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News :: Miscellaneous |
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The Militarization of Americorps |
Current rating: 0 |
by Zach Miller
Email: wolfgang (nospam) wolfgang.groogroo.com (unverified!) |
31 Oct 2001
Modified: 02 Nov 2001 |
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Here is an article that was carried in the Seattle Times and possibly in the Washington Post. It is a total puff piece white washing of a very scary topic. It seems that Senators McCain and Bayh are interested in expanding Americorps to 5 times its current size (good) but it looks like they want to use Americorps volunteers (our peers) to "provide security for public gatherings" (read protests) and to "monitoring the flow of people and goods across U.S. borders". McCain in particular is interested in emphasizing the quasi-military aspects of some Americorps organization (wearing uniforms, living together, on duty 24/7). Anyway this article is a study in media bias with lots of loaded words and liberal quoting of press releases and a dash of rah rah for the DLC on the side. |
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See also:
http://cgi1.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14435-2001Oct5.html
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The McCain Youth |
by Joe Futrelle
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
01 Nov 2001
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I agree, definitely a biased article.
Expanding Americorps just in terms of size could be great because Americorps volunteers do such important work. Expanding the scope of their work to security seems dicey because we already have a military. I think Americorps volunteers view Americorps as an alternative to military service, and wouldn't join it if it was simply a paramilitary organization.
As for Americorps units living together and being "on call" 24/7, this is essentially how a lot of existing Americorps units work, since they go where they're needed for short, focused, intense projects where they all share small amounts of cheap living space in very close quarters.
In the larger sense, militarization of any aspect of our lives is not a "great response" to what happened on Sept 11th. McCain would do well to study how youth movements were used by the powerful fascist regimes of the early 20th century, lest we repeat that pattern in the 21st. |
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Now, really. |
by Charles Bee
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
02 Nov 2001
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Of course this is a biased article, ya dummyheds. The guy is a SYNDICATED COLUMNIST. Says so right in the text. Are we getting a clue yet? This guy just thinks he's another Michael Moore, is all.
If you want to make hay of the fact that something is a biased article, you should take it from somewhere besides the editorials page. Of course, this might work on folks with a bit less obervational experience - anti-choice goofs use this tactic all the time; they don't want free-thinkers in their movement.
Personally, I might prefer a volunteer security force to a paid one, now that I think about it - I'm not so sure they'll have the same stomach for those nagging civil rights violations. |
