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Tuesday night by a vote of 4-2, the San Francisco Board of Ed banned Junior ROTC training in seven city high schools, throwing 1,600 students out of those clubs. This is a direct insult to the U.S. military and violates the civil rights, I believe, of the ROTC students. The federal government should immediately suspend all federal aid to San Francisco schools. There's no reason to ban JROTC. Nobody's required to join it. And if a student with parental approval wants to investigate a career in the military, every American school should encourage that. Obviously, the military is protecting us...

As students settle in to their classes at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., there is good news and bad on the academic front. First, the former because it will take less time than the latter, although the more positive update is not inconsiderable. “On May 20, 2006, President [Brian C.] Mitchell not only attended the ROTC commissioning ceremony, but also spoke movingly about the value of both the ROTC program and our military,” the staff of The Counterweight wrote. “While those outside of academia might see such an act as commonplace, it is anything but.” “When even Bucknell’s own course...

Here's something small but worthwhile you prolific emailers can do - write an email for a good cause. The SF School Board wants to shut down JROTC because, basically, the School Board thinks JROTC is incompatible with SF politics. They want to replace it with something typically PC. You may begin shivering now. The JROTC kids want it to stay; they have way more applicants than JROTC can take (yes, in San Francisco, we have something like 1500 kids in JROTC). There are thousands of schools on the waiting list to set up JROTC programs because of limited funds, and...

Board has plan to oust ROTC from S.F. schools Members want to cut program over 'Don't ask, Don't tell' Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, May 23, 2006 The San Francisco Board of Education appears poised to kick the military's Junior ROTC programs out of the city's public schools, saying the Pentagon's refusal to allow openly gay service members is deplorable and not in line with the school district's anti-discrimination policy. School board members are scheduled to introduce a resolution tonight outlawing the JROTC because of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rule. The resolution calls that policy an "unjust,...

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2006 – President Bush today honored the memory of a graduate who died in Iraq during his commencement address at Oklahoma State University. The president noted that 27 members of this year's graduating class are also receiving their commissions as Army or Air Force officers today as graduates of the ROTC program. Bush commended the new officers for choosing to embrace public service and for following the example set by a 2002 OSU graduate, Luke James. With a wife and infant son, "Luke had the world at his feet," Bush said. Yet, he chose a life of...

When guns and schools were pals By Mike Moore Time to settle up on a bet. It started with a conversation I had in a Downtown bar a couple of weeks back. A guy tried to convince me when he'd gone to Mitchell Middle School, there was a shooting range in the basement. He saw my skeptical eyes narrow into that "How many have you had?" look. He suggested I try to confirm it. Possibly, if I'd read my buddy Chris Bennett's Glad You Asked column about another old range, I'd have believed the story right away. But the guy...

TARKIO, MISSOURI—It’s a picture in most family scrapbooks: Dad and son at Parent’s Weekend during fresh­man year of college, dad spreading a bit around the middle and graying at the edges, son taller and thinner, mom snap­ping the shot to enshrine the moment in family history. For us, there’s a touch of melancholy. It’s the first time we’ve seen Ben in his Army dress uniform. That picture made us come to grips with the commitment he’s made, and the risks he has willingly chosen to face. It only slowly dawned on us, some­time in his high school career, that Ben...

The anti-military punks are at it again. Reader Nora. A. e-mailed me photos of vandalism yesterday at UNC-Chapel Hill's ROTC armory taken by her son, an ROTC cadet on campus: This has got to stop. (Hat tip: Sister Toldjah) Via the Raleigh News and Observer: Vandals staged attacks early Wednesday on the buildings used by the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill, echoing similar assaults on three Triangle recruiting stations last month. As before, vandals sprayed anti-war slogans and profanity, splashed red paint and claimed responsibility with a mass e-mail message to area media outlets....

Author Daniel J. Flynn believes that last month’s Supreme Court case of Rumsfeld vs. the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR) was about the hypocrisy of higher education. “Faculty and administrators rarely have trouble accepting military money through government contracts, but have problems with students accepting military money [through service],” Flynn said at an Accuracy in Academia event called “The Ivory Tower’s War on the U.S. Military.” So the decision of the Supreme Court made the hypocrisy obvious and illegal by telling colleges and universities that they cannot continue to get federal funding while banning military recruitment on their...

One of the most egregious manifestations of academic arrogance has been the effort to ban the military from campus – specifically military recruiters and the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). So many colleges and universities participated in this action that, in 1994, a law was finally passed by the Congress mandating that if a university wants to continue to receive federal funds then they have to permit the military to recruit. This law was challenged in court by several law schools. The "Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR)," a group of law schools and professors, sued the Secretary of...

