The point raised by Jake Herrera, \Students join corps out of duty, not finances,"" that ROTC cadets are predominantly from ""white-collared"" backgrounds and, if we were to ask them, they would say they joined out of a sense of duty rather than necessity, deserves a response.
Stop the War has put forward-as part of its rationale behind the call to end campus recruitment??-that the military systematically targets young people from underprivileged backgrounds and uses the promise of a college education as a proverbial carrot to lure them into signing up. If anyone wants proof of this, one need look no further than the presence of Air Force recruiters patrolling the refugee camps of New Orleans. It is no secret that the military sees the need to use incentives to attract young people into its ranks. Most people join the military for the opportunities it claims to provide, not out of a sense of duty or patriotism.
Furthermore, that this trend might not be applicable to the ROTC recruits on Madison's campus does not mean we should allow it to operate here. Herrera ignores the reasons we should end it regardless of who it targets in Madison.
First, the military's ""don't ask, don't tell"" policy directly contradicts the UW's own policy against allowing organizations that discriminate against people based on sexual orientation to operate on campus.
The administration has admitted as much on numerous occasions. Therefore, when activists show up at job fairs to protest the presence of bigots and are told they will be arrested for breaking university policy, it makes one question how serious the administration is about upholding its commitment to both non-discrimination and freedom of speech.
Secondly, and most urgently, Herrera's assumption that joining the military is a ""service to our country"" must be confronted. The number of American men and women murdered by this war is nearing 2,000, with tens of thousands permanently maimed and/or psychologically traumatized. Our nation's ability to respond to catastrophes like Katrina has been seriously impaired due to the enormous cost of the war and continued occupation. Support for this war, and those who would lie to young Americans to get them to go fight in it, is a disservice to our country, to say the least.
College students are going into debt to attend to college in Wisconsin. Private schools, public schools, we're all leveraging our future to get an education now. The average student graduates with almost $20,000 in debt and it is about to get worse if Congress has its way. In two weeks, Congress will vote to gut the student loan programs by $9 billion dollars.
If this cut passes, it will send the average student borrower another $5,800 in the hole. How can we provide higher education when Congress keeps pushing us deeper into debt?
Yesterday at UW-Madison, students involved with the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group held an education event where about 250 students signed petitions in just five hours.
Our message is simple-Congress, don't balance the budget on the backs of college students.
