COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
Guard Agrees to Alter Sign
Tony Lystra, Gazette-Times
May 18, 2006
Oregon National Guard officials said they will change a recruiting
sign at the National Guard Armory this week after a group of activists began
camping out near the building in protest of the military's recruiting
practices.
The protesters, who began gathering at the armory Sunday, said a sign
in front of the building, which reads "100 percent tuition paid" is
misleading. The activists say they want the military to be more truthful in its
recruiting tactics and plan to stay until the sign is altered.
Major Chris Reese, the executive officer for the Second Battalion,
162nd Infantry, said his unit will change the sign by Friday to say that
there is a $4,500 annual cap on the tuition payments. Or, he said, officials
might change the sign to read, "Join the home team."
Reese insisted the 100 percent tuition slogan was not misleading.
Still, he said, "I can see how they'd want that clarified."
It could take until Friday for military officials to approve the
change, he said.
Leah Bolger, one of the protest's organizers, called the proposed
changes "a good compromise."
"I think everybody was satisfied with that," she said. "We're very
pleased."
Meanwhile, the activists removed a display of cardboard coffins,
including some small ones symbolizing dead Iraqi children, from the sidewalk in
front of the armory. They also took away boots and civilian shoes
symbolizing the Iraq war's toll.
Several soldiers had said they found the display hurtful and
offensive.
Reese said the protesters' concession was "outstanding."
"They realized it was detrimental to the health of soldiers to see
stuff like that," he said.
The activists took down the items, Bolger said, because "we think it's
distracting from our main message of truth in recruiting."
"We know some people were offended by that, and we don't want that,"
she said.
Scores of protesters marched to the armory Sunday from Cloverland Park
for what they called a Mother's Day vigil. During the rally, someone wrote
"Peace is possible" with sidewalk chalk in front of a war memorial,
which military officials considered inexcusable.
Police removed the activists from the property Sunday afternoon, but
allowed them to stay on a sidewalk in front of the building. Throughout the
week, a handful of protesters have sat in lawn chairs or gathered near a shade
tree with picket signs.
The protest has been marked by occasional tension, but both sides have
gone out of their way to accommodate each other. On Monday, Reese invited
the activists inside the armory to meet with a recruiter, who explained
the National Guard's practices and policies for attracting soldiers.
"The peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans
will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism:
'Our country-when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put
right.'" --Carl Schurz
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen material relevant to the work of Eugene, Oregon’s Committee for Countering Military Recruitment that we think may be of use to others individuals and groups with similar goals.
Because our web site is public, personal comments about the articles and (frequent) corrections of reporters’ errors are also not included. If an article interests you, we encourage you to return to the Counter-Recruitment List Serve and put the article’s headline into the search line, which should bring up (often wise and useful) commentary and corrections. If you do not belong to the List Serve, it can be found at counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the articles on this site are posted without profit to those who have expressed prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposed.