Restless Mania: Sheehan Activism Update

I received the following in an email this morning from Sojourners, a liberal Christian magazine. Below my post you will find the cartoon which accompanied the text, which I excerpt below:

Dear Ken,

Buried deep within the No Child Left Behind Act is a provision that requires public high schools to hand over students' private contact information to military recruiters. If a school does not comply, it risks losing vital federal education funds. As if that weren't bad enough, the Pentagon has now built an illegal database of 30 million 16 to 25-year-olds as another recruitment tool.

Action 1: Protect our Children - "Opt Them Out!"

Sojourners is partnering with Working Assets and others in The Leave My Child Alone Coalition to make it easy to protect children from unwanted military recruiting by getting their names off both Pentagon and high school recruiting lists.

»Click here to opt out your child

Action 2: Host a Back-To-School Event

Because most high schools turn over their student lists to military recruiters in October, it's imperative that we get as many kids as possible "opted out" during the month of September. Parents, teachers, grandparents, and concerned citizens are planning Leave My Child Alone back-to-school events from September 7 to 30. It's easy to host an event at your home, church, or local coffee shop - we provide you with the forms and information you need, plus a FREE DVD (http://www.leavemychildalone.org/DVD) on opting out, featuring Cindy Sheehan and former recruiter Jim Massey.

»Click here to register an event now and help local families opt out! Consider making "Opt Out" the subject of a religious education class, youth group gathering, book club, or other community activity you already participate in.

Now, it is a fair point that NCLB may need some amending to restrict data-mining by the Pentagon, although, considering that every 18-year old male is required to register with Selective Service anyway, I fail to see how this is so earth-shattering a privacy concern.

Additionally, while parental input is key for a lot of kids and the education and career choices they make fresh out of college, it seems to me this push by Sojourners, Sheehan, et al is bordering on being anti-military and being insulting to the maturity, intelligence, and bravery of the youth of our nation. I'm sure most 17 and 18-year old American kids these days recognize the costs and risks, the dangers, and the benefits of military service. To hype this issue as though children are mindless robots who are easily seduced to some dark side (joining the military) is a window into the soul of the anti-war movement and how it truly is diving in head first into the shallow end of the pool.