As the Summer of 2008 draws to a close, focus begins to return to the fall and the return of students to the classroom. Part of that focus sharpens on the rights of students to be free from aggressive military recruiting practices.
The NYCLU is gearing up for a fall campaign to educate our public school students regarding the realities of aggressive recruiting practices and how to protect their personal information from becoming part of Department of Defense data bases.
The tactics being adopted by some of these recruiters are startling. The lengths that some will go to in order to fulfill unrealistic quotas is in the spotlight this week is this feature involving an Army recruiter in Texas last week has led to a bipartisan call for an investigation. The recruiter from the Greenspoint Recruiting Station in Houston was suspended after a recording of his threats aired on a local TV station. The recruiter, Sgt. Glenn Marquette, warned eighteen-year-old Irving Gonzalez that he would be sent to jail if he decided to go to college instead of joining the military, even though Gonzalez had signed a non-binding contract that left him free to change his mind before basic training. In our first segment this week. we play the recording of their conversation, as well as a number of interviews conducted with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman.
During the Spring of 2006, Radio Civil Liberties correspondent Geoff Millard, now with Truthout.org, did a series of interviews for RCL as he traveled with Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War through Hurricane Katrina ravaged America .
So many of the voices that Millard brought to us gave first hand accounts and perspectives of Americans that were becoming activist on the face of so many of the Bush Administrations failed domestic and foreign policies.
One of those voices was Al Zappala. Al was the father of the late Sgt. Sherwood Baker, killed in Baghdad Iraq in 2004. Considering himself to be a patriotic American, Zappala believed in his government and the direction America was taking until the loss of his son led to questions he never felt were adequately addressed by the military and the Bush Administration.
Last week, an American that so eloquently excercised the First Amendment was silenced, Zappala died at age 68 following a long battle with lung cancer. Zappala had traveled nearly non-stop over the last four years with Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) and Gold Star Families for Peace (GSFP) speaking out about the Iraq War and injustices of the Bush Administration.
In memorium, we listen again to that March 2006 interview with Zappala and RCL's Geoff Millard.
