.

https://www.thelinemedia.com/features/northside%20bloggers222011.aspx December 11, 2006 / John Hoff / The Minnesota Daily - Along a short stretch of Washington Avenue Southeast, you can join the army, the navy, and the Minnesota Army National Guard. It is amazing to walk into a recruiter's office with thoughts of joining the military. It is like bravely stepping through a portal in time and space, not knowing where you might end up. The recruiters are near campus because we are their logical market, just as we are a target demographic for goods and services like affordably priced Chinese meals and free pregnancy tests.

I am regular, full-time army to my bones. Still, I will not speak ill of other military branches, or part-time "weekend warriors" who, quite often these days, are called up to become full-time soldiers. But, for me, there was never any real choice except being regular army like my father. Cut me open with a bayonet, in just the right spot over my gall bladder, and I will bleed green. During a time of war, serving in the military can lay a foundation for a life in politics, public service or even be the beginning of bohemian world adventures. If I would criticize the army, it would be out of love.

Having said all that, let's discuss army recruiters and how they are the biggest, most dangerous liars on the face of the earth.

How unfortunate that the portal to such lofty public service is guarded by such accomplished liars. Some of the lies I witnessed in person, but others I heard about as part of my job. My specialty was army psych, which mostly involved caring for soldiers who tried to kill themselves. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard a story about attempting suicide which, at some point, involved

California bill would require draft registration for driver's licenses

2/13/2024 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / Draft Resistance News - A bill to require applicants for California driver’s licenses ages 16 through 25 to consent to registration with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft, SB 1081, has been introduced again in the California legislature.

The sole initial sponsor of SB 1081 is state Senator Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera), who represents Senate District 30 in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

With no legislation on Selective Service under active consideration in Congress, this California bill is the most significant legislative proposal related to Selective Service currently under consideration anywhere in the U.S. It will be the highest lobbying priority this year for the Selective Service System nationally and for its state director John A. Arbogast, local and state draft board members, and military reservists assigned to Selective Service support duty in California.

California is overwhelmingly the most populous state that doesn’t already require (or provide as a default) Selective Service registration for driver’s licenses for draft-age men. (Other such states include New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Oregon, and several other less populous states.) Since the repeal in 2020 of the former Federal requirement to register for the draft to receive Federal aid for higher education, the Selective Service System has relied almost entirely on state driver’s license laws to drive (pun intended) any limited compliance it is able to obtain with draft registration.

"California does not share driver’s license [information with the Selective service System] — so, hey, move to California and you’re basically exempted from being drafted."

[Testimony of Dr. Bernard Rostker, Director of the Selective Service System 1979-1981, to the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, 24 April 2019.]

Like similar laws in some (but by no means all) other states, SB 1081 would allow applicants for driver’s licenses to “opt out” of being registered with the Selective Service System. But opting out would be incriminating official written evidence of knowledge of the registration requirement, which would otherwise be the hardest element for the government to prove in a criminal prosecution for “knowing and willful” failure or refusal to register for the draft. That makes the putative “opt out” option largely meaningless.

When Rural Schools Partner with Military Recruitment Programs, It’s Above All Pragmatic

Photo by Benjamin Faust on UnsplashFebruary 1, 2024 / Janie Ekere /  The Daily Yonder - Center for Rural Strategies - Activists remain concerned about the costs and ethics of school military recruitment, despite the potential educational and career opportunities it can offer, said Scott Harding and Seth Kershner, co-authors of “Contested Terrain: School Militarism and the Battle for Hearts and Minds.”

But in response to funding challenges, some rural schools have allowed military recruiters to assist with coaching sports or classroom instruction, said Kershner, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of History. 

According to a 2023 article from TIME Magazine, the military has had varying degrees of difficulty recruiting since the abolition of the draft in 1973. The story attributed the most recent recruitment slump to several factors like low unemployment, lack of eligible recruits, and a growing cultural divide between civilians and the military. 

A 2017 report from The RAND Corporation proposed extending military recruitment efforts to more rural schools to reach more eligible young people. The RAND Corporation report primarily focused on the JROTC program, which is the military’s most common method of youth recruitment. 

DoD STARBASE: Early Grooming for Military Recruitment

 

 January-March 2024 / Seth Kershner / Draft NOtices - Beginning in 2022 the New York Times began publishing an astonishing series of investigative articles on Junior ROTC -- the most sustained and critical coverage of high school militarism in recent memory. As this issue of Draft NOtices points out, the articles led to congressional action to ensure much needed oversight of high school military training. Since Junior ROTC is the crown jewel of the Pentagon’s school militarism apparatus, it’s understandable that counter-recruiters concentrate their limited resources on combating it. But a narrow focus on JROTC overlooks the many other ways the Dept. of Defense plants its flag in schools. Draft NOtices last reported on DoD STARBASE in 2015, and this article attempts to reacquaint readers with the program that annually brings militarism to nearly 80,000 elementary school students.

Army recruiters tell deadly lies

November 11, 2023 / David Hollar -  John Hoff was a reporter for the Minneapolis Daily Newspaper. He joined the army in September 1989 which was several months before anyone would know how the First Gulf War would turn out. There were estimates of massive American casualties in the first few days of the anticipated ground war, worries that Saddam would use nerve gas.


 

Soldiers are put at risk of dying in combat, but did not really volunteer for the job they are doing.


/ John Hoff / Minneapolis Daily Newspaper - Along a short stretch of Washington Avenue Southeast, you can join the army, the navy, and the Minnesota Army National Guard. It is amazing to walk into a recruiter's office with thoughts of joining the military. It is like bravely stepping through a portal in time and space, not knowing where you might end up. The recruiters are near campus because we are their logical market, just as we are a target demographic for goods and services like affordably priced Chinese meals and free pregnancy tests.

I am regular, full-time army to my bones. Still, I will not speak ill of other military branches, or part-time "weekend warriors" who, quite often these days, are called up to become full-time soldiers. But, for me, there was never any real choice except being regular army like my father. Cut me open with a bayonet, in just the right spot over my gall bladder, and I will bleed green. During a time of war, serving in the military can lay a foundation for a life in politics, public service or even be the beginning of bohemian world adventures. If I would criticize the army, it would be out of love.

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