One of the most egregious manifestations of academic arrogance has been the effort to ban the military from campus – specifically military recruiters and the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). So many colleges and universities participated in this action that, in 1994, a law was finally passed by the Congress mandating that if a university wants to continue to receive federal funds then they have to permit the military to recruit. This law was challenged in court by several law schools. The "Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR)," a group of law schools and professors, sued the Secretary of...

In a breathtaking double standard, Yale continues to block ROTC training from its campus and argues - against the opinion of a unanimous Supreme Court - that its law school has the right to limit access by military recruiters. I vividly recall Rahmatullah's visit to The Wall Street Journal's offices in the spring of 2001. I was surprised when he defended the Taliban's brutal treatment of women - they were barred from school after age 10 and often banned from appearing in public without a husband or an older male relative. Then I was shocked when he said he hadn't...

Since the New York Times and Wall Street Journal broke the news about the admission of Taliban official Sayeed Rahmatullah Hashemi to a special student program at Yale, we’ve received numerous emails from outraged Yale Alumni. One email stood out from the rest — "I won’t give Yale one red cent this year, but maybe I will give them a red fingernail instead!" She was referring to the Taliban’s policy of pulling the fingernails off of Afghani women who dared to wear fingernail polish. Some of these women even had their thumbs sliced off as punishment. To date, Mr. Rahmatullah...

Just Breaking!!!! Supreme Court Upholds "Colleges who accept Federal Funds must allow Military Recruiters"

While most American parents can only dream of sending their kids to a first-tier university such as Harvard and Yale, a former ambassador for the oppressive and brutal Afghan Taliban is enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, even though he possesses none of the qualifications to attend such an institution for higher education. "Yale University enrolls the Taliban's former spokesman as a student, but continues to prohibit other students from organizing a Reserve Officer Training Corps chapter on campus and also seeks to deny students the right to hear from military recruiters about employment opportunities," say members of...

Yale Alumnus Responds HERNDON, VA – Yale University enrolls the Taliban’s former spokesman but continues to prohibit other Yale students from organizing a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) chapter on campus. The University also seeks to deny students the right to hear from military recruiters about employment opportunities. On February 26, the New York Times Magazine reported that Yale admitted Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, the deputy foreign secretary of the Taliban, into a non-degree program, with a chance to gain full degree status by 2006. “In some ways I’m the luckiest person in the world,” Hashemi told the Times. “I could...

If Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers was worried about how the undergraduates would greet him Wednesday night at his first scheduled event since announcing his resignation, those fears quickly were put to rest. He got a standing ovation after he walked in. He got a standing ovation before he left. A row of students with red letters painted on their chests spelled out "Larry." Sarah Bahan, 22, was wistful as she left the meeting. She had kind words to say about Summers' emphasis on hard sciences. Mark Hoadley, 21, said Summers' monotone speaking style was balanced by a "dynamic...

ESCONDIDO, CA – Standing with her fellow junior ROTC cadets, Lilia Tellefson, 15, tried not to smile as a seemingly irate Marine Corps drill instructor shouted orders in her face. For the most part, the Sweetwater High School student maintained her composure as the drill instructor inspected her uniform and removed her cap, known as a “cover” in military lingo. But she made a mistake when she put it back on. “Tell me that I have cataracts!” the drill instructor screamed at the girl, the brim of his “smokey bear” hat nearly brushing her forehead. Lilia looked bewildered. “TELL ME...

Navy Junior ROTC cadets say it’s not uncommon to be called “Nazis” or “baby killers” as they walk the hallways of Santa Fe High School. Their classmates are largely anti-military , and school officials discourage students from participating in the program, they say. “We’re not welcome here,” Cadet Marin Espinoza said. He said ROTC members are routinely harassed by other students who get especially impolite before ROTC events. On Saturday, cadets discovered what they called the latest example of that hostility. The unit’s 20 drill rifles and only Navy sword were stolen just before a drill competition in Farmington. In...

UW-MADISON STUDENTS RESPOND TO PENTAGON MONITORING: “SURVEILLANCE OF ANTIWAR ACTIVISTS MUST END NOW!” MADISON, WI – Antiwar activists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison are responding to President Bush’s recent justifications for surveillance along with released Pentagon documents which label student protesters as a “threat” and news of our campus administration’s cooperation with FBI counterintelligence programs. The UW-Madison antiwar student organization, Stop the War! is hosting a press conference to defend ourselves against the Pentagon’s libelous allegations. The press conference will be immediately followed by a protest to counter recruitment by US Marines on our campus. What: Stop The